DURHAM, N.C. — Appropriately, Julius Hodge returns to North Carolina, and the Triangle in particular, for a major event in his basketball career.

It’s been 20 years since Hodge was ACC player of the year in 2004 while playing for N.C. State, the school he chose to attend after a standout prep career in New York City.

Saturday, in his first game as a college head coach, Hodge will lead his Lincoln (Pa.) Lions in an exhibition game against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Without his Raleigh connections, this probably wouldn’t be happening.

That’s because at the end of May, Hodge returned to Raleigh to take part in the Next Up Coaches Conference, the event organized by N.C. Central basketball coach LeVelle Moton and Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.

An assistant coach at Arkansas-Little Rock at the time, Hodge met Lincoln athletics director Harry Stinson. A short conversation between the two grew into a longer chat.

“It’s crazy” Hodge said, “because it was the end of the second day. He was visibly tired. He’d been speaking at this thing and we had about a seven-minute talk. It was supposed to be seven minutes. We ended up talking for about 15 to 20 minutes. And he said, `You know what, I may have an opening.’ And I said, ‘You know what, if you do give me a call, I will be open to that. I’m ready to become a head coach.’ ”

On July 24, having parted ways with its previous head coach Jason Armstrong in early May, Lincoln introduced Hodge as its new basketball coach.

The exhibition game with Duke was already planned before Hodge took over the Lincoln program. Duke annually plays an exhibition game with a Division II HBCU and, since Lincoln won the CIAA championship to qualify for the Division II NCAA Tournament last March, the Lions fit what the Blue Devils sought.

Hodge called it “extra special,” and not just because of all the games he played against Duke during his N.C. State career. It goes back further, to his senior year of high school when he played in the McDonald’s All-American game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“It’s basically me making my introduction, again, to college basketball,” Hodge said, “but this time as the head coach being at the same venue. It’s absolutely special. The Triangle, where basketball is king, where I love the people, and where you know, North Carolina is where I now consider one of my homes. It’s awesome to be going back.”

A Harlem, N.Y., native, the 40-year-old Hodge played for the Wolfpack from 2001-05 before Denver selected him in the first round of the 2005 NBA draft. He played professionally in the NBA as well as overseas in numerous countries, including Australia, Italy, Venezuela and China.

By 2015, Hodge’s playing career was over and he began his coaching career at the University of Buffalo as director of player development for head coach Nate Oats.

In 2016, he became an assistant coach at Santa Clara where Herb Sendek, his former N.C. State coach, was the school’s head coach. Hodge was also an assistant at San Jose State before moving to Little Rock in 2021.

Now that he’s a head coach, he’s already adjusting in a way he didn’t foresee.

“I don’t think I realized I was gonna be a disciplinary coach,” Hodge said. “I did not realize I was gonna be that guy. I thought I would be a cool coach. Guys will love me because of all of the freedom I would allow. One thing I learned early on, guys would try you, right? They would absolutely try you. So I kind of had to rule, but with an iron fist earlier on. But I’m loving the opportunity.”

That means early morning practices. That means if a player breaks a rule, his punishment is sitting by the coach as the team endures extra pre-dawn running sessions as discipline.

“If one person is late for class or you have slippers on in class or you’re wearing a hoodie or any of that mess,” Hodge said, “everyone else is going to have to get up and they’re going to be running at 4:30 or 5 o’clock in the morning and you’re going to be sitting right next to me. This is the old Bobby Knight rule.”

Since he’s played against Duke at Cameron Indoor, Hodge has told the players what to expect when the game tips off on Saturday.

“I told them, hey, if you think you’re going in there and you’re going to be getting a bunch of calls, it’s not going to happen,” Hodge said. “So while we’re here at practice, we’re going to play through some contact. It’s going to be a different type of physicality. It’s going to be a different type of atmosphere, also a once-in-a-lifetime atmosphere. But you have to make sure you guys are ready to take advantage of it.”

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