Student athlete at LA/Or state school for IB

You have to weigh playing basketball for 4 years vs the opportunities that you will see coming out of UNC. In high school I thought I'd do my sport through college and I was even supposed to be on the team at my first school. I had a bad injury senior year of HS that never left me and I haven't looked back. 

Coming out of a D3 school, you won't make the NBA. Theres a good chance UNC has a club basketball game, or you could organize something. It's a popular sport. 

Nobody here is going to be able to make your decision for you. You need to weigh your options and their weighted benefit. Also consider what decision you would be happy with if you were to look back in 30 years. That's how I made my decision to transfer. Would I be wondering "what if?" in 20 years if I never tried?

D3 athlete here. Although your options for your career are probably better off going to UNC, playing D3 at a smaller school meant the world to me and provided me with a lot of life lessons. It may be harder to recruit for IB but your athletic background will help a lot especially if you can craft a story over time.

Like others have mentioned, at the end of the day its your decision. Just my 2 cents.

Graduate from Washington and Lee with a 4.0 and internships and you’ll have as many opportunities as you would at UNC. There is a ton of old money there - become friends with these people and they will help you

I did the Liberal Arts D3 route and it worked really well for me. I think the biggest thing is the difference in college culture you're going to get. 

Definitely go to Washington and Lee. WL and UNC are equivalent and WL might even have the edge given low competition due to smaller size. It seems like you get to do what you want, feel like WL is a better fit, and has basically the same if not marginally better recruitment

W&L has great alumni and places well for IB, especially in Charlotte. I'd go there over UNC. 

Go to UNC and rush a frat

UNC

Having Basketball on your resume at W&L will make you stand out better than being a normal student at UNC, assuming all else equal in terms of GPA. Both are great options, but I-banks love athletes, will help with Buyside recruiting as well.

You will see roughly proportionate representation at banks from UNC and W&L. There will be more UNC kids because it is a larger school, but once you account for that it’s roughly the same.

I'm assuming at WL basketball is nearly a year round sport and is time consuming even with D3. Given you said your HS GPA was not great you need to ensure your GPA does not slip from Day 1 or it will be harder to get interviews. Playing GPA catch-up is even harder as an athlete.

Do you think your going to play at WL or ride the bench? If your good enough to get in the games then having an experience of college sports is pretty good depending on the coach. Some D3 coaches want to move up to D1 so will push you very hard even it is D3. I checked and the coach is a WL grad and has led a progressively improving  program in 5 years.

I'm assuming you've made a visit. What did the other players say about culture of academics versus practice time? Do you get the vibe the coach is fun to play for?

Depending on the answers take basketball out of the equation and ask yourself which school would you like to experience more? Are you a better fit for a very small university or would you rather like the experience a large university?