WINSTON-SALEM – A returning sophomore changing his jersey number to a single digit doesn’t seem that rare in college athletics.

A returning senior ditching the number he’s had for three years, one single digit to another, registers higher on the rarity scale. Still not unheard of, though.

Both switching to numbers that haven’t been worn at Wake Forest in at least 70 years, and perhaps never before?

Now we’re talking.

“I’m going to change to No. 6,” senior guard Cameron Hildreth said after Friday’s practice. “It’s always been my number since I was a kid and there’s a funny backstory behind it but we don’t need to get into that.”

(don’t worry, we’re going to get into that)

Parker Friedrichsen played his freshman season as No. 20 and he’s going to wear No. 7 this season.

Wake’s media guide is scant on details about jersey numbers worn before the 1950s. But there is no record of players who wore numbers that have recently been made available by an NCAA rules change.

So, it’s at least possible that Hildreth and Friedrichsen, along with point guard Ty-Laur Johnson (No. 8), will be the first in program history to don those numbers.

Friedrichsen’s switch is pretty simple:

“I wanted to go to a single-digit. But also, Kevin Durant. I’ve watched him my whole life, being from Oklahoma,” Friedrichsen said. “And he’s wearing Team USA, 7, so I don’t know. He’s one of my favorite players, so it was an easy choice.”

As for Hildreth, you’ve known him as No. 2 for the past three years. But that required a departure from the number he’d previously had for his entire basketball-playing life.

“I went to go play in my first ever basketball game and it was a U-11s game and I was 6 years old at the time,” Hildreth said. “My coach had come up to me and said, ‘What number are you?’ And my young self thought he meant, ‘How old am I?’

“So I said 6 and ever since then, that’s always been my number. I was finally able to be able to use it in college basketball.”

Before last season, the NCAA changed its limitations on jersey numbers. For the first time in about 70 years, players would be able to wear digits higher than five — opening up available jersey numbers from 0-99, the only stipulation being that a roster couldn’t have a No. 0 and No. 00 (and obviously no other duplicates, this isn’t football).

Thing was, because the rule wasn’t changed until June, some teams — like Wake Forest — had already committed to jersey numbers and ordered gear for the season. No player at Wake Forest had one of the newly available numbers last year.

It provides relief for a Wake Forest program that has some limited jersey number options.

There are 11 retired numbers at Wake Forest. Those would be in honor of: Chris Paul (3), Josh Howard (5), Charlie Davis (12), Muggsy Bogues (14), Skip Brown (15), Tim Duncan (21), Randolph Childress (22), Dickie Hemric (24), Rod Griffin (32), Len Chappell (50) and Rodney Rogers (54).

Under the previous rule, there were 26 available jersey numbers at Wake Forest.

Johnson (No. 8) wore No. 4 for the Cardinals last season; that’s the number currently occupied by Efton Reid III.

The other returner in a different number is Marqus Marion. His was the rare switch from single- to double-digit, going from No. 1 to No. 11, which was Andrew Carr’s number.