Dalton Wainscott- UNC Athletics It wasn’t pretty, and it dang sure wasn’t easy, but the Tar Heels escaped Charlotte last night, 89-82 in overtime, to close out preseason exhibition play. Carolina trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half, before closing the half on a 9-0 run, to only trail 36-33 at the break. In the second half, Carolina started to flex their muscle, and built a 64-57 lead, before a 17-5 Charlotte run, gave the 49ers the lead at the final media timeou

For the final time, the Tar Heels will take the floor in preseason exhibition competition tonight, as they host the Charlotte 49ers, before next Monday’s season opener. Carolina has gone 1-1 in the preseason, with an impressive win over USC two weeks ago and a lopsided loss to Indiana a week ago. This is the final tuneup before the home opener against Western Carolina next week, which will officially kick off the Michael Malone Era in Chapel Hill. Charlotte will arrive tonig

Robert Goddin- Imagn Images It wasn’t the result, let alone the effort, that Carolina was looking to put together last night, as the Tar Heels fell in exhibition play, 76-58 to the Indiana Hoosiers, in a game that at times wasn’t even that close. A week after scoring 88 points in a win over USC, Carolina scored 58 points and shot just 36% from the field, 32% from behind the arc, 54% from the free-throw line, and committed 15 turnovers, leading to 19 points for Indiana. But th

@UNC_Basketball For the second time under Michael Malone, the Tar Heels are set to play a preseason exhibition game, this time against the Indiana Hoosiers, in Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Sunday evening. The Tar Heels opened preseason play with an impressive 88-70 win over USC last Friday against USC, in a game where Carolina’s defensive intensity fueled a big second half, leading to the comfortable win. The Trojans were without three key members of their rotation, on a team tha

University of North Carolina Athletics Last week, the ACC held its annual preseason basketball event in Uptown Charlotte, as all the schools made their way to the Queen City for a media event designed to promote the upcoming season. During that time, a select number of media members were chosen to vote on the awards for the upcoming season and pick their preseason champion for the 2026-27 season, which starts in less than three weeks. Today those voting results were made publ

University of North Carolina Athletics For the first time under Michael Malone, the Tar Heels took the floor in preseason exhibition play last night, taking down USC 88-70 in Greensboro, behind a big game from Jarin Stevenson and contributions from Neo Avdalas, Isaiah Denis, and Maximo Adams. Carolina trailed at the half, 39-37, but behind a big second half, sparked by improved defense, UNC outscored the Trojans 51-31, as the Trojans shot just 27% in the second half, to pull

University of North Carolina Athletics The Michael Malone Era unofficially gets started tonight, as Carolina Basketball takes the floor in preseason exhibition play against the USC Trojans in Greensboro. This is the first time we’ve seen the Tar Heels since they blew a 19-point lead to VCU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, which ultimately led to the firing of Hubert Davis and the hiring of Malone, a former NBA champion with the Denver Nuggets. As is the case after a

The Tar Heels made their way to Charlotte today for the annual preseason event to promote the upcoming college basketball season, as Michael Malone, Neo Avdalas, and Jarin Stevenson met with the media in uptown Charlotte. This precedes Carolina’s first exhibition game on Friday night against USC, the unofficial start of the Malone era in Chapel Hill. A major talking point around preseason practice is the status of UNC big man Cameron Fens, who transferred to North Carolina a

The clock is ticking. We are now a week away from seeing this new version of the Tar Heel basketball squad take the court in an exhibition matchup against USC. Michael Malone has had a couple of weeks of full practice implementing his system, and things appear to be coming together for this team. I wrote an article a while ago talking about some of the questions that this team and coaching staff face leading into the 2026-27 season. While that article focused more on potentia

It’s been a long offseason, but basketball is on the precipice of being back. As official practices begin today, we begin to prepare for the beginning of the basketball season. We have weathered a coaching change, a tumultuous transfer portal cycle, and a football program that at times has looked to be crumbling from the inside out. But now, less than a month from now, we get to watch the pride of North Carolina athletics take the floor of Greensboro Coliseum (I will not call

GoHeels.com A sign that the college basketball season is getting closer is the release of the conference schedule for the upcoming season, and earlier today, the ACC unveiled the full conference schedule for every team after informing the schools of their opponents for the 2026-27 season. With that in mind, let’s take a month-by-month look at Carolina’s first ACC slate under new head coach Michael Malone: December: The Tar Heels will only play one ACC game before the calend

On3 Even with the start of the fall semester, coaches across college basketball are wondering who on their roster might be eligible for the 2026-27 season, and who might not be, with so much uncertainty around 5th-year players. Last week, when Michael Malone met with the assembled media in Greensboro, he declared that everyone on his roster, including international imports Alexandros Samodurov and Sayon Keita, was cleared and ready to go for the upcoming season, while their s

@UNC_Basketball Yesterday, the Carolina Basketball program was on hand in Greensboro for the official announcement of the Tobacco Road Classic, a two-year agreement that will feature a neutral-site contest between UNC & NC State in Greensboro this year and next. Following yesterday’s formalities, the program released its full preseason and non-conference schedule for the 2026-27 season, the first under new head coach Michael Malone. It had already been reported that UNC woul

Serge Ibaka Foundation After committing to the UNC Basketball program earlier this spring, FC Barcelona’s Sayon Keita has officially been cleared to make the move to Chapel Hill after a lengthy process of getting his visa approved, paving the way for the Mali native to join the program the week that classes start on the UNC campus. Keita, who is a projected NBA lottery pick for next year’s NBA Draft, averaged 8.7 points and 4.3 rebounds in 19 minutes, while playing in ACB and

@UNC_Basketball Late last night, a former UNC guard, Seth Trimble, made it known that he was looking into a return to college basketball and would seek a transfer outside of the UNC Basketball program after his eligibility status for the 2026-27 season was given new life after a ruling two weeks ago. Trimble, who did enter the transfer portal back in the spring, did participate in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas and was supposed to sign an Exhibit-10 contract with the Wiza

Tar Heel Story While Carolina is still working to finalize their non-conference schedule for the 2026-27 season, the preseason schedule took another step toward being set for the first year of the Michael Malone era. Earlier this summer, UNC announced it will travel to Indianapolis to take on the Indiana Hoosiers in late October. According to Inside Carolina and other sources close to the UNC Basketball program, UNC will play USC in Greensboro prior to making the trip to the

Tar Heel Stroy After reaching out to South Dakota transfer Cameron Fens last week, Michael Malone and the Tar Heels landed his commitment earlier on Friday to round out the roster for the 2026-27 season. Fens was one of the many college basketball players last week who was granted an extra year of eligibility after a Colorado judge granted an injunction in response to a lawsuit that was filed after the NCAA adopted the new 5 for 5 model, which begins this academic calendar. I

Kyle Ross- Imagn Images The quest to add a big man to the roster for the 2026-27 season hit an extra gear late last week, when a Colorado judge granted eligibility to student-athletes who had graduated after the 2026 academic year came to a close. That ruling came in response to the NCAA adopting the 5 for 5 model, allowing student-athletes the ability to play 5 seasons of collegiate sports in a 5-year timeline. That ruling has since been clarified, granting eligibility to pl

South Dakota Athletics On Friday night, Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney, from Colorado, issued a preliminary injunction, paving the way for student-athletes who were seniors in the 2026 academic year to be eligible for another season, after the NCAA adopted the new five-for-five model earlier this summer. While this ruling is going to send both college football and college basketball into a frenzy, trying to add talent to their respective rosters, some schools, like UNC, stand to

The Tar Heel Story With the roster all but set for next season, and the 2027 recruiting class taking form, the only thing left for Michael Malone to do this summer was to complete his coaching staff for next season, and it appears that he’s done just that, adding Jorge Sanz to his UNC bench, Sanz, who has spent the last eight seasons in Spokane, announced his departure from the Gonzaga program, where he served not only as an assistant, but as the Director of Basketball Operat