The upcoming college basketball season is officially less than a month away from starting, despite all the uncertainty about how the season will be played during a national crisis. The NCAA has already delayed the start of the season by roughly 3 weeks, and that still hasn’t brought any answers to the questions around the sport. Many Power 5 conferences, including the ACC have yet to release their league schedules, which is concerning when the season will consist mainly of conference games only. With that in mind, Carolina did receive some news about their non-conference slate, which despite playing less games out of the ACC, is still one of the toughest schedules in the country.
The Tar Heels are competing in the 2020 Maui Invitational, which has been relocated from the islands in Hawaii, to Roy Williams’ hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. Maui has been very kind to the program as they’ve won the event three times under Williams, and in all those years they later won the national championship.
In addition to competing in the Maui Invitational, Carolina is once again participating in the annual ACC/Big 10 Challenge, which announced the field for this year’s challenge. Carolina drew the Iowa Hawkeyes, whom the Tar Heels haven’t played since the Hawkeyes since 2014, an upset loss in Chapel Hill. Carolina is only 1-3 all time against Iowa, the lone win coming in the 2004 Maui invitational title game. In their only visit to Iowa City, Carolina lost 87-74 back in 1989. Carolina will look to even their record to 11-11 in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge, after falling under .500 with a loss to Ohio State last year.
On top of the Maui Invitational and the ACC/Big 10 Challenge, Carolina will also be competing in the CBS Sports Classic, which will be hosted in Cleveland this year. This is the first time the two teams have met in the event since 2017, a 86-72 win for North Carolina in New Orleans. Overall, Carolina is 4-2 in the CBS Sports Classic which happens to be the best record of all the teams that compete in the event. It’s still unknown at this time if fans will be allowed to attend the games, but you can expect a limited crowd if fans are allowed to be present.
As mentioned earlier, the ACC has yet to release this year’s league schedule at this time. Make sure to stay tuned to the Heel Tough Blog for any additional news around Carolina Basketball.