Heel Tough Blog: Radford Preview

YardBarker

After securing Hubert Davis’s most impressive non-conference win of his coaching career last Friday against Kansas, the Tar Heels return to action tonight at home against Radford, the third of five straight home games to start the 2025-26 season. Some of the good vibes from Friday night have been erased after it was reported on Sunday evening that senior guard Seth Trimble suffered a broken bone in his left forearm and is likely to miss the rest of the non-conference season, which features games between Michigan State, Kentucky, and Ohio State. The good news is that the way Carolina scheduled this non-conference slate, they will be able to adjust and experiment on the fly, while not sacrificing wins in the process, starting tonight against Radford. 

After starting the season preseason ranked #25, the Tar Heels made a noticeable jump in the AP Poll after a 2-0 start to the season, with the win over nationally ranked Kansas. Carolina enters the second week of the season, ranked 18th in the country. 

Radford visits Chapel Hill with a 2-0 record after wins over Western Illinois and West Virginia Wesleyan. After the first two games of the season, the Highlanders have five players averaging double-figures scoring, and they are shooting over 54% from the field. Radford was picked to finish fourth in the Big South for the season, trailing High Point, UNC-Asheville, and Longwood. 

After having a White Out against Kansas, tonight will feature a Blue Out, which was supposed to take place on Friday night, ironically enough. It’s not known who will start in the place of Seth Trimble, but Carolina has options at its disposal. UNC can go big and start Luka Bogavac, or insert freshman Derek Dixon, Virginia Tech transfer Jaydon Young, or West Virginia transfer Jonathan Powell. That headlines one of the many things to watch during tonight’s game. 

1. Find Answers at the 2: With the way that Carolina has constructed their roster via high school recruiting and the transfer portal, there are plenty of options at Hubert Davis’s disposal to try and find an adequate replacement for the now-injured Seth Trimble. No matter who Carolina chooses to start, UNC will be lesser for it defensively, as they’ve lost their best perimeter defender on the roster. But they could stand to improve offensively, especially if Davis chooses to insert Luka into the backcourt, which would give Carolina four starters, 6-6 or taller. The benefit of playing a more balanced schedule this non-conference season is that it allows the coaching staff to tinker with different lineups, and that will be the case tonight, as Hubert Davis could rotate a different 2-guard at every media timeout if he wanted to. Regardless, Carolina needs to leave tonight’s game with some sort of an idea of how they’ll handle Seth Trimble’s absence, as they inch closer to their next real non-conference test. 

2. Build Off 2nd Half 3-Point Performance From Kansas Game: It’s only two games in, but the early returns aren’t showing the type of shooting team that Hubert Davis thinks he has. In the opener, Carolina was just 10-29 from deep against Central Arkansas, although seven different Tar Heels did make at least one three. Against Kansas, Carolina was just 3-15 from deep in the opening half, before going 5-12 in the second half, to finish the game 8-27. But the second half showed Carolina’s shooting ability, as Kyan Evans, Luka Bogavac, Jonathan Powell, and Jarin Stevenson all made triples, after Henri Veesar and Seth Trimble made outside shots in the first half. This team is built to run and get quality looks in transition. With Carolina’s constant rim pressure in the second half it forced the KU defense to collapse, generating more quality looks from the outside. For this team to reach its fullest potential, they’ll need to round into form from the outside, and the second half against Kansas was a glimpse of what this team can be; they just need to build off that, starting tonight.

3. Get Out Healthy: After already losing Seth Trimble for an extended period of time, Carolina can’t avoid to lose another significant piece for an extended period of time. That means they can’t avoid a hangover from the Kansas win, and they need to jump all over the Highlanders early and often, so Hubert Davis can utilize his bench as much as he’s had in any game so far this season. 

Series History:

• Carolina is 3-0 all-time against the Radford Highlanders, with two wins coming in Chapel Hill, most recently an 86-70 win back in November of 2023.   

KenPom:

• North Carolina - 23rd overall. Adjusted Offensive Efficiency: 119.8 (18th) Adjusted Defensive Efficiency: 97.6 (40th) 

• Radford - 150th overall. Adjusted Offensive Efficiency: 109.6 (106th) Adjusted Defensive Efficiency: 109.8 (260th)

TV Info:

• Tonight’s game will air at 7 PM on the ACC Network. 

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