It may be July, but that doesn't mean college basketball programs aren’t busy getting ready for the upcoming season at work. With the new calendar, teams will begin practicing in September, before the season officially gets underway in November. While we wait for the ACC to release the conference slate for this season, earlier today, UNC released the dates for all of their non-conference games, even though all the opponents have yet to be finalized.
The Tar Heels will host Johnson C. Smith for a public exhibition on Friday, October 28th, which happens to be Homecoming weekend on campus, which will culminate with the football team hosting Pittsburgh. Carolina will officially open their 2022-23 campaign against in-state opponent UNC-Wilmington on November 7th in the Smith Center. That is the first of four consecutive games in Chapel Hill, as UNC will play host to the College of Charleston, Gardner-Webb, and James Madison before departing for Portland, and the PK80 Invitational.
As of now, Carolina doesn’t know their first opponent in the PK80 Invitational, but we know who will all be in attendance. UNC will be occupied by Alabama, Iowa State, UConn, Michigan State, Villanova, Oregon, and Portland. Only Oregon and Portland are schools in the field that failed to make the NCAA Tournament last season. Back in 2017, UNC went 2-1 in the PK75 Invitational, losing to Michigan State in the final.
After playing out west over the Thanksgiving holiday, UNC will travel to Bloomington on November 30th, to take on the Hoosiers in the annual ACC/Big 10 Challenge. Carolina last visited Assembly Hall back in 2016, a road defeat in a season that would ultimately culminate with a national championship.
After the contest with Indiana, UNC will play an ACC game, before hosting The Citadel on December 13th. After that final home non-conference game, UNC will compete in the CBS Sports Classic on December 17th, and the inaugural Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte on December 21st. UNC will find out their opponents for those contests later this summer.
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