There’s no denying that the sport of college basketball has changed in recent years, with the emergence of the transfer portal, and the arrival of NIL, forcing programs to change they operate basically overnight. Another change, a good one for the sport, has been the start of TV networks airing exhibition games, which basically act as a preseason for the sport. Not too long ago, the NCAA made it legal for teams to play two exhibition games, if one of them was deemed a charity event, and since then, programs around the country, have started playing exhibition games for charity, in return, to get the sport on TV, at a time when many sports fans are focused on either college football or the NFL. This year, the Tar Heels are getting in on the action, as they’ll face off against Memphis tonight, in a charity exhibition that will benefit St. Jude’s Children's Research Hospital.
Memphis hasn’t enjoyed the success that they hoped for since hiring Peny Hardaway to run the program, despite recruiting at a high level. Earlier this off-season, Hardaway replaced his entire coaching staff right before the start of preseason practice, just to give you a glimpse of the dysfunction that exists within the program. While the wins haven’t been there, this is still a quality program, with enough talent for the Tar Heels to learn a lot about themselves, roughly three weeks away from the start of the season.
Carolina fans got a glimpse of what this team will look like in 2024-25 on Saturday, during the annual Blue/White scrimmage, which saw Seth Trimble, Cade Tyson, and others shine. While tonight’s result doesn’t matter, we will start formulating our opinions about this year’s team, and the reactions, whether proper or overreactions will be abound by 9 PM tonight. Here's what to keep your eye on tonight:
Should RJ Davis Play?: During Saturday’s scrimmage, Davis left the game after taking a hard fall, and ultimately suffering a back contusion, and never returned to action. The program didn’t announce that he’s set to miss any time, but that doesn’t mean that he should play tonight. Davis is set to enter his 5th season in college basketball, and his fourth season playing for Hubert Davis, meaning he knows what his coach expects from him. Also, Carolina is playing the long game this season, with the hopes of making a return trip to the Final Four, and Davis’s health and ability will ultimately determine how realistic that is. Also, this off-season has been about Elliot Cadeau and Seth Trimble growing as offensive players, this would allow them to continue to display the growth and maturity on that end of the floor.
Tempo, Tempo, Tempo: When Hubert Davis met with the local media almost two weeks ago, he communicated his desire for the Tar Heels to be the fastest team in the country from foul line to foul line. In the scrimmage, you could see the pace that Carolina hopes to play with this season. This time of the year is all about building good habits that will transition into the non-conference portion of the regular season, and of course into conference play. The Tar Heels haven’t ran to their standards in arguably over a decade, but with all the wings on the roster, and athleticism in the frontcourt, this team is built to play in the open court. It will be interesting to see how this translate onto the actual playing surface against a different opponent.
Rebuilt Frontcourt: Carolina’s frontcourt will look a lot different this year, after losing Armando Bacot, after 5 great years in Chapel Hill. With that, Hubert Davis has built the frontcourt in his image, with multiple versatile bigs, that play outside of the paint, can handle the ball, can be more than just screeners, etc. You saw Ven-Allen Lubin thrive in the Blue/White scrimmage, scoring 10 points, and grabbing 4 rebounds, Jalen Washington is stronger than he’s ever been, and Ty Claude and James might carve out roles simply because they play hard. Carolina is smaller than we’re use to seeing up front, but have the ability to do the things you expect a typical UNC team to do, score in the paint, rebound the basketball, and protect the rim. If it all translates, Carolina can emerge as a national title contender, if it doesn’t the ceiling for this team might be the second weekend. Tonight will give us a glimpse into what is more of reality.
Tonight’s scrimmage will be televised on ESPNU at 7 PM. Make sure to follow the Heel Tough Blo social channels, for live reaction following tonight’s exhibition.
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