Heel Tough Blog: Western Carolina Preview
The road to Detroit and the 2027 Final Four starts tonight across the country, as the 2026-27 college basketball season officially gets started, after an overseas game yesterday in Italy, followed by a 24-hour marathon produced by the Field of 68 Network. It’s a special night for Carolina Basketball, as the Michael Malone Era gets started, after moving on from Hubert Davis following 5 seasons on the UNC bench. The hiring of Malone back in April signaled a time of change in Chapel Hill, as for the first time since Frank McGuire was hired in the early 1950s, UNC Basketball will be coached by someone with zero ties to the program. Dean Smith was a UNC assistant before being hired to replace McGuire, who left the program on NCAA probation. Bill Guthridge served as an assistant to Smith before leading the program for three seasons. The next coaches, Matt Doherty, Roy Williams and Hubert Davis, all either attended UNC or played for the Tar Heels before stints on the UNC sidelines. Malone brings with him a track record of success, albeit at the NBA level, where he won an NBA championship with the Denver Nuggets, where he helped develop Nikola Jokic, one of the best players in the world and one of the best centers in the history of the NBA. Tonight, Malone not only makes his UNC coaching debut, but his college basketball head coaching debut, after brief stints in the college games in the 1990s and early 2000s as an assistant.
Western Carolina makes their way to Chapel Hill, and just like many power conference programs, with a brand new roster from what they had last year. The Catamounts are tasked with replacing 89% of their scoring from last season, where they went 15-16 overall, but a respectable 10-8 in conference play. With so much overhaul, it’s understandable why they were picked to finish 8th in the Southern Conference, and with little known about this roster, no player earned preseason conference honors. They played two preseason exhibitions and won both, one against App State (83-76), and USC Upstate (95-65).
The Tar Heels played three preseason exhibitions, and all three yielded different results, leaving Carolina searching for consistency, and even an identity as the regular season gets started. In Greensboro, UNC routed a USC team, which is preseason ranked in the AP Poll, but the Trojans were without three starters. UNC was then routed by Indiana a week later, as the Hoosiers exploited the weakness that exists in the frontcourt. Carolina then concluded preseason play with an overtime win over Charlotte, in a game where they trailed by 15 in the first half and needed a technical foul in the closing seconds to even force overtime. After losing Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar to the NBA, combined with the coaching change, UNC brought in 11 new players this off-season, and patience needs to be at the forefront, as this new roster is still learning how to play together, with a new mindset and philosophy being learned. With that in mind, here are tonight’s keys to the game, as the Tar Heels look to start the season 1-0:
Backcourt Chemistry: Both Terrence Brown and Neo Avdalas experienced highs and lows in the preseason, with Brown exploding for 27 against Charlotte, after scoring just 12 combined points against USC and Indiana. As for Avdalas, he displayed a great floor game against USC and Charlotte, but looked overmatched and overpowered against IU. The trick for Malone and his coaching staff is to find a way to get them to play at a high level while they are on the court at the same time. In the moments where they have played to their respective talent level, it has come with one or the other on the bench, and the backcourt being shared by either Jaydon Young or Isaiah Denis. This roster was put together with the idea of Brown and Avdalas complementing each other. And while that’s going to take time, that chemistry should take a massive step forward against lesser competition to start the season.
Limit Turnovers: You can tell this is a roster that’s still learning to play with one another by the nature of the turnovers they committed in the preseason. Many of the turnovers, which were live-ball turnovers, led to easy points in transition for the opponent, often leading to a Michael Malone timeout, where the head coach would express his frustration in the huddle. The best way to keep an overmatched opponent in a game is to give them free points, and after the Charlotte game, you know that was a point of emphasis from the coaching staff.
Rebound. Rebound. Rebound.: Carolina’s frontcourt is still a work in progress, as they are waiting to find out if Cameron Fens will be deemed eligible after transferring in from South Dakota. That’s not an excuse for UNC to be outrebounded by Charlotte, but that happened last week, leading to Michael Malone to call out Sayon Keita, Alexandros Samodurov, and Jarin Stevenson in his postgame press conference. There needs to be a reinforced commitment, 1-5, for every player to hit the offensive and the defensive glass, for this team to be the best rebounding team they can possibly be.
UNC in Season Openers:
The Tar Heels start the 117th season in program history tonight, and they are 104-12 in their previous season openers, with 21 straight season-opening wins. Carolina has also won 24-straight home openers, with the last loss coming against Hampton in 2001-02.
Series History:
This is just the third matchup all-time between UNC and Western Carolina, with the Tar Heels winning the previous two contests, one back in 1957, and the other in 2017.
KenPom:
North Carolina - 38th overall. Adjusted Offensive Efficiency: 116.6 (39th); Adjusted Defensive Efficiency: 97.5 (39th)
Western Carolina - 203rd overall. Adjusted Offensive Efficiency: 104.1 (191st); Adjusted Defensive Efficiency: 108.5 (223rd)
TV Info:
Tonight’s game will air at 7 PM on the ACC Network.
The Four Corners Podcast:
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