Heel Tough Blog: What 2 Watch 4 - Winston-Salem State Exhibition

@UNC_Basketball

Tonight, the Tar Heels will play in their final preseason exhibition ahead of the 2025-26 season, which gets started on Monday against Central Arkansas. Last Friday, Carolina lost on the road against #8 BYU, 78-76, in a game that they played without projected starter Luka Bogavac. Freshman Caleb Wilson went toe to toe with BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, totaling a 22-point, 10-rebound, double-double. Seth Trimble added 17 in the loss, but Carolina more than looked the part, for a roster that’s featuring 11 new players, and they were down a starter. 

It’s unknown if Luka Bogavac will be available for tonight’s preseason finale, and with radio silence on Carolina’s end, it’s likely he won’t be in uniform tonight. Not that Carolina should need him to make quick work of Winston-Salem State, a Division II program. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that Carolina doesn’t need to clean up from the BYU exhibition, and improve upon before the regular season officially gets here. Here’s what to watch for tonight, against an overmatched opponent: 

1. Caleb Wilson’s Unofficial Home Debut: This will be the biggest home crowd that Caleb Wilson will have played in front of, even though the result doesn’t matter. There will be more fans on hand than the Blue/White scrimmage had to offer, as well as the Cherokee event a few weekends ago. Wilson already made a statement with the double-double against BYU, and how he follows that up should excite Carolina fans. He’ll be the most talented player on the floor tonight, by a significant margin, and after feeling disrespected by a Field of 68 preseason list, is even further motivated to play at a high level. For a player motivated to help return Carolina to the nation’s elite, fans should be excited to see how he follows up his impressive debut against an opponent that won’t have many answers for him. 

2. Who Starts if Luka Doesn’t Play? In the absence of Luka Bogavac, Hubert Davis opted to start a bigger lineup consisting of Kyan Evans, Seth Trimble, Caleb Wilson, Jarin Stevenson, and Henri Veesaar. That lineup was proven to be effective on both ends of the floor, and Stevenson even led UNC in made threes. Before the addition of Luka over the summer, West Virginia transfer Jonathan Powell was slated as a possible starter. If Luka doesn’t play, does Hubert start him to give Carolina more of an outside scoring punch? If not, we can expect the starting five we saw against BYU to be the primary starting lineup until the University clears Luka, since he has already been deemed eligible by the NCAA. 

3. Cleaner Play: If there’s one thing you can nitpick from the first preseason exhibition, it was the turnovers and the fouls that Carolina committed. Last Friday, UNC gave the ball away 19 times and committed over 20 fouls, putting the Cougars in he bonus early in both halves. The turnovers are the bigger issue of the two, as Carolina turned it over 11 times in the opening frame, and every starter except one committed at least one turnover, with Jarin Stevenson leading the way with 5. How much of that had to do with not having Luka in the halfcourt, we’ll never know, but what is known is that you can’t turn it over 19 times and expect to win against power conference competition, let alone a team preseason ranked inside the top-10. You’d like to see them value the basketball better tonight and play defense without fouling. Something that shouldn’t be too much to ask for, given the level of competition for the opponent. 

4. Can the Backcourt Bounce Back: Outside of Seth Trimble’s 17 points, Carolina’s revamped backcourt struggled against BYU. For Kyan Evans, foul trouble never allowed him to get in rhythm of the game, playing just 21 points, but he did register 5 assists, against one turnover. Derek Dixon did score 7 points, but Jaydon Young failed to do anything of consequence, and with Isaiah Denis not quite ready to be a contributor, Carolina needs the Virginia Tech transfer to be a difference maker off the bench early on in non-conference play. The step down in competition should allow Evans and Young to get into a better rhythm offensively, while continuing to gain confidence running the team on both ends of the floor, whenever one is on the floor. Make no mistake about it, the frontcourt is the strength of this team, but until Luka Bogavac is cleared, Hubert Davis needs scoring outside of Trimble from his backcourt. 

How To Watch: Tonight’s game will be streamed on ACC Network Extra through the WatchESPN app.

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