Tag: North Carolina Basketball

North Carolina, Michigan State to anchor Fort Myers Tip-Off in 2025

North Carolina men’s basketball early season tournament for 2025 announced!

College basketball season is one of the best of the year. It comes at a time when the weather is getting colder, Thanksgiving is approaching, and Christmas is on the horizon. There is no feeling like settling down and watching college hoops on a day off.

Next year, the holiday season will get even better as North Carolina will highlight the Fort Myers Tip-Off with Michigan State slated to play a game on Thanksgiving Day. Tar Heels and turkey — no greater pairing.

This year, the team is getting ready and settled in Hawai’i to take on the local university before taking part in the Maui Invitational as their early-season tournament. They could potentially face off against two top-5 teams in three days.

This year, the Fort Myers Tip-Off event features Michigan, South Carolina, Virginia Tech, and Xavier. The event is a single-elimination tournament that takes place over the holiday.

North Carolina has a history with Michigan State in early-season tournaments dating back to the Carrier Classic, including the PK80.

North Carolina is 6-3 against Michigan State and won the last contest between these two teams by 16 points in March of 2024. Michigan State won the previous game in 2017 by 18 points.

This UNC vs. Michigan State showdown will be held on November 27, 2025, at Suncoast Credit Union Arena, in Cypress Lake, Florida. Tickets will go on sale in February.

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Michigan State basketball set to play North Carolina on Thanksgiving 2025

Michigan State set to play North Carolina on Thanksgiving 2025

Michigan State basketball will get a long-awaited rematch against their 2024 March Madness opponents on Thanksgiving next year when the Spartans will face North Carolina on Thanksgiving 2025 in Fort Myers.

The news was announced on Thursday morning. The event will be part of the 2025 Fort Myers Tip-Off event and will be held at Florida SouthWestern State College’s Suncoast Credit Union Arena.

The other teams that will be participate in the event have not yet been announced.

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Breaking down the UNC Women’s basketball Battle 4 Atlantis bracket

UNC women’s basketball will head to an in-season tournament this weekend with these teams.

The North Carolina women’s basketball team is 3-1 heading into this weekend, the third weekend of the women’s college basketball season.

They opened the season with a 30-point win over Charleston Southern, led by 18 points from Alyssa Ustby. They followed it up with wins over UNC Wilmington at home and North Carolina A&T on the road, both by 19 points or more.

Their only loss of the season before this tournament this weekend was against the No. 2 ranked team in the nation, UConn, by just 11 points.

This weekend, the UNC women’s basketball team will travel with seven other teams to Nassau in the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.

They are joined by Baylor, Southern Mississippi, Indiana, Columbia, Ball State, Texas A&M, and Villanova, in the eight-team single-elimination bracket.

Evaluating the bracket, there is no team in this tournament that is ranked higher than the Tar Heels, which puts them as the favorites to win.

Baylor is the only other ranked team in the tournament at No. 18, but UNC wouldn’t play them until the championship game if that were to happen.

North Carolina opens the tournament up with Ball State at 6:30 p.m. ET on November 23, 2024. If they win that game, they play the winner of the matchup between Texas A&M and Villanova, loser plays the loser as well.

With this being a single elimination, it is important that this team gets out to a fast start and opens up big. To win, they need to win three games in as many days, including the possibility of taking down a ranked opponent.

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Tar Heels stay even, Duke falls in Week 3 AP Poll Top 25

Tar Heels stay even, Duke falls in Week 3 AP Poll Top 25

After a slow week with just one game at the end of last week, North Carolina stayed as the No. 10 team in the country in Week 3 of the AP Poll Top 25 rankings.

North Carolina closed their first week of play with a rough loss to the top-ranked team in the nation, Kansas. However, they bounced back in mighty fashion in their only game last week beating American 107-55.

The first-half woes continued as the team took just a nine-point lead into the break before exploding in a huge second half. The Tar Heels eventually won by over 50 points and put up more than 100 points.

Jalen Washington walked away from that game dropping his career-high 18 points with three rebounds. Elliot Cadeau was one point shy of his career-high also with 18 points and eight assists.

RJ Davis continued to struggle shooting the ball with just 13 points on 5-of-13 from the floor and 1-for-7 from behind the arc. Some players entered the stat sheet for the first time this season including Dante Mayo Jr. and Russell Hawkins.

Even better news for UNC basketball fans is that Duke, their archrival in the ACC, has fallen to No. 12 on the AP Poll after suffering a loss to Kentucky, the new No. 9 team.

Most of the top 10 teams remained the same. Purdue joined Kentucky by  jumping into the top 10 while Duke and Arizona both fell out.

North Carolina will take on Hawai’i next on Saturday as it prepares for a rigorous Maui Invitational schedule at the beginning of next week.

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UNC basketball guards figure out new roles, might have a new top option

Can the two guards perfect the 1A and 1B roles alongside each other?

Through three games this season, it is clear North Carolina has one of, if not the best backcourt in the country. Fifth-year senior and reigning ACC Player of the Year, RJ Davis, and improved sophomore Elliot Cadeau are making waves in college basketball.

However, this season has proven very different than last. Rob Harrington of Inside Carolina finds the same intriguing theme as I do: Can Cadeau and Davis perfect the dynamics and role shifts this season.

We talk about (role assimilation) every season. Last year, we didn’t have to spend a lot of time on it because the roles filled in so immediately. Number one, it’s Elliot Cadeau’s team. Now, I was a resistor after the preseason. We talked a little bit about it in the preseason roundtable, but it would take a lot to knock me off that line at this point. And it’s not about how RJ Davis isn’t shooting well, it’s about the fact that the entire team seems to respond to Cadeau.

None of that was a knock on RJ Davis, Harrington has very positive thoughts on the star-shooting guard as well.

He’s a scorer, and last year they did tons and tons of stuff for him, high screen after high screen. He does one, he does another one, and he starts looking for a shot. And this year it doesn’t look like he’s going to be able to play that way. I don’t think it’s a matter of being selfish or unwilling to do it, but it’s going to be a big adjustment for an All-American player to now have to be 1B, maybe even number two, and I think that’s going to take some time. I don’t think I see him getting frustrated. I don’t think he’s going to have a bad year because he has too much heart for that.

It will undoubtedly take time for Davis and Cadeau to perfect this new pairing. However, by midseason we could see as good of a backcourt as UNC basketball has ever seen.

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RJ Davis’ poor shooting continues, struggles from three

The reigning ACC Player of the Year is off to a rough start to this season.

For the third straight game, this was a tale of two halves for UNC basketball. After leading by just nine points at the halftime break against American, it took just 15 minutes in the second half for North Carolina to take that lead and make it a 43-point lead.

They eventually won by 57.

Regardless of the success of the team, the reigning ACC Player of the Year, RJ Davis, continued to struggle shooting the ball despite finishing with 13 points, three rebounds, and three assists in that win.

Davis was 3-15 against Kansas including 1-for-7 from three. On Friday against American, he was 5-for-13 from the floor including another 1-for-7 from three.

Head coach Hubert Davis believes his star guard is just in a slump right now.

“No, one of the things I tell the guys all the time is there’s going to be times where your shot goes in, and there’s times that they don’t,” Davis said after the game. “Percentages even out. RJ is a great basketball player, but he can also really shoot, and those percentages are going to even out. There’s going to be times where he’s going to close his eyes, just throw the ball up, and it’s going to be able to go in.”

Just one time in all of last season did Davis have a game where he shot under 20% from the field. He went 1-for-14 on the road against Virginia, finishing the game with 12 points. Also just one time last season, did Davis ever have a three-game stretch of at least two games under 40% and one game under 25%. That’s just from the field as well. The electric scorer is known for his three-point shooting.

While Davis didn’t light it up from the floor, Hubert Davis believes he still impacted the game in a positive way.

“I thought he was the key to game in the second half,” Davis said. “I thought his leadership in the locker room, just his energy, his enthusiasm, the way that he was leading in the locker room at halftime, I thought was the number one key in getting everybody really excited to play a better second half.”

After shooting almost 40% from three last season, he is currently averaging 22.2% from the same range. A player with the caliber of skill that Davis possesses will undoubtedly find his way out of this slump, but how long will it continue into the season?

The Tar Heels are hoping it ends soon.

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Tar Heels explode for second half surge in win vs American

In what looked like a good game at the half, North Carolina blew past American in the second 20 minutes.

North Carolina broke loose in the second half to beat American 107-55, proving just how dominant of a college basketball team the Tar Heels have the possibility of being. Here is how the game shaped up.

The first half was back and forth with UNC keeping the lead for the majority of the half. The biggest lead they got out to was 12 points when they were up  41-29 with two and a half minutes left in the half.

American never led in the entire first half.

They went into the halftime break with a nine-point lead, 43-34. Elliot Cadeau finished the first 20 minutes with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting, just four points shy of the sophomore guard’s career high.

RJ Davis’ struggles shooting the ball continued as he had just four points on 2-of-6 shooting in the half including 0-for-3 from beyond the arc.

For the third straight game, this was a tale of two halves for Tar Heels basketball. In just 15 minutes in the second half, North Carolina had taken their nine-point halftime lead and made it a 43-point lead.

On top of that, Jalen Washington hit a career-high in scoring while Elliot Cadeau finished one point shy of his. Washington was a large part of that second-half surge, scoring 10 of his 18 points in the second half.

John Holbrook and Dante Mayo Jr. both scored their first points of the season in this win with Russell Hawkins also getting playing time.

RJ Davis finished the game with 13 points. Seth Trimble scored 13 points and pulled down six rebounds. Cadeau and Washington finished with 18 points with Cadeau also dishing out eight assists.

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North Carolina edged out by No. 2-ranked UConn in team’s first loss

Paige Beuckers and No. 2 UConn outlast Lexi Donarski and No. 14 North Carolina in women’s basketball.

The No. 2 ranked team in the nation, UConn, and the No. 14 ranked Tar Heels both met on a neutral court in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the Greensboro Complex. With North Carolina projected to lose by 22 points, the Tar Heels came out, fought, and despite the loss 69-58, they proved they belonged.

The first half ended with just a 12-point differential between the two teams. It started out with UConn leading the charge. It took an 11-point lead at the end of the first quarter. The Huskies didn’t take long to jump out to a big lead in the second quarter either, scoring nine points before UNC made two buckets.

However, North Carolina jumped back and lost the quarter by just one point, 13-12. Indya Nivar led the team at the halftime break with 11 points. Alyssa Ustby was just 1-for-5 from the field with two points and four rebounds.

The Tar Heels had a hard time stopping Paige Bueckers, as she had half the team’s points with 18 points and two rebounds heading into the third quarter.

UConn edged a bigger lead in the third quarter with another four-point advantage. The quarter ended with Bueckers and Lexi Donarski swapping three-point makes.

After cutting the game to nine points in the fourth quarter, North Carolina would score just two points in five of the last eight minutes of the game as UConn broke the lead back out, eventually winning 69-58.

Nivar finished the game with 15 points and nine rebounds to lead North Carolina. Ustby and Donarski finished just 2-for-12 from the field and a combined eight points.

Bueckers dropped 29 points and four rebounds with four assists.

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UNC basketball highest-ranked Class of 2025 prospect to commit months early

Hubert Davis’ top prospect is set to make his decision way before he was projected.

North Carolina and Hubert Davis have two commitments in the Class of 2025. The top overall recruit for UNC basketball is the No. 47 ranked player, Isaiah Denis, and the No. 51 ranked player, Derek Dixon.

Davis does not want to stop with those two as the team is actively involved in the recruitment of Caleb Wilson, the No. 8 overall player, and AJ Dybantsa, the No. 1 overall ranked player.

After he finished his visits with BYU on October 11th, Dybantsa was originally scheduled to make his decision in February, approximately three months away. However, now, that has changed.

Dybantsa first told his new decision timeline to ESPN’s Jeff Borzello and Paul Biancardi.

The original plan was to commit in February. The visits stopped in October. We wanted to make sure we had enough time to see all the schools play. We are ahead of where we thought we would be. If I know where I want to go, why wait? It’s probably going to be in December. I feel I will be ready by then.

All Tar Heel fans anxiously await a decision that could change the course of UNC basketball for the next couple of years. Currently, 247sports has its crystal ball set on Bringham Young University, but anything can happen until that decision comes down from Dybantsa.

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Tar Heels fall in Week 2 men’s basketball AP Poll after loss at Kansas

UNC has fallen in this week’s AP Top 25, but how far did the loss to the top-ranked team drop them?

The first week of men’s college basketball is over, and North Carolina walked away with its first win and first loss. After starting out the season as the AP Poll No. 9 ranked team in the country, it has now fallen just one spot to No. 10 on the latest poll.

The Tar Heels opened up the season with a win on college basketball opening night against Elon in Chapel Hill.

RJ Davis led the team with 24 points on 7-of-19 shooting and seven rebounds with seven assists. Elliot Cadeau followed Davis with 17 points, four rebounds, and eight assists on a surprising 3-of-4 shooting from three.

Later that week, UNC went on the road for, arguably, its hardest test of the season. They took on the No. 1 ranked team in the country, Kansas, at Allen Fieldhouse. After a rough first half, UNC basketball battled back and ended up losing by just three points.

Seth Trimble led the team with 19 points and four rebounds in the loss. Davis shot just 3-of-15 from the floor while Ian Jackson finished with 10 points in 15 minutes shooting 4-of-5 from the floor and 2-of-2 from three.

Now at No. 10, North Carolina is directly behind Arizona and right in front of Tennessee, who were both 2-0 in the first week. Houston sits at No. 8 despite also losing a game in the first week.

Baylor, Arkansas, and Texas A&M are among the other one-loss teams still in the Top 25 of the AP Poll.

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