Tag: UNC Tar Heels

PHOTOS: Tar Heels fall in Massachusetts to Boston College

Check out the latest photos from UNC’s 41-21 loss at Boston College!

North Carolina went on the road for the last time this season taking on ACC opponent Boston College in Chesnut Hills, Massachusetts.

Things did not go UNC football‘s way. They found themselves down 24-7 at the halftime break, and they were down 41-7 before Davion Gause broke off two rushing touchdowns in the final 2:09 in the fourth quarter to make it a reasonable score.

Jacolby Criswell finished the game with 176 yards through the air and three interceptions. All-American running back Omarion Hampton had just 53 yards on 11 carries due to a poor rushing game script.

Here are the photos that capture the 60 minutes of play.

Tar Heels steamrolled by Boston College in final road game

It was a rough day for UNC football as they lost big to Boston College on the road.

North Carolina traveled to Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, today to face off with Boston College in their last road game of the season. They took the field at Alumni Stadium and it didn’t take long for the Eagles to take the lead, keep the lead, and win the game by a wide margin, 41-21.

UNC was never really in the game, either.

Boston College dominated the entire way on both sides of the ball as UNC couldn’t stop them, allowing the offense to do what they wanted. UNC’s offense struggled, failing to get past the Boston College 30-yard line until late in the fourth quarter.

Boston College converted on 7 of 15 third-down attempts while UNC was just 3 of 13. That was pretty much the story of the game.

The Tar Heels fell behind on the opening drive, allowing a 49-yard field goal on Boston College’s opening drive. From there, it was all Boston College as they controlled the game not only with the clock but having the lead the entire way.

The second quarter is when things started to pick up.

Boston College scored on back-to-back drives while holding UNC to just 12 total plays in the two drives in between. Chris Culliver returned the ensuing kickoff from the second touchdown for a touchdown, cutting the deficit to 17-7.

That was the lone highlight for UNC as Jacolby Criswell and the offense stalled out on all but one drive.

However, Boston College scored one more time at the end of the half. The Eagles saw just one field goal in the third quarter as well, with nothing getting done on either offense. Heading into the last quarter, Boston College scored quickly on a pick-six and followed it up with a rushing touchdown just a drive later.

After going down 41-7, North Carolina scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes, both from Davion Gause.

Criswell struggled to get any rhythm in the game, throwing for 176 yards and three interceptions while Omarion Hampton managed just 53 yards on 11 carries. With the Tar Heels playing down most of the game, it was hard to get the rushing attack going.

The defense finished with just one sack and four tackles for a loss.

They will have a chance to get back in the win column in their season finale back home next week against NC State.

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.

NC State QB ‘confident’ he will beat North Carolina in season finale

NC State’s quarterback might be a little too confident about taking on UNC next week.

North Carolina takes on Boston College this week on the road in the toughest test in their recent win streak. They became bowl-eligible with their win last week against Wake Forest and will have a postseason.

The same cannot be said for NC State, which is sitting at five wins after losing this week against Georgia Tech on the road. Quarterback CJ Bailey threw for 147 yards and three interceptions in that loss and had pretty strong words for UNC following his loss.

Bailey said this about his impending season finale matchup with the Tar Heels, which will determine NC State’s bowl eligibility, via 247sports.

We’re hurting ourselves. We’re having these self-inflicted wounds every time we take these losses. Our mindset every time is to try to bounce back and go out and get a win. North Carolina, we coming. We’re gonna win this game at North Carolina. We’re gonna get our win against North Carolina, because it means a lot to us. Things went wrong all year, but this game right here is our game.

The Wolfpack will head to Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill and take on North Carolina at home. The Tar Heels, prior to this week against Boston College, have won all three of their previous matchups and are now 6-4 on the season.

North Carolina will take on NC State in the season finale next week on Saturday, December 1, at 3:30 p.m. ET, airing on ACC Network.

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.

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.

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.

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.

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.

Duke women’s basketball jumps back ahead of the UNC Tar Heels in the AP Poll

After Sunday’s win over South Dakota State, the Duke women’s basketball team shifted back ahead of the UNC Tar Heels in the AP Poll.

The Duke Blue Devils moved up two spots to 14th in the updated AP Top 25 Women’s College Basketball Poll released on Monday.

Duke won two games last week, first defeating Dayton at home on Thursday night before beating a ranked South Dakota State team in their building on Sunday. Sophomore Jadyn Donovan put together the best game of her career against the Jackrabbits, scoring 23 points and coming down with 15 rebounds to help the Blue Devils keep pace in a 75-71 shootout.

Donovan is one of four Duke players averaging at least 10.0 points per game this season, joining returning stars Ashlon Jackson (13.2) and Reigan Richardson (11.4). Five-star freshman Toby Fournier, one of the big stories of the season, sits second on the roster with 12.4 points off the bench through her first five collegiate games.

The two-spot jump moved the Blue Devils back above the North Carolina Tar Heels, who tumbled down to 16th after a loss to the Connecticut Huskies. Duke also moved ahead of NC State, who fell all the way to 20th after a non-conference loss to TCU.

The South Carolina Gamecocks remained atop the rankings with the Huskies, USC Trojans, Texas Longhorns, and UCLA Bruins staying put within the top five. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish (sixth) are now the only ACC team above the Blue Devils.

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.

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.

The Tar Heels’ defense works to get Geoff Collins ‘swole’

How ‘swole’ will Geoff Collins be by the end of the season?

Mack Brown brought in former Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins to be his defensive coordinator this season in hopes of getting the defense to a place where it wasn’t a liability.

Over the last three games, Collins has proved just that.

Many had question marks about his capabilities after the team’s four-game losing streak, but Collins implemented an incentive-based system full of cookie cake and push-ups that have motivated his defense.

Power Echols gave us insight into how Collins is doing just that, via Inside Carolina.

He has to do 10 push-ups every time we get a turnover, so we try to get him as swole as possible by the end of practice and get him a good workout in, but he just preaches that each and every day in practice.

Mack Brown had nothing but praise for Collins defense over the last three games.

They’ve stopped the run, they’ve disrupted the quarterback. We forced two turnovers last week, we had three tonight. So now, they’re starting to force more turnovers.

Even Jacobly Criswell acknowledged the strength of the defense on Saturday.

We had a couple of drives to where I fumbled, and just unacceptable by me, and a couple of other things happened to where we just weren’t on rhythm, and the defense did a good job giving us the ball back,

Collins’s incentive-based system for his defense has cultivated a relationship between the DC and players that every team hopes to have.

The fact that players are enjoying what they are receiving and willing to go out and leave it all on the field for Collins proves what we all wondered about his leadership capabilities.

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.

PHOTOS: Tar Heels roll past Wake Forest, even up conference record

Check out how the game looked from the sidelines as UNC took down Wake Forest.

North Carolina came out of its second bye week to take on its first ACC team at home since its winning streak started. Wake Forest came into Kenan Stadium and served up the Tar Heel’s third straight win against an ACC team.

The star of the show, Omarion Hampton, once again had a stellar performance. He finished with 244 yards and a touchdown on the ground with five receptions for 16 yards through the air as well.

The defense wasn’t going to shy away from the spotlight either as Power Echols intercepted Michael Kern, after Hank Bachmeier left the game injured, for a 42-yard touchdown. They managed two sacks and five tackles for a loss as well.

Check out the photos from the sideline in Carolina’s “Blue Out.”

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.

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.