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UNC Basketball: 5 reasons to be excited about Tar Heels in 2021

By Blake Cockrum

CHAPEL HILL, NC - FEBRUARY 08: "Ramses", mascot of the North Carolina Tar Heels, makes an entrance before a game against the Duke Blue Devils on February 08, 2018 at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. North Carolina won 82-78. (Photo by Peyton Williams/UNC/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NC - FEBRUARY 08: "Ramses", mascot of the North Carolina Tar Heels, makes an entrance before a game against the Duke Blue Devils on February 08, 2018 at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. North Carolina won 82-78. (Photo by Peyton Williams/UNC/Getty Images) /
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INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – APRIL 03: Johnny Juzang #3 of the UCLA Bruins reacts in the first half against the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the 2021 NCAA Final Four semifinal at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 03, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /

Difficult but exciting non-conference schedule

Hubert Davis certainly isn’t going to skate through the non-conference portion of his first season at the University of North Carolina. The Tar Heels don’t just have a difficult slate of games through the season’s first two months, it’s arguably the toughest in the nation.

North Carolina will begin the season with a few “tune-up” games, but then a contest with the No. 7 Purdue Boilermakers in the Hall-of-Fame Tip-Off Tournament really gets them into a tough stretch of games beginning in late November. The following day, they’ll play either the fourth-ranked Villanova Wildcats, or the 18th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers. Just over a week later, they’ll face off with the No. 6 Michigan Wolverines in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge. On December 18, they’ll get the nation’s No. 2 team, the UCLA Bruins, in a neutral game as part of the CBS Sports Classic.

With that in mind, the Tar Heels could end up playing four of college basketball’s top 10 teams in a four-week span. It’s understandable how daunting a schedule like that can appear, especially with a brand new head coach and a team that has a lot of question marks. But one thing that the Tar Heels’ schedule definitely provides is experience and preparation for a long, difficult ACC regular season and conference tournament, as well as the NCAA Tournament in March. It’s also going to be a good barometer for where the Tar Heels are as a team following the first two months of the season.

The Tar Heels may not win every one of their early-season top-25 matchups, but fans will get to watch their team play against championship-caliber teams in raucous environments. If nothing else, it should be entertaining.

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