UNC Basketball: Live Action debuts new lights and players

As basketball season approaches, the UNC Basketball programs took the court for the first time in front of fans this season with a new look.

It is always a very exciting time of year in Chapel Hill when both UNC basketball programs hold their Live Action event (formerly known as Late Night with Roy). The event was held on Friday night, October 13th, and consisted of the debut of a new light system in the Dean E. Smith Center to go along with the traditional event lineup of introductions for both teams and scrimmages.

The new lights provide capabilities to enhance the fan experience and display logos such as the interlocking “NC” logo, the Tar Heel foot logo, and the famous Jumpman logo.

The UNC Women’s Basketball program, played four, six-minute quarters as part of their scrimmage and displayed several newcomers on this year’s team with freshmen and transfers. Two newcomers made their presence felt immediately on the court: Maria Gakdeng and Indya Nivar both had impressive showings during the scrimmage.

Gakdeng, a transfer from Boston College, provided a nice post-presence on the court on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. Gakdeng is expected to be able to be the rim protector the Tar Heels are looking for and also is able to score offensively. UNC Women’s Basketball fans will enjoy watching her.

Nivar, the Cary, North Carolina native who transferred from Stanford during the off-season, showed off her ball-handling skills while also knocking down a few three-pointers as well. Three-point shooting will be an element Courtney Banghart’s squad will look to improve upon this season, especially with the loss of Eva Hodgson from the 2022-2023 team.

On the men’s side of things, the Tar Heel that most UNC Basketball fans were probably excited to see was incoming freshman Elliot Cadeau. The Tar Heels played two, twelve-minute halves in their portion of the scrimmage.

Cadeau showed off his speed, ball-handling skills, and shooting ability from the opening tip as he made the first show of the scrimmage, dished off quite a few nice passes, and made two threes toward the end of the scrimmage to put his team in a position to win the game. It’s also worth noting that Cadeau was matched up with senior guard RJ Davis for much of the evening and held his own as a reclassified freshman. Tar Heel fans have something to look forward to at the point guard position.

Incoming freshman Zayden High was another newcomer for Hubert Davis’ squad that looked to impress the Live Action crowd.

There had been some questions surrounding High, and whether he would earn playing time prior to his arrival in Chapel Hill, but after a good summer and impressive scrimmage at Live Action, it appears those questions have been answered with a resounding yes. He did a lot of things well, from finishing at the rebound to boxing out and grabbing a few rebounds.

As with any intrasquad scrimmages, it’s always hard to draw many conclusions, and no one should overreact to any of the performances from Friday night for either program. The UNC Women’s Basketball program will begin its season on November 8th at 7:00 PM against the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs. The UNC Men’s Basketball program has an exhibition against St. Augustine’s on Friday, October 27th at 7:00 PM before beginning the regular season on Monday, November 6th, against Radford in Chapel Hill.

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