Winning is always the goal when Michael Malone takes the court.
But when UNC opens its three-game exhibition slate against USC on Friday night, the Tar Heels' new head coach won't be concerned only with the final score.
For Malone, these exhibitions are essentially a fact-finding mission.
“As a competitor, you always want to win. But for me, the three exhibition games are an opportunity to find out who the hell we are,” Malone said. “Each one of those games will allow us an opportunity to look within, try some things, get it on film, clean things up, and hopefully we’ll make positive strides and improvements from one game to the other.”
Michael Malone is looking for answers as UNC begins its exhibition slate
There are plenty of questions surrounding this UNC basketball team heading into Malone's first season in Chapel Hill.
A revamped roster has spent the offseason learning a new system under an entirely new coaching staff. Now comes the fun part: seeing how everything looks when the Tar Heels line up against someone wearing a different uniform.
That's what makes Friday night's exhibition against USC so valuable.
Practices and scrimmages can only tell Malone so much. Facing outside competition lets him and his staff experiment with different lineup combinations, evaluate how players respond in certain situations, and identify areas to address before the games officially count.
And Malone has three opportunities to do exactly that.
Rather than treating the exhibitions as meaningless tune-ups, the veteran head coach appears determined to squeeze as much information out of them as possible. The goal is for North Carolina to leave each game better prepared than when it entered.
That process could be particularly important when it comes to establishing roles.
Who works well together? Which lineups give North Carolina its best balance on both ends of the floor? Who can Malone trust when the game gets tight? What needs to be cleaned up before the regular season arrives?
Those questions won't necessarily be fully answered on Friday night, but the exhibition game against the Trojans is the first opportunity to start finding answers.
Of course, Malone made one thing clear: he still wants to win. That’s the competitive nature in him and everyone else who steps onto the court on Friday night.
However, if Tar Heels can leave Friday night's exhibition with a clearer understanding of their identity and plenty of useful game film for Malone and his staff to dissect, the night will have served a much greater purpose than simply putting another victory on a scoreboard that ultimately doesn't count.
The results of these exhibition games won't carry over into the regular season, but what UNC learns from them certainly will.
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