The unofficial start to the Michael Malone era will happen earlier than expected

If you're like us and have a countdown to the first look of the Michael Malone era, you're going to have to adjust it a bit.

Don't worry- the adjustment is one that fans are going to love!

On Monday, it was revealed that UNC has added another exhibition game to its preseason calendar. The Malone-led Tar Heels are scheduled to take on USC in "The Preseason Premiere" exhibition on October 9 at the First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.

UNC's preseason schedule begins earlier than everyone anticipated

With the addition of this exhibition game, UNC will play in two preseason contests. The meeting with the Trojans will jumpstart the preseason while a trip to Indianapolis to battle the Indiana Hoosiers will occur 9 days later on October 18.

Typically, UNC fans are pumped for exhibition games, given they provide early opportunities to see the team compete ahead of the upcoming regular season. However, the anticipation seems a little bit higher this year for a variety of reasons.

For starters, Michael Malone takes over at the helm, and we quite frankly don't know what the Tar Heels will look like under his direction. Exhibition games will give us a small sample size of what we could potentially expect once the regular season tips off on November 2.

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Additionally, UNC features essentially an entire new roster to go along with a new head coach. Fans are excited to see some of the incoming talent wear the Carolina blue in an actual game for the first time, as highlight clips from practice are enjoyable but don't compare to real game action.

The unofficial debuts of guys like Matt Able, Neoklis Avdalas, Terrence Brown, and others will be must-watch television for Tar Heel fans who just can't wait for the start of the 2026-2027 campaign.

This matchup, the 10th all-time between the two programs, is a rematch from the Sweet 16 of the 2007 NCAA Tournament, a game in which the Tar Heels, the No. 4 seed, erased a 16-point deficit to knock off the No. 5 seeded Trojans in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

While last season wasn't what they hoped it would be, USC is reloaded for year three of the Eric Musselman era. They featured a top-15 ranked incoming recruiting class, led by top-10 prospect Christian Collins, and added some big-time transfers (such as KJ Lewis and Eric Reibe) to compliment what the roster was able to retain from a season ago.

When it comes to exhibition games, you want to challenge your team against quality competition, something that both preseason matchups will provide Malone and the Tar Heels as they gear up for the new season.

This is your early warning to reset your countdowns. Don't erase the Indiana exhibition game from your calendar, but simply input the meeting with USC in its rightful place on October 9.

Now, you know not to make any plans that might interfere with your first glimpse of this year's UNC basketball squad!

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