The UNC Basketball program has traditionally matched itself up with other college basketball powerhouses at least once, if not twice, during the regular season. Participating in mid-season tournaments like the Maui Invitational or Battle 4 Atlantis always provides a challenging schedule and matchups with traditionally well-respected opponents for resumes.
The CBS Sports Classic is always an additional solid opponent, this year it's Ohio State, and in years past it has been UCLA and Kentucky on a rotational schedule. However, when Hubert Davis and the UNC Basketball program scheduled a home-and-home with Kansas, it set up the possibility to accomplish something that has only been done once in the last 40 years of the UNC Basketball program.
Beat Kansas and Kentucky in the same season.
The other part of that equation, getting Kentucky on the schedule, came to life when the Tar Heels and Wildcats were paired with each other for the 2025 ACC/SEC Challenge that sent the Heels to Lexington.
For North Carolina to play the two other winningest programs in college basketball history (Kansas at No. 2 and Kentucky at No. 1) in the same season is rare. It has only happened twice since the 1981-1982 season.
During the 2002-2003 season, the Tar Heels played Kansas in New York and beat the Jayhawks 67-56, and 10 days later had a chance to beat the Wildcats, but lost to then-ranked No. 18 Kentucky, 98-81, in Chapel Hill.
Besides 2002-2003, the last time the UNC Basketball program faced the Wildcats and Jayhawks in the same season was 1981-82. The Tar Heels beat Kansas 74-67 in Charlotte and a month later knocked off Kentucky 82-69 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
That Kansas game was the season opener that year, and you may recall a star freshman being part of that team, too. Mike (as he was known back then) Jordan scored 12 points in his UNC Basketball debut.
So when the 2025-2026 Tar Heels completed their sweep of Kansas and Kentucky on Tuesday night in Lexington, it marked the first time since 1981-1982 that the UNC Basketball program has defeated both college basketball blue blood programs in the same season.
North Carolina has defeated Kansas and Kentucky in the same season for the first time since 1981-82.
— Bryan Ives (@awaytoworthy) December 3, 2025
That was a notable season for the Tar Heels.
As our friend Bryan Ives points out, that 1981-82 season turned out "okay" for the UNC Basketball program as that star freshman, Mike Jordan, later turned into Michael Jordan in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans that season as the Tar Heels cut down the nets and won Coach Dean Smith's first National Championship.
I believe the 2025-2026 Tar Heels have a star freshman on this year's team too... Caleb Wilson anyone?
While it isn't exactly similar situations (Kansas was the second game of the 2025-26 season instead of the first) and the college landscape has changed drastically since the early 1980s, it's still fun to draw comparisons to a successful UNC Basketball season from year's past to this year's Tar Heels in hopes of making a run at hanging another banner in the rafters of the Dean Smith Center.
And hey, it's always fun to beat the likes of Kansas and Kentucky in the same season. Right?