Riding a three-game winning streak, the UNC basketball program welcomes the NC Central Eagles to the Dean Smith Center for a late-Friday night clash.
The Tar Heels have the opportunity to improve to 4-0 to start the season for the first time since the 2023-2024 campaign. After putting together a strong second half to pull away from Radford, Hubert Davis hopes his team can put together a strong 40-minute effort as they look to build throughout non-conference action.
It hasn't been the best of starts for the Eagles, who come into this contest with a 1-3 record. Two of those losses came against ACC foes: NC State and Virginia, as North Carolina aims to add another loss to the Eagles' win-loss record against ACC opponents by the end of Friday night.
2025-2026 Season
North Carolina Tar Heels
Overall record: 3-0
Conference Record: 0-0
Home Record: 3-0
Away Record: 0-0
Neutral Site Record: 0-0
Top-25 Wins: 1
NC Central Eagles
Overall record: 1-3
Conference Record: 0-0
Home Record: 1-0
Away Record: 0-3
Neutral Site Record: 0-0
History
North Carolina is 3-0 all-time against NC Central, as this will mark the first time that these two teams have squared off since December 12, 2020.
The Eagles gave the Tar Heels quite the scare in that meeting, holding an 11-point lead in the first half. Fortunately, the Roy Williams-led Tar Heels bounced back, rallying to take the lead before the break while holding on to secure a 73-67 victory. Armando Bacot led the charge with 19 points and 11 rebounds, as North Carolina played in front of a limited crowd due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Key Players
North Carolina
Caleb Wilson (Fr. Forward)- 19.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists
Henri Veesaar (Jr. Center)- 17.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists
Luka Bogavac (Jr. Guard)- 11.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists
NC Central
Gage Lattimore (So. Guard)- 24.0 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists
Khouri Carvey (Sr. Forward)- 16.3 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists
Dionte Johnson (Sr. Guard)- 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists
Keys to Victory for North Carolina
Let the bigs go to work (again)
No, we didn't copy and paste this from our last game preview, but the sentiment remains the same.
The Tar Heels have a distinct size advantage in this one and must take every opportunity to capitalize from it.
Henri Veesaar has been excellent early on in his first season with the UNC basketball program, while Caleb Wilson is a superstar in the making. North Carolina's game plan should remain the same: get the ball inside and let the bigs go to work.
If NC Central elects to force the ball out of their hands, expect a lot of open opportunities for the likes of Luka Bogavac, Kyan Evans and Jonathan Powell (to name a few) from beyond-the-arc, as it would be nice to see them knock down a majority of their open looks.
Free throws are FREE!
The Tar Heels attempted 49, yes, 49 free throws in the win over Radford, but only knocked down 63.3% of those attempts.
That number is NOT going to cut it, especially in close games.
Free throws are free for a reason: you get fouled, you need to capitalize on the two shots from the line that you get. Missing 18 free throws is simply unacceptable, as the Tar Heels need to sharpen this up as non-conference play starts to ramp up.
Something to Watch for
Jarin Stevenson had a big night in the victory over Radford, scoring 15 points while hauling in seven rebounds.
Early in the first half, Stevenson suffered what appeared to be an ankle injury, one that forced him to miss about 10 minutes of game action. He was able to return, but you can tell that he was hampered a bit by the injury, a bit of a concern for the Tar Heels as they are already down one starter.
It will be an interesting storyline to follow leading up to game time. The hope is that the injury wasn't as severe as it looked, but we'll have to wait and see how he's fared over the past few days since suffering the injury.
Projected Starters
No. 0- Kyan Evans
No. 44- Luka Bogavac
No. 8- Caleb Wilson
No. 15- Jarin Stevenson
No. 13- Henri Veesaar