The UNC men's basketball program is coming off a first-round exit to Ole Miss this past March. A game that happened to be the last time RJ Davis, Elliot Cadeau, Ian Jackson, Jalen Washington, Jae'Lyn Withers, Drake Powell, and others wore a North Carolina jersey.
Head coach Hubert Davis and his staff, plus the help of General Manager Jim Turner, have replenished the team with a new group of guys. The group consists of the following transfers: Arizona big man Henri Veessar, West Virginia sharpshooter Jonathan Powell, scoring guard Kyan Evans from Colorado State, versatile power forward Jarin Stevenson from Alabama, and former Virginia Tech guard Jaydon Young.
Plus the addition of UNC's freshmen class of Derek Dixon and Isaiah Denis, rounded out by five-star Caleb Wilson.
Coach Davis and his team will face off against BYU this coming October in an exhibition — a matchup that features the No.1 recruit in the 2025 class and potential top-three pick of the NBA Draft, AJ Dybansta. The game will take place in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Robby McCombs shared the news on Twitter:
While fans probably want to see the two squads battle it out on the hardwood floor, it still serves as a prominent test for how Carolina will gel together with all of the new faces in the locker room.
Rising senior Seth Trimble is set to be the leader for next season, someone who entered the transfer portal last year but ended up returning to Chapel Hill. However, it will be a challenge for him to keep the new set of Tar Heels poised and compete for a national championship.
According to GoHeels, there have only been two times in history that North Carolina has played BYU. The last time was on November 24, 2007, when Carolina won by a score of 73-63 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In what seems to some as a make or break year for Coach Davis' job, this exhibition game should tell a lot about what needs to be improved before the 2025-26 commences in November.