North Carolina Basketball: Breaking down the non-conference schedule
Closing stretch
North Carolina at Tennessee, December 17th
A major conference opponent from the SEC, Tennessee is looking to recover from a season where they went under .500 in the conference. They went an overall 16-16 for the season and return second-leading scorer Grant Williams. It does not seem likely that the Volunteers will get back to the NCAA Tournament this season, but they do bring in a recruiting class ranked a reasonable 57th in the country according to 247Sports.
Wofford at North Carolina, December 20th
Leading scorer Fletcher Magee (18.6 points per game) returns for the Terriers and he will be the difference maker for the team. Wofford finished near the middle of the pack in the Southern Conference last season, but if Magee gets hot, he could be the guy to carry the Terriers in a late-season tournament to possibly make the Big Dance.
Ohio State vs. North Carolina, December 23rd in New Orleans
Although Ohio State is a major program, it does not seem likely that they will compete near the top of the Big Ten this upcoming season. They bring in former Butler head coach Chris Holtmann to take over the reigns of the team, but the roster still needs a couple of years to get figured out. Holtmann is off to a great start with recruiting, but this team probably won’t be at the level where they can compete with North Carolina this early into Holtmann’s time with the Buckeyes.
This will be an interesting season for North Carolina as they lean on star guard Joel Berry to follow up their National Championship. These non-conference games will be a solid test for the team before they get started in ACC play. North Carolina will enter the year as a top-25 team and are one of the biggest programs nationwide.