North Carolina Basketball: An early look at the Tar Heels 2018-19 Non-Conference Schedule

North Carolina Basketball has already released the team’s non-conference schedule for next season. It couldn’t get any tougher.

There are various different ways that blue blood teams can go about scheduling in the non-conference. Television companies will usually set them up with at least 3-4 primetime games against top-level competition, leaving the other games up to them to deal with.

Some teams will just fill up the rest of their respective schedules with cupcakes, knowing that their own power conference will supply them with enough high-level games to give them a good seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Roy Williams and North Carolina are a bit different, usually having a tough preseason slate to toughen them up for the final couple of months. They did it last year, going 11-2. Those losses came to Michigan State in the highly anticipated PK80 Invitational matchup, as well as the shocker to Wofford, a local mid-major school, at home.

The Tar Heels did get a win over Ohio State in the annual CBS Sports Classic, as well as beating a ranked Tennessee team on the road and Michigan in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Even programs like Northern Iowa, Bucknell, and Davidson are hardly cupcakes, each game a fun watch for Tar Heel fans.

Of course, it’s incredibly early, but with the schedule already out, let’s take a look at the teams North Carolina will be facing in the 2018-19 season, placed in different groups.