UNC Basketball: 2021-22 season preview and outlook for Tar Heels
Non-conference schedule breakdown
As is almost always the case, UNC has an extremely difficult non-conference slate, highlighted by four matchups against potentially top 10 teams.
The Heels open the season on Tuesday, November 9 vs Loyola (MD) in Chapel Hill, followed by a home game against Brown. This should be a nice and easy 2-0 start to get Hubert Davis and his staff settled in.
It’s worth noting that UNC plays a true road game at Charleston on November 16. Seeing one of the largest programs in the country play at least one true road game against a mid-major per season will never get old.
The schedule heats up as UNC travels to the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut for the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament, where they start off with No. 7 Purdue—a team with two All-American level players in Jaden Ivey and Treyvion Williams. The Heels will then play either No. 4 Villanova or No. 18 Tennessee in the championship or consolation game. Either way, this MTE will give UNC back-to-back opportunities for Quad 1 wins, something very few teams will have this season.
The ACC-B1G Challenge has UNC matched up with Michigan, the preseason No. 6 team in the country and fresh-off of a B1G regular-season title. The good news is that the game will be in the Smith Center. North Carolina and Michigan met in the Challenge for three straight years from 2017-19, with UNC winning the first and Michigan taking the next two. Bacot vs Hunter Dickinson will be must-see TV.
UNC is 5-2 in the CBS Sports Classic with two prior wins over UCLA. Neither of those wins has come against Mick Cronin’s Bruins, though. UCLA returns the entire starting five from last year’s Final Four team. This will be the Heels’ most difficult non-conference game when the two meet in Las Vegas on December 18.
Two sneaky non-conference games also jump out in Furman (Dec. 14) and Appalachian State (Dec. 21). Furman is favored in an always difficult SoCon and App State returns nine of their top 10 players from a team that made the NCAA Tournament last season.
ACC schedule breakdown
Boston College, No. 9 Duke, Georgia Tech, Louisville, N.C. State and Virginia Tech are the six teams that UNC will play twice in ACC play.
The second half of their 20-game ACC schedule will be significantly more difficult than the first, with two games against Duke, road games against Louisville, Clemson, Virginia Tech and N.C. State, and a matchup with Florida State.
Let’s be real though—there are two games that stand out above the rest, this year more than ever. UNC students and fans would love nothing, and I mean nothing more than to beat Mike Krzyzewski in their final two meetings, sending him into retirement with one final loss in Cameron Indoor Stadium in the greatest rivalry in American sports.