By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina will open the next men’s basketball season at home against Central Arkansas and host Navy on Nov. 18 and East Carolina on Dec. 22, according to the Made for March blog.

The Central Arkansas game at the Smith Center will be Nov. 3, and, according to the blog, Central Arkansas will earn $90,000 for participating in it. The Pirates will earn $85,000 for playing the game, according to the blog, with Navy making $80,000 for that game.

This marks the first meeting between the programs. Last season, the Bears lost at Georgia Tech 87–68 and finished 9–24 in their first season under Coach John Shulman.

The only other game that’s known on UNC’s non-conference schedule next season is a Thanksgiving Day matchup in the Fort Myers Tip-Off against Michigan State.

The most famous former Central Arkansas player is Scottie Pippen, a former Chicago Bulls star who averaged 23.6 points, 10 rebounds, and 4.3 assists as a senior in the 1986–87 season. He was an NAIA All-American in his final two college seasons.

Central Arkansas began making the transition to Division I during the 2006–07 season, when the Bears joined the Southland Conference. The program has had one winning season in Division I, when it was 18–17 in 2017–18 and lost in the quarterfinals of the College Basketball Invitational.

The Bears made the second round of the NCAA Division II tournament in 2005.

Navy leads the series with UNC 14–6. On its way to the Final Four, UNC won the last meeting 88–52 in the first round of the 1998 NCAA tournament in Hartford, Conn. All other meetings came between 1920 and 1959.

UNC has won all four meetings with East Carolina, the last a 108–64 victory in the Smith Center on Dec. 7, 2014. On the Tar Heels’ way to winning the 1993 national title, they beat East Carolina 85–65 in the first round in Winston-Salem.

Potential UNC roster

(Next season’s classes listed)

No.	Class	Player	Pos.	Hgt	Wgt
	Freshman	Caleb Wilson (5 star)	4	6–9	205
	Freshman	Isaiah Denis (4 star)	CG	6–5	175
	Freshman	Derek Dixon (4 star)	CG	6-3	190
	Sophomore	Jonathan Powell	G	6-6	191
2	Sophomore	James Brown	5	6–8	225
11	Sophomore	Ian Jackson	2	6–5	185
9	Sophomore	Drake Powell	2	6–6	195
22	Senior	Ven-Allen Lubin	4	6–8	230
5	Senior	Cade Tyson	3	6–7	205
7	Senior	Seth Trimble	2	6–3	195
		Walk-ons
15	Sophomore	John Holbrook	4	6–8	23p
14	Junior	Russell Hawkins	2	6–1	175
6	RS Senior	Elijah Davis	2	6–4	197