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Leaky Black got the royal treatment in Charlotte. As part of a Charlotte FC tradition, the Major League Soccer team has a pregame coronation before each match. The guest of honor sits on a throne in the supporter’s section of the stadium the team shares with the Carolina Panthers after being crowned.
Tyler Hansbrough is one of five who will be inducted in Chicago on Wednesday night into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. The four-time first-team All-American at UNC will enter the Hall with legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, former Duke star Johnny Dawkins, longtime Division II Jefferson coach Herb Magee and late talent scout Tom Konchalski.
As ACC adds Stanford and Cal beginning in the 2024–25 school year, the first concern should be for the athletes who must routinely take cross-country flights while also being students. The travel sounds daunting because it is. But there are scheduling models that could make it easier.
The Athletic came out with its preseason Top 25 men’s basketball rankings Monday morning, with Kansas atop the list, with Marquette No. 2 and Duke No. 3. When it came to assessing the rebuilt North Carolina team, writers CJ Moore and Sam Vecenie, rated the Tar Heels No. 18.
The summer has been full of new experiences for Caleb Love, who first thought he would transfer from Carolina to Michigan and then joined former UNC assistant coach Steve Robinson at Arizona. Not only has Love played his first games in an Arizona uniform this month, although they were just exhibitions, he traveled outside of the country for the first time. The team went on a 10-day tour to Israel and the United Arab Emirates, playing in three exhibitions.
North Carolina and N.C. State may not agree on much, but appear to have the same opinion on expansion. Carolina and State are reportedly two of the four schools opposing the addition of Cal and Stanford into the ACC, leaving the league one vote short of adding those two schools.
For years, Mike Krzyzewski never scheduled true road non-conference games, only playing them in the defunct ACC/Big Ten Challenge. His Duke teams still faced tough opponents away from Cameron Indoor Stadium, but at neutral sites. Many wondered why Krzyzewski didn’t schedule road tests for his team before ACC play. Part of his strategy seemed to be to simulate an NCAA tournament game atmosphere.
Coach Hubert Davis’ reshaped team will get plenty of non-conference tests over a schedule North Carolina announced on Wednesday, including facing UConn, the reigning NCAA champion, and Kentucky in two of five neutral-site events.
Carolina and Kentucky, two of men’s college basketball’s best programs, will meet again next season. The teams will tangle for the 43rd time, playing in Atlanta at the 10th annual CBS Sports Classic. The game will start 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game between UCLA and Ohio State, which starts at 3 p.m.
Cameron Johnson is off to an excellent start playing for the United States basketball team that is preparing for the World Cup. Johnson came off the bench to share team-high scoring honors with 15 points in his debut in a USA uniform, a 117–74 victory over Puerto Rico on Monday night in Las Vegas in an exhibition game.
Carolina’s men’s basketball team will face Northern Iowa in the first round of the Battle 4 Atlantis, which is set for Nov. 22–24 in the Bahamas, with a possible second-day matchup against Villanova. The Tar Heels will be in the same bracket of the eight-team event with the Villanova-Texas Tech game. On the other side of the bracket, Michigan takes on Memphis and Arkansas meets Stanford.
Seth Trimble and Paxton Wojcik will use jersey numbers that no Carolina men’s basketball player has worn since 1950.
Carolina and Kansas will play a home-and-home men’s basketball series, with games in the 2024–25 and 2025–26 seasons. The series starts in 2024–25, with the Tar Heels visiting Lawrence, Kansas, for the second time in program history and the first time since 1960. When the Jayhawks come to the Smith Center during the 2025–26 season, it will be their first visit.
Brady Manek’s performance for the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA Summer League wasn’t enough to earn him an NBA contract. Zaligiris Kaunas, a team based in Kaunas, Lithuania, of the Lithuanian Basketball League, signed Manek on Friday to a 1+1 contract, meaning there is an option to play a second season.
CHAPEL HILL — Since Carolina’s frustrating season ended without an NCAA tournament berth, Coach Hubert Davis said he has had no days off. Offseason is genuinely a misnomer these days with the transfer portal, players able to transfer and not sit out a year, some players playing a fifth season and NIL luring others to weigh their options.
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