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The ACC hasn’t yet released the men’s basketball schedule for next season but the league announced on Wednesday the league opponents for each conference school for the next three seasons. UNC next season will face four of the top five other teams in last season’s ACC standings twice in the Blue Devils, Irish, Deacons and Cavaliers. The Tar Heels meet two of the bottom three teams in the Wolfpack and the Panthers.
CHAPEL HILL — One of the big contrasts between Roy Williams and Hubert Davis was how they handled their rotations. Williams would always play lots of players early in the season and trim his rotation as Carolina got into the bulk of the ACC season. In his first season as head coach, Davis didn’t do that, and stuck to a tight rotation most of the season. Don’t mistake how Davis allocated playing time during his first season as his preference, though. And he says that’s not his decision.
Reggie Bullock couldn’t have had much more contrasting games in the Western Conference semifinals during a week he earned an NBA award. He took 10 shots in both Sunday’s 109–100 Game 3 home loss to the Golden State Warriors and Tuesday’s 119–109 Game 4 home win. He was scoreless on Sunday but scored six 3-pointers and 18 points on Tuesday.
If you’ve watched Carolina’s baseball team emerge from weeks of struggles to finish the regular season with three consecutive ACC series wins and thought that its season trajectory reminds you of the Tar Heels’ men’s basketball team, you aren’t the only one. For Coach Hubert Davis’ basketball team, the low points were the back-to-back road losses to Miami and Wake Forest and the stunning home loss to Pittsburgh. For Coach Scott Forbes’ baseball team, it was losing five consecutive league series before the exam break. They’ve both noticed the similarities. Both rebounded after dealing with early-season criticism of them and their players.
Carolina will face Ohio State on Dec. 17 in Madison Square Garden in next season’s CBS Sports Classic, according to Jeff Goodman of CBS. Kentucky will meet UCLA in the other game in the event’s ninth season.
CHAPEL HILL — Carolina fans will forever remember Caleb Love’s huge 3-pointer with 25 seconds left in Carolina’s Final Four victory over Duke at the Superdome in New Orleans, and now it’s immortalized in the Carolina Basketball Museum. On the half-court in the main part of the museum, there are markers for the biggest shots in program history. Logically, one was added for Love’s 3-pointer over the outstretched left hand of Blue Devils center Mark Williams. That shot was massive as he scored 28 points in beating Duke 81–77 to end Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s career with a loss.
Reggie Bullock scored a career playoff-high 21 points on Friday night but they weren’t enough as the Dallas Mavericks fell behind 2–0 in their Western Conference finals series with the Golden State Warriors. Bullock notched a career playoff-high six 3-pointers in the Mavericks’ 126–117 loss Friday as he put up a 15.4 game score, the second-best of his playoff career. That is topped only by his 15.4 in a 19-point, seven-rebound effort in Game 6 of the series in the last round against the Phoenix Suns.
The latest sign that expectations for Carolina’s men’s basketball season are going to be sky-high is ESPN’s bracket projection for next season.
Such projections in May are, of course, ridiculous, but Joe Lunardi sees the Tar Heels as the No. 1 seed in the East. Under that scenario, UNC would play in Greensboro for the first two rounds and at Madison Square Garden in New York for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight.
Danny Green’s season came to a painful end early in the Philadelphia 76ers’ season-ending loss Thursday but Reggie Bullock made sure to extend his Dallas Mavericks’ season with his best career playoff game. After going scoreless on five shots in Tuesday’s 110–80 Dallas Game 5 loss at Phoenix, Bullock collected 19 points, five 3-pointers, seven rebounds and two steals in Thursday’s 113–86 home victory to force a Game 7 on Sunday in Phoenix.
Brady Manek, who was a big reason that North Carolina made a run to the Final Four, is one of 44 NBA Draft prospects who will attend the NBA G League Elite Camp on May 16 and 17 in Chicago. Manek, a 6–0, 230-pound forward, will get the chance to show off his skills in front of NBA and G League scouts, coaches and front-office executives through five-on-five games and strength and agility drills.
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