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Coach Michael Malone’s first North Carolina team will get early measuring sticks before ACC play begins, with a non-conference schedule that mixes exhibition tune-ups and high-profile showcase games. UNC released the entire men’s basketball non-conference schedule on Thursday, although most of it was already known. See the full non-conference schedule below the story.
GREENSBORO — Michael Malone reached the next stage of his transition from coaching NBA players to coaching college players this week when the players on his first North Carolina team began classes. “The school started [Monday],” Malone said. “I was in the NBA for 25 years, and now I’m checking on classes. So, it’s a completely different opportunity, but one that I’m embracing and excited about, and we have a lot of work to do.”
GREENSBORO — The days of the traditional double round-robin schedule are over in the far-flung 18-school ACC, and with them went the fixture of North Carolina and N.C. State playing home-and-home every basketball season. For the second consecutive season, the old rivals will only play one league game, with the men’s basketball meeting next season in Smith Center.
Michael Malone said he turned down the North Carolina job three times before taking it and that Hall of Fame former UNC coach Roy Williams had a lot to do with him taking on the challenge. Malone made the comments during a 15½-minute appearance with Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports on Tuesday’s episode of the “Inside College Basketball Now” podcast. Across the conversation, Malone touched on his path back to college basketball, his relationship with Williams, how he built his staff and what he wants from his first Tar Heels team.
With Sayon Keita clearing a key hurdle standing between him and a Carolina jersey, his arrival completes a frontcourt reconstruction that has been at the forefront of Coach Michael Malone’s first UNC offseason.
Seth Trimble is headed to ACC rival Louisville. Trimble gives Coach Pat Kelsey’s program another marquee player for a team already projected among the best in the country. UNC faces the Cardinals twice next season, meaning Trimble will return to the Smith Center in another uniform.
North Carolina has offered a scholarship to 6–5 Class of 2027 wing Jordan Page, marking the 11th player in the top 15 of the class to get an offer from the Tar Heels.
Coach Michael Malone’s first Carolina team will get two challenging exhibition contests before the games count. UNC is set to face USC in an exhibition at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, before traveling to Indianapolis nine days later for a second exhibition against Indiana at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Sunday, Oct. 18, in a game that had been announced in June.
Now that construction of Coach Michael Malone’s first North Carolina roster is evidently complete, the question becomes how he’ll use that group.
Coach Michael Malone got the physical center he needed to complete his first roster at UNC when South Dakota 7-footer Cameron Fens committed to the Tar Heels on Friday. The 255-pound Fens made the announcement in an Instagram post.
For three seasons as a Philadelphia 76ers assistant coach, Dave Hanners had a front-row seat to marvel at Allen Iverson’s talent. When Hanners, a former UNC player and assistant coach, saw Terrence Brown Jr. during summer workouts and scrimmages at the Smith Center, it took him back to those three seasons that concluded in 2003.
A Duke playing for Carolina? It’s possible. Duke Brennan, the 6–10, 250-pound center who anchored Villanova’s frontcourt last season, has added North Carolina to a growing list of programs pursuing him should the NCAA grant him a fifth year of eligibility.
One missing piece in the construction of the roster for Coach Michael Malone’s first North Carolina team is a center who is more physical inside. A court ruling will allow players who just finished their fourth seasons to play a fifth season, and the Tar Heels have been in contact with a pair of centers who might fill that need: 7–1, 212-pound Micah Handlogten, who played the last three seasons at Florida, and 7–0, 255-pound Cameron Fens, who played at South Dakota the past two seasons.
North Carolina women’s basketball released its non-conference schedule for 2026-27, and it includes nine opponents visiting Carmichael Arena along with a schedule of high-profile road tests to open the season.
Any team that had to contend with North Carolina’s torrid defense last season should be warned. Coach Courtney Banghart says that her reconstructed roster should be better on defense.
