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CHAPEL HILL — Reniya Kelly picked a good time to turn in the best game of her career. North Carolina needed the junior guard’s production to help reverse a recent slide, with her 24 points a big reason the Tar Heels topped Miami 73-62 on Thursday night at Carmichael Arena.
PALO ALTO, Calif. — The good NCAA tournament résumé that North Carolina built up during nonconference play is rapidly falling apart. After the No. 14 Tar Heels fell to 3–3 in Quad 1 games with their 95–90 loss Wednesday night at Stanford, they fell eight spots in the NET rankings to a season-low 30. That’s the lowest since UNC was 32 at the end of last season, when it barely slipped into the tournament field.
PALO ALTO, Calif. — The same plays kept coming, but North Carolina couldn’t stop them or make the adjustments to slow the onslaught of 3-pointers and layups. The Cardinal came with horns sets and the team’s best shooting of the season against a power five school (57.1% from the floor and 3-point range), and the Tar Heels repeatedly got schooled on pick-and-rolls.
PALO ALTO, Calif. — North Carolina continues to pay for lapses in defense and intensity, get tormented by elite guards and bombarded with opponent 3-pointers. The result was an ugly, frustrating loss in the first game of the West Coast trip for the No.14 Tar Heels, who have given up 55 3-pointers in the last five games.
Here’s a look at the first game of North Carolina’s two-game road trip in northern California, facing Stanford on Wednesday night.
Caleb Love is performing well ahead of the usual expectations for an undrafted rookie on a two-way contract, and the perimeter shots just keep falling.
North Carolina’s struggles defending high-level scorers continue to mount as another elite ACC guard awaits. After SMU’s Boopie Miller dropped 27 points on the Tar Heels and Wake Forest’s Juke Harris and Nate Calmese each scored 28, UNC faces one of the league’s most explosive freshmen at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday: Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie.
North Carolina moved up three spots in the AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll to No. 14 after holding on to beat Wake Forest 87–84 on Saturday.
North Carolina’s offensive reset and quarterback shuffle did not begin with Bobby Petrino’s arrival.The 2025 season under offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens never stabilized. The Tar Heels struggled to find an offensive rhythm, and the quarterback situation remained unsettled. By the end of a 4–8 season, the direction of the unit was no longer defensible. Coach Bill Belichick dismissed Kitchens and the transition began.
North Carolina suffered through its worst game of the season and is left searching for answers after a dismal afternoon in South Bend. The No. 22 Tar Heels’ two leading scorers — Ciera Toomey and India Nivar — combined for only four points as Notre Dame dominated UNC 73–50 on Sunday at Purcell Pavilion.
Elliot Cadeau’s best game of the season on Saturday wasn’t enough for No. 2 Michigan to avoid its first loss of the season.
The trip is only for two games, but for East Coast ACC teams, it can feel like a weeklong slog. When No. 17 North Carolina tips off at Stanford at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, it will be stepping into a pattern that has already tested other league programs. The late start will follow a cross-country trip to an unfamiliar gym, then they turn around to play at California three days later at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday, in another arena new to the players.
North Carolina’s NET ranking held at 22 after its 87–84 home Quad 2 victory Saturday over Wake Forest, but slipped after Sunday’s game to 23. The number of opportunities to polish its resume increased due to other results.
CHAPEL HILL — It was what Caleb Wilson didn’t say after getting only two second-half shots that stood out. Wilson went from making all seven shots, adding more highlight reels and scoring 17 points in the first half, to scoring five points and only one field goal in the second half of the No. 17 Tar Heels’ 87–84 victory Saturday night over Wake Forest at the Smith Center.
CHAPEL HILL — Hubert Davis summed up the problems that he must fix after the loss at SMU in one word: defense. That was the starting point for everything the No. 17 Tar Heels focused on last week, as Davis said they “worked on us” for most of the week before preparing for Saturday’s 6 p.m. home game (ACC Network) against Wake Forest.
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