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How good is the ACC? No. 7-ranked North Carolina earned the No. 1 seed in the league tournament but will have to play the nation’s No. 8-ranked team in its pool. When No. 17-ranked N.C. State (32–19, 18–11 ACC) finished a three-game weekend sweep of No. 8-ranked Wake Forest, that earned the Wolfpack the No. 3 seed in the ACC tournament and bumped the Deacons to the No. 8 seed.
This Carolina-Duke battle won’t be in Cameron Indoor Stadium but in an even older venue a short walk away, with the stakes and caliber typical of the rivals’ basketball battles. The No. 7 Tar Heels (39–11, 20–7 ACC) and No. 11 Blue Devils (36–16, 15–12) will meet in baseball at Jack Coombs Field — which opened in 1931, nine years before Cameron — for the first time in 10 years.
North Carolina jumped four spots in the D1 Baseball Top 25 to a season-best No. 7 after going 4–0 and clinching the ACC Coastal Division title. It’s the Tar Heels’ highest ranking in that poll since they were No. 3 on March 3, 2019. UNC is No. 4 in the Baseball America poll.
CHAPEL HILL — There’s been no place like home for No. 11 North Carolina, which makes a possible top-eight seed in the NCAA tournament golden for the Tar Heels. With a three-game sweep of Louisville after winning Sunday’s finale 16–7, UNC finished 32–2 at Boshamer Stadium for the most regular-season home wins in five years, and a program-record 14 ACC home wins.
CHAPEL HILL — When a starter’s outing doesn’t go well, No. 11 North Carolina’s bullpen usually offers relief. That was the case Saturday when the Tar Heels got their best bullpen performance in an ACC game in nearly a month. They clinched the weekend series with a 6–4 victory over Louisville.
CHAPEL HILL — Carolina fans may never see another Tar Heel quite like sensational center fielder Vance Honeycutt, and that appreciation came through with loud cheers when he was recognized between innings as the program’s all-time home run leader.
DURHAM — North Carolina softball has made impressive strides in its first season under Megan Smith Lyon, but it ended sooner than the Tar Heels expected.
CHAPEL HILL — The first game after the final exam break can get crazy, and No. 11 North Carolina’s clash with Campbell graded high on the craziness scale on a night that Vance Honeycutt blasted to the edge of more history.
After being a key part of Carolina’s resurgence in the last four seasons, Deja Kelly will play her fifth college season at Oregon, which lost 21 games last season and hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2022.
After a pair of blowout nonconference victories last week, North Carolina moved up one spot to No. 11 in the D1 Baseball Top 25.
Arizona State guard Trayanna Crisp will transfer to North Carolina. The 5–8 guard, who will be a junior next season, posted the news Sunday afternoon on Instagram, saying that she was, “Letting God Lead the Way.”
North Carolina may be running out of options to find a game-changing center to replace Armando Bacot. Former Rutgers shot blocker Clifford Omoruyi, a graduate transfer from Benin City, Nigeria, with one season of eligibility left, committed Sunday afternoon to Alabama over UNC, Georgetown and Kansas State.
Former UNC and Arizona guard Caleb Love will join five other former ACC players in the G League Elite Camp next weekend.
Elliot Cadeau is going back to the number he wore in high school. Cadeau wore No. 3 in high school, but that was Cormac Ryan’s number for Carolina last season. With Ryan’s college eligibility exhausted after his fifth college season, Cadeau will switch from the No. 2 he wore as a freshman to No. 3.
Deja Kelly won’t return to Carolina for a fifth college season, saying she is a “Tar Heel for life” but that it’s time to move on.
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