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Ian Jackson didn’t get into the United States’ game until the second quarter and struggled with his shot but showed his versatility in a 122–70 victory Tuesday over Lebanon at Fönix Arena in Debrecen, Hungary. Jackson led the Americans with five assists, and collected eight points, five rebounds and two steals in 21½ minutes as the team finished FIBA U19 Men’s World Cup Group B pool play 3–0 and dropped Lebanon to 0–3.
You’ll get a chance to watch the highest-ranked player in Carolina’s Class of 2024 starting Saturday morning when five-star 6–5 guard Ian Jackson goes for his third gold medal in as many summers. Jackson will play for the United States in the FIBA U19 World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary, as he tries to follow up on gold medals he won in 2021 at the FIBA U16 Americas tournament and last summer at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup.
Five-star Carolina commitment Lanie Grant scored in double figures for the second straight night and the third time in the tournament as the United States easily upended Canada for its fourth consecutive gold medal at the FIBA Women’s U16 Americas Championship.
In addition to UNC playing UConn in the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase, the Tar Heels will play in an eight-team tournament with Iowa and star Caitlin Clark. The Tar Heels are one of eight teams in the Gulf Coast Showcase, a tournament that will reportedly include UNC, Iowa and Kansas State. The tournament hasn’t announced its field, so the other five teams for the event aren’t known yet.
The inexplicable absence of Carolina junior Mac Horvath from the All-ACC first team continues to look like a massive injustice as more postseason awards roll out. On Thursday, Horvath made the Perfect Game All-America first team in one of the three outfield spots three days after the American Baseball Coaches Association named him to the All-Atlantic Region First Team.
Under Coach Courtney Banghart, North Carolina is becoming a nationally respected program, and more evidence of that comes next season when the Tar Heels play perennial national power Connecticut for the first time in nearly 12 years in a showcase tripleheader. UNC (22–11 last season) takes on UConn (31–6) at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., on Sunday, Dec. 10, as part of the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase, with perennial national power South Carolina (36–1) facing Utah (27–5) and UCLA (27–10) going up against Florida State (23–10) in that facility the same day. Starting times and television will be announced later, with tickets going on sale Sept. 8.
When Carolina makes the national championship game, it used to be a good bet that a few key players from that team would be around two seasons later. That may have been the conventional wisdom in the past, but in an era when players can transfer and not sit out a year, you can’t assume much from year to year.
The United States team got off to an impressive start at the FIBA U16 Women’s Americas Championship, and future Tar Heel Lanie Grant also showed why she’s a five-star recruit in the Class of 2025. Carolina’s only commitment so far in the class, ranked No. 20 by ESPN, came off the bench to score more than a point per minute in the first quarter and finished the game with 12 points as the Americans rolled to a 124–39 victory over Puerto Rico at Poliforum Zamna arena in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, on Tuesday.
Carolina’s field hockey and women’s tennis teams were two of the national championship teams honored at the White House on Monday. Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed 19 championship teams at a ceremony outside of the White House as the attendees battled a drizzle. Speaking before Harris was NCAA president Charlie Baker. Logan Eggleston of the Texas women’s volleyball team spoke after Harris.
Carolina’s national championship field hockey and women’s tennis teams will be at the White House on Monday as part of the College Athlete Day celebrations. Dozens of NCAA championship teams across different sports and divisions are expected to be part of the celebration.
Coach Courtney Banghart continues to be a big winner in the women’s basketball offseason, and the evidence comes with a couple of recent rankings.
Carolina will hire former Tar Heels player Megan Smith Lyon as its softball coach, according to a report Saturday by Extra Innings Softball. Smith Lyon, who graduated from UNC in 1999, has spent the last five seasons at Marshall, where her teams went 160–70.
For the second consecutive night, the star power of incoming Carolina freshman wing Laila Hull was on full display as her Indiana All-Stars faced a team of Kentucky All-Stars again. Hull scored a couple of huge buckets in the last two minutes Saturday and earned MVP honors with a second consecutive double-double to lead Indiana to a 71–67 victory in Indianapolis to avenge a loss one night earlier.
I’ll never forget driving on Lejeune Boulevard in Jacksonville, N.C., in the spring of 1984 when I heard a report on the radio that nearly led me to drive off the road. It was so stunning.
The radio reporter broke the news to me that Michael Jordan was going to forgo his senior season at North Carolina to enter the NBA draft. As a rookie sports writer at the Jacksonville Daily News making a paltry wage, I couldn’t imagine the riches ahead for Jordan.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — A year after working out of the losers’ bracket to win the Chapel Hill Regional, North Carolina couldn’t replicate that magic but made things interesting. UNC rallied from a three-run eighth-inning deficit after No. 2 seed Iowa seized control with Brennen Dorighi’s three-run homer in the fifth inning. The Hawkeyes earned their second victory over UNC in the Terre Haute Regional, ousting the Tar Heels with a 6–5 13-inning victory Sunday afternoon at Bob Warn Field.
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