We’re hitting that time of year where sports start to overlap. The fall sports are deep as they approach the end of their regular seasons, and the winter sports are gearing up to get going. We even had some baseball this past week.
So you’d be excused if not everything that came out this week made it on your radar. Never fear—with the Tar Heel football team playing Friday night, we have a little bit of a basketball catchup ready to go for you.
Preseason ACC Predictions
The preseason ACC predictions voted on by the media were
released this week. While the expectations on some levels are wildly different for both squads, UNC ended up being picked to finish third in both sports. The Tar Heels are behind Duke as the top squad on both sports, for the men Louisville was picked to finish second and NC State was picked to finish second on the women’s side. That order of finish isn’t too surprising considering that’s who Carolina is staring up at in both AP polls that were released this week.
In terms of preseason player honors, the only UNC men’s player to get an All-ACC mention of any type was Caleb Wilson. He was selected for the second team Preseason All-ACC, and did manage to get a a vote for ACC Player of the Year and another couple for Rookie of the Year. Between his New Balance deal and the budding social media hype, it appears Wilson has made his mark with the conference media and things are being expected of him.
On the women’s side, there was a couple more preseason honors. Reniya Kelly nabbed a Preseason All-ACC team award. The women’s team isn’t separated in a first and second team, but Kelly finished eighth in the voting without any first place votes. In addition, Nyla Brooks was named to the Preseason All-ACC Freshman team, finishing third overall. Unlike the men’s team, the women did pick up a first place vote in their predicted order of finish.
NBA Scouts sit in on UNC Practice
In yet another sign of just how things are changing in the landscape of college sports as well as a how Hubert Davis is adapting to help the program, Davis held practice in front of 24 NBA representatives on Tuesday. Adam Lucas wrote the post for GoHeels, and he notes that thanks to this event every single team will have visited Carolina during the preseason to take a look at who will be on the floor for Carolina. Lucas also notes that for International Players, this is an invaluable opportunity to get scouted close up by the NBA that they wouldn’t have gotten by staying overseas.
The even also reminded folks of the multiple NBA connections that the Tar Heels still have, which is always something that can be used when recruiting players to play in Chapel Hill.
Marcus Ginyard named to UNC position
The member of the 2009 National Championship team was officially named to the position of UNC Director of Special Projects this past week. He sat down with Chris Lea of WRAL to talk about the appointment, noting that he had been working in the position for the past couple of months but it was just made official. While the press release doesn’t go into a great amount of specifics, Ginyard told Lea that his experience with real estate is what ultimately brought him back to UNC. His plan is to help Carolina for the Carolina North expansion, eyeing the fact that the student population is still growing. Of course Carolina North is also the favorite for the new basketball arena so it’s probably not a coincidence that a former player is being brought on for the area.
UNC Volleyball gets a new court
“Wait,” you may say. “How does UNC volleyball getting a new court fit into a section on basketball?” Well, the UNC volleyball team plays in Carmichael Arena and their season stretches all the way to the end of November. Due to this the lines for volleyball have been on the court at the same time as basketball markings, which can be at least a little confusing. Now both squads get their own court clear of the others’ markings.
The team reveled the new court on Twitter/X on Wednesday and if you’re someone who loves the combination of Carolina Blue with Navy, then this court was tailor-made for you.
As noted the court is from Taraflex, and they make the courts for the NCAA Championships as well as for the Olympics. It’s a court that can lay over the basketball floor, but allow for more diving and sliding on the ground that is required in volleyball. It presumably should help the program that is seeing its best season in a while, as well as help the playability of the court underneath as now there is a layer helping protect it from the rigors of volleyball. It also just—looks cleaner. Overall it is a fantastic addition to Carmichael.
