We’ve seen them scrimmage against each other, and we watched them head out to Salt Lake City and take on a preseason Top Ten ranked team. Now, for the first time, the Tar Heels take the court at home to face
an opponent as we inch closer to the real start of the college basketball season. Tonight will be the last exhibition game as we have the season opener on Monday.
The Division II Rams comes into Chapel Hill and will be a bit of a step down in competition than the BYU squad that the Tar Heels faced on Friday. There’s a reason it’s an exhibition game, still, it’s the first time that the home fans will see the Tar heels compete against another team, and we will all get a chance to see just how much they have improved as a team since coming on campus and what they’ve worked on since the loss to the Cougars on Friday.
This will be the home debut of several new players for the squad, and perhaps none is as eagerly anticipated as Caleb Wilson. Wilson has been making the rounds and hasn’t been very shy in how he feels about the team. For a squad that is made up of a lot of new faces, having someone like that to rally around is a good way to get fans on your side. It also helps he put up 22 points on 9-17 shooting against BYU last weekend, hauled in ten rebounds, had three blocks and a steal.
The other thing fans will be looking for tonight will be the three point shooting. The Tar Heels only shot 4-19 from beyond the arc against BYU. Only Jarin Stevenson was above 50% in three point shooting. Now some of that will likely be fixed when Luka Bogavac is finally cleared by UNC to be on the floor, but we still don’t have a date as to when that will be done so it’ll be nice to know others can make the shot.
Either way the competition will be overmatched tonight so it’s not clear how much else will be gained, but anything positive will be good as the season opens on Monday then Kansas comes calling at the end of next week.
If you aren’t going to be in Chapel Hill watching tonight, here’s how you can catch the action:
- Time: 7:30 PM ET
- Location: Dean E. Smith Center — Chapel Hill, NC
- Radio: Tar Heel Sports Network with Jones Angell, Tyler Hansbrough, and Adam Lucas. Here’s a list of affiliates airing the THSN broadcast. You can also listen to them on GoHeels.com, The Varsity Network, and Tune In.
- Streaming: ESPN’s broadcast of the game is streaming only and can be seen on their app and/or website.
