Last weekend we had the Blue/White game, and now we have members of both men’s and women’s basketball teams headed to Charlotte for ACC Tipoff. It’s like the ACC Kickoff, but for basketball.
Interestingly, while the football event spreads everything out over three days, for basketball things are essentially spread out over two, with the women’s basketball teams being interviewed first on Monday and Tuesday, while the men’s teams are interviewed on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Carolina got the benefit of
being in the early sessions of both, meaning the women made their rounds on Monday and the men hit up all the interviews on Tuesday.
Women’s Basketball
Courtney Banghart took the stage with Reniya Kelly and Indya Nivar for their session. You can see the interview above. The biggest highlights were how Banghart discussed going international to fill out their roster, and everybody on the stage talked about the raucous atmosphere that Carmichael Arena provides. The number of seats may have thinned out, but the infamous echoing ability of the gym hasn’t changed and can be an intimidating place for any opponent.
One other big bit of news for the women’s team—they are going to be on one of the legacy broadcast networks for the first time in a long time. ESPN announced the television networks that will show various ACC games, and included that the February 15th game against Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium will be broadcast on ABC. This is the first weekend after the Super Bowl, and shows an increased commitment to putting men’s and women’s games on the network. It should increase the exposure for UNC, and considering how closely fought their last games have been, it should also be a good show.
Banghart also sat down with Mitchell Northam to talk about the season for his podcast.
In the breakout room, and Reniya Kelly and Indya Nivar took questions from the media:
Men’s Basketball
On Tuesday afternoon the men’s team took over and slid into Charlotte. Coach Hubert Davis was joined by senior Seth Trimble and Henri Veesaar on the stage to discuss the upcoming season. Also, like the women’s games, ESPN announced most of the start times and channels for the rest of the basketball games this season. There are a couple times that are still yet to be announced—January 24th against Virginia and February 28th against Virginia Tech—but the men will also play on a legacy broadcast network, with their February 21st game at Syracuse being shown on ABC. It appears that with both the men’s and women’s game, the ACC made it clear with Disney that the SEC shouldn’t be the only college conference shown on their airwaves.
The main session included quotes from Hubert talking about building cohesiveness with a team that has so many new pieces, as well as a funny back and forth from a reporter who spoke with Damon Stoudamire prior to Carolina going on stage. It was a nice moment to bring humor to what’s normally a stoic process. Trimble and Veesaar also gave some good quotes about their roles on the team.
After that it was time for the breakout rooms:
Trimble notes that James Brown has actually lost 25 pounds going into the season, which should help his competitiveness and hops. As the only returning starter from last season, his words will be parsed in the weeks ahead.
Veesaar’s breakout was mostly notable for the discussion of his recruitment in the transfer portal, and it was good to see just how strong a push Davis has developed for getting players he wanted that have already been through the recruiting grinder before. Previously, Veesaar has credited Caleb Love as someone who helped push him to UNC, so it was good to see his experience matched expectations.
Davis’ breakout didn’t add much to his main Q&A, just emphasizing how they went after size this offseason and he always wants more size.
With the Tipoff now done, next up is exhibitions. For the women, that’s going to be a Thursday night showdown against South Carolina in Atlanta at 6 PM. As for the men, their exhibition against BYU is scheduled for 9 PM on October 24th.
