With students coming back onto the UNC campus this week, the First Day of Class hitting next week, and a roster that is finally set, we also have an answer to the question of “When will Michael Malone coach his first game as the UNC Basketball coach?”
We thought the answer might be October 18th in Indianapolis. This was announced by Carolina earlier in the summer, but it looks like there will actually be an event earlier.
A page on the Greensboro Coliseum page announces that North Carolina and the University
of Southern California will meet on Friday, October 9th at the Coliseum. While this hasn’t been made official by either party as of the time of this writing, tickets are set to go on sale via a presale today at 10 AM per Ticketmaster. Tomorrow at 10 AM both UNC and USC will have a presale, and presumably the process is similar to how the tickets for the presale were released for the game against Indiana, and then whatever is left will go to the general public on Friday, August 14th.
This will give Malone and the Tar Heels two games that effectively don’t count before hitting the ground in a non-conference slate that already sees Georgia, West Virginia, Arkansas, Butler, Georgetown, Kentucky and Illinois. This is before the remaining non-conference matchups have been announced.
The extra event in Greensboro is no doubt a chance for both programs to pick up some extra income. The actual event is being advertised as “The Preseason Premier,” which reads as trying to lean into local excitement at the beginning of the new era of Carolina Basketball. It’s also a chance for the Tar Heels to play in Greensboro one time before they return to the arena in March for the 2027 ACC Basketball Tournament. As no one would bring any experience in playing a game in Greensboro, understanding the specifics of that floor and arena can’t hurt.
Competition that doesn’t count to the regular season record could also be good for the Tar Heels, as between the new coach and the very late addition, it should provide much needed experience to figuring out both play style and rotations. It’ll be interesting to see if Carolina has any other exhibitions planned or if this will be it.
As for the opponent, the Trojans are coming into their third season with Eric Musselman leading the B1G team, and looking to try and get back into the NCAA Tournament. Despite their struggles they have a strong transfer class coming in, and their recruiting class ranks ninth per 24/7. The experience will also be good for them to gel and form a more cohesive unit as they start at a conference slate that will include the defending national champions—even with a new coach.
It should be a good matchup, and a ticket that will be in high demand as it’s the first time that Malone will coach in the UNC colors. With it being a neutral court, we’ll see who will ultimately televise the event.
