University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Open Exhibition Season Friday
October 23, 2014 | Men's Basketball
CHAPEL HILL—Three weeks after Late Night With Roy and the start of preseason practice and three weeks before the regular season opener, Carolina will play its first exhibition game of 2014-15 on Friday night against Fayetteville State. The Tar Heels and Broncos will take the opening tip just after 7:30 p.m. in the Smith Center.
The game won't be televised or available on radio via the Tar Heel Sports Network, but it will be streamed live, exclusively on GoHeels.com for GoHeels TV subscribers. Walter Sturholt, Phil Ford and Sean May will have the call.
Fans attending the game can take advantage of the Tar Heel Express shuttle buses, which will operate from the Friday Center, University Mall and downtown Chapel Hill for a $5 round-trip fare.
Carolina has been practicing for three weeks, since Saturday Oct. 4, the morning after kicking off the preseason with skits and a public scrimmage at Late Night. Catch up on the last week of practice with episode 2 of GoHeels TV's "This is Carolina Basketball" documentary series:
The Tar Heels came in at No. 6 in the 2014-15 preseason coaches poll, marking their 40th preseason top-10 ranking by the coaches.
Junior point guard Marcus Paige, who has been gathering preseason honors this fall, leads three returning starters for Carolina. Forwards Kennedy Meeks and J.P. Tokoto also return from the UNC starting lineup in the season-ending loss to Iowa State in the third round of last year's NCAA Tournament in San Antonio. Also back are key reserves Brice Johnson and Nate Britt, several vetern role players and a highly-rated freshman class incuding Justin Jackson, Theo Pinson and Joel Berry II.
As for Fayetteville State, coaches in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association picked the Broncos to finish third in the CIAA Southern Division in 2014-15. FSU went 19-10 last year (10-6 in CIAA play), winning more games than they had in any season since 1992-93. Bronco guard Joshua Dawson is a preseason All-CIAA pick after averaging 9.4 points and 5.1 assists in 29 starts last year.
Carolina will open the 2014-15 regular season in three weeks on Friday Nov. 14 against North Carolina Central.
AT A GLANCE
Rankings: Carolina is No. 6 in the preseason ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll
TV: None. Will be streamed live by GoHeels TV. Walter Sturholt (play-by-play), Phil Ford (analyst) and Sean May (analyst) will have the call.
On The Web: GoHeels.com | Preseason Central | FSUBroncos.com
Twitter: @UNC_Basketball | @FSUBroncos
Fan Information: Tickets | Parking Information | Smith Center Info (Directions, Policies, etc.)
