Know Your Opponent: Las Vegas Invitational

By Bobby Hundley

Texas (TexasSports.com)
Location: Austin, Texas
Rankings: No. 27 KenPom, RV AP
Record: 4-0
Carolina Series History (Last Meeting): Texas leads 7-3 (Texas 84, Carolina 82, Dec. 12, 2015, Erwin Center)

Texas returns to the UNC non-conference schedule for the eighth time in the Roy Williams era Thursday to continue a series that has been largely tilted in favor of the Longhorns over the last 15 years. Carolina has beaten UT just once since Williams took over, an 82-63 victory in Chapel Hill in 2011. The last meeting - an 84-82 Texas win in Austin three years ago - was typical for a series that has seen six of the 10 all-time meetings decided by four points or fewer.

Shaka Smart's fourth Texas team has the potential to be his best despite the early departure of Mo Bamba to the NBA following last year's 19-15 campaign. The 2018 Longhorns were haunted by an incredible number of close losses, a trend that persisted all the way to the end with a 4-point OT loss to Nevada in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The 2019 season will go the way of senior standouts Kerwin Roach and Dylan Osetkowski. Roach is a do-it-all guard who leads the Longhorns in scoring and rarely leaves the court, while Osetkowski has done a nice job of filling the rebounding void left by Bamba. Sophomore Jase Febres has been UT's top outside shooter so far, and freshman big man Jaxson Hayes is coming off his best game (12 points, seven rebounds vs. The Citadel on Nov. 16).

Michigan State (MSUSpartans.com)
Location: East Lansing, Mich.
Rankings: No. 11 KenPom, No. 11 AP
Record: 3-1
Carolina Series History (Last Meeting): Carolina leads 12-4 (Michigan State 63, Carolina 45, Nov. 26, 2017, Moda Center, Portland, Ore.)

The Michigan State series has been pretty much the opposite of the Texas series from a Carolina perspective. Last year's 63-45 win by the Spartans snapped a seven-game Tar Heel winning streak and was the first for MSU over a Williams-led UNC squad. The 2018 Spartans entered March as one of the nation's hottest teams, but losses to Michigan in the Big Ten semis and Syracuse in the second round of the NCAA tournament derailed a season that had championship aspirations.

Despite some high-profile early NBA departures, Michigan State has a solid veteran core to lead the way in 2019. The junior trio of Joshua Langford, Nick Ward and Cassius Winston gives the Spartans two dangerous outside shooters and one of the nation's most efficient big men. Ward led the country in offensive rebounding percentage as a sophomore and is among the best players in college basketball at drawing fouls.

The Spartans lost a highly entertaining opener to Kansas before making quick work of three overmatched opponents. After the two games in Vegas, they'll visit Louisville in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge before jumping right into league play on Nov. 30 at Rutgers.

UCLA (UCLABruins.com)
Location: Los Angeles, Calif.
Rankings: No. 39 KenPom, No. 17 AP
Record: 4-0
Carolina Series History (Last Meeting): Carolina leads 8-3 (Carolina 89, UCLA 76, Dec. 19, 2015, Barclays Center, Brooklyn)

A potential Friday matchup with the Bruins would be just the third meeting in the series since a home-and-home in 2000. Carolina has had comfortable wins in the two recent showdowns, a 78-56 victory in the Bahamas in 2014 and an 89-76 decision at Barclays Center as part of the 2015 CBS Sports Classic.

UCLA was one of the last teams in the 2018 NCAA tournament field, and the Bruins lost a First Four game to St. Bonaventure to cap an up-and-down campaign. Steve Alford has plenty of pieces back from that team, but the addition of 7-1 freshman Moses Brown figures to be a massive impact on the Pac-12. Brown is averaging 17.3 points and 12.0 rebounds through four games and has folks in Westwood thinking of another Empire State big man who changed things for the Bruins.

UCLA has made quick work of four overmatched foes so far this year, so the Vegas doubleheader will be a better barometer for where the Bruins truly are heading into 2019. In what is likely to be a wide-open Pac-12, Alford will like his chances of improving upon last year's third-place finish.

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