MBB Opens Season Monday Vs. Central Arkansas

The Tar Heels will open their 2025-26 regular season on Monday night at 7 p.m. against Central Arkansas in the Smith Center in a game to be televised by ACC Network.

SEASON OPENER
• Carolina is 103-12 in season-opening games, including last year's 90-76 win over Elon.
• The Tar Heels have won 20 consecutive season openers since a loss to Santa Clara in Oakland to begin the 2004-05 national championship season.
• The game will be televised on the ACC Network with Anish Shroff and Chris Spatola on the call.

HOME OPENER
• UNC has won 23 straight home openers.
• The last time the Tar Heels lost their first home game was against Hampton to begin the 2001-02 season.

CENTRAL ARKANSAS
• This is the first time the Tar Heels have played Central Arkansas. The Bears went 9-24 last season with a 4-14 record in the ASUN. This is Carolina's first game against a current member of the ASUN since beating Lipscomb in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
• Central Arkansas' head coach John Shulman was an assistant coach on Jeff Lebo's staffs at Tennessee Tech and Chattanooga. They were assistant coaches together at East Tennessee.

PRESEASON GAMES
• Carolina split a pair of preseason games, losing 78-76 to BYU in Salt Lake City on October 24, and beating Winston-Salem State, 95-53, in the Smith Center on October 29.
• Recaps of those games may be found on page 22 and box scores on page 35.

PRESEASON ALL-ACC, POLL
• The Tar Heels were picked to finish third in the 18-team Atlantic Coast Conference by the media at the ACC's preseason media day in Charlotte.
• Caleb Wilson was voted to the league's preseason All-ACC second team and the All-Freshman team.
• UNC was picked No. 25 in the country in the Associated Press preseason poll.
• This is the 69th different season in the 78-year history of the AP poll the Tar Heels have been ranked in the AP poll.
• The preseason AP poll is the 963rd time Carolina has been ranked, the second-most in college basketball history.

PRESEASON RECOGNITION
• The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame released its preseason watch lists for its five positional and they included three Tar Heels.
• Seth Trimble is on the Jerry West Shooting Guard Award list, Caleb Wilson is on the Karl Malone Power Forward Award list and Henri Veesaar is on the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center Award list.
• Tar Heels have won four of the Hall of Fame's positional awards – three Bob Cousy Point Guard Awards (Raymond Felton in 2005, Ty Lawson in 2009 and Kendall Marshall in 2012) and one Jerry West Award (RJ Davis in 2024).

PROBABLE STARTERS
0 – Kyan Evans, Junior, Guard
7 – Seth Trimble, Senior, Guard
8 – Caleb Wilson, Freshman, Forward
13 – Henri Veesaar, R-Junior, Center
15 – Jarin Stevenson, Junior, Forward
• Carolina's probable starters have made a combined 89 college starts. That includes 36 by Kyan Evans at Colorado State (all last season), 27 by Jarin Stevenson at Alabama (five as a freshman and 22 as a sophomore), 21 by Seth Trimble (one in 2022-23, two in 2023-24 and 18 in 2024-25) and five by Henri Veesaar at Arizona (all last season).

FRESHMAN STARTERS
• Since freshmen became eligible in 1972-73, 39 Tar Heels have started their first game as a freshman. The most recent were guards RJ Davis and Caleb Love in 2020-21 against the College of Charleston.
• The last frontcourt player to start his first game as a freshman was Armando Bacot in 2019-20.

NEW-LOOK ROSTER
• Carolina's 16-man roster includes five returning players and 11 newcomers. However, only senior guard Seth Trimble played rotational minutes at Carolina last season, as he averaged 11.6 points and 5.0 rebounds in 28.6 minutes per game. Trimble started the first dozen games and 18 times overall on the wing before coming off the bench in the final 11 contests.
• The Tar Heels return 14.0% of their scoring from last year, 13.8% of their rebounds, 8.0% of their assists and 8.4% of their three-pointers. Trimble accounts for 396 of the 419 returning points, 169 of the 188 rebounds and all 44 assists and 25 three-pointers.
• This is the first time since 2005-06 UNC does not return a player who started at least half the team's games in the previous season.
• The season-opener vs. Central Arkansas will mark the first time UNC has played a regular season or postseason game without RJ Davis since 3/11/2020 in the ACC Tournament vs. Syracuse. Davis never missed a game in five seasons, setting the all-time ACC record for games played (175) and finishing with 2,725 points, the second-most ever by a Tar Heel (he was fifth on the UNC scoring list through four seasons).
• The 11 newcomers include three incoming freshmen, six collegiate transfers, one player who competed internationally and a former member of UNC's junior varsity team.
• The six collegiate transfers combined last season for 1,464 points, 578 rebounds, 256 assists and made 226 of 641 three-pointers (35.3%).

RECAPPING 2024-25
• Carolina was 23-14 overall, a No. 11 seed in the NCAA South Regional, tied for fourth in the ACC at 13-7 and advanced to the semifinals in the ACC Tournament.
• The Tar Heels went 2-1 in the ACC Tournament and 1-1 in the NCAA Tournament, defeating San Diego State by 27 points in the First Four in Dayton and losing, 71-64, to No. 6 seed Ole Miss in the first round in Milwaukee.
• It was the 55th time in 72 years of competing as a member of the ACC the Tar Heels won 20 or more games.
• Carolina tied Wake Forest and SMU for fourth place in the 18-team ACC. It was the 62nd time in 72 seasons the Tar Heels finished in the top four in the ACC.
• Seven of Carolina's 14 losses came against NCAA No. 1 seed Duke (three times), No. 1 seed Auburn, No. 1 seed Florida, No. 2 seed Alabama and No. 2 seed Michigan State.
• In addition to those seven losses to top-two seeds, UNC also lost at Clemson, Kansas (at the time ranked No. 1) and Louisville.
• RJ Davis averaged 17.2 points to lead the Tar Heels in scoring for the second straight season. Freshman Ian Jackson (11.9) and Seth Trimble (11.6) also averaged in double figures.
• Davis finished his five-year career as the ACC's all-time leader in games played and double-figure scoring games (140) and Carolina's all-time leader in three-pointers (359) and free throw percentage (.861). Davis' 2,725 points are the third-most in ACC history.
• Carolina's 74-71 loss to Duke in the ACC Tournament semifinals was its 11th one-possession game of the season (games decided by one, two or three points). Those were the most played by the Tar Heels in the three-point era, which began in 1986-87.
• Freshman Drake Powell became the 55th Tar Heel selected in the first round of the NBA Draft. He was selected by the Atlanta Hawks, who traded his draft rights that evening to the Brooklyn Nets.

HUBERT DAVIS: YEAR FIVE
• The 2025-26 season is Hubert Davis' fifth as head coach at the University of North Carolina and his 14th on the coaching staff at his alma mater. He is the only Tar Heel head coach to win 20 or more games in each of his first four seasons.
• Davis, 55 (turns 56 on May 17, 2026), has won National and ACC Coach-of-the-Year honors, led the Tar Heels to a national title game appearance, 101 wins, a 56-24 record and 24 road wins in ACC regular-season play, a regular-season ACC title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Only one other team has won more ACC games in the last four years.
• Two of his players – RJ Davis and Armando Bacot – rank second and third, respectively, in all-time UNC scoring, set numerous records and earned national and All-ACC awards.
• Carolina won its 100th game under Davis in the 2025 ACC Tournament, making him the third-fastest coach in UNC history and the sixth-fastest in ACC history to win 100 games. Only Duke's Vic Bubas, UNC's Roy Williams and Frank McGuire, Wake Forest's Skip Prosser and Maryland's Lefty Driesell reached 100 wins in fewer games than Davis (who won his 100th in 143 games).
• Over the last four seasons, UNC has the 10th-most wins among teams in the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC.
• Under Davis, Carolina is 8-3 in NCAA Tournament play, including wins against three national championship-winning coaches (Baylor's Scott Drew, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Michigan State's Tom Izzo) and three other coaches who have taken teams to the Final Four (Marquette's Shaka Smart, UCLA's Mick Cronin and San Diego State's Brian Dutcher).
• Davis has led the Tar Heels to 14 wins over nationally-ranked opponents, including eight over top-10 teams (No. 4 Duke, No. 4 Baylor and No. 9 Duke in 2022; No. 6 Virginia in 2023; and No. 10 Tennessee, No. 7 Oklahoma, No. 7 Duke and No. 9 Duke in 2024).

2025-26 SCHEDULE NOTES
• In ACC play, the Tar Heels play host to FSU (Dec. 30), Wake Forest (Jan. 10), Notre Dame (Jan. 21), Syracuse (Feb. 2), Duke (Feb. 7), Pitt (Feb. 14), Louisville (Feb. 23), Virginia Tech (Feb. 28) and Clemson (March 3).
• Carolina plays at SMU (Jan. 3), Stanford (Jan.14), Cal (Jan. 17), Virginia (Jan. 24), Georgia Tech (Jan. 31), Miami (Feb. 10), NC State (Feb. 17), Syracuse (Feb. 21) and Duke (March 7).
• UNC is not scheduled to play Boston College.
• This will mark the first season since 1919 the Tar Heels are not playing NC State in Chapel Hill.
• On November 7, the Tar Heels welcome Kansas to Chapel Hill for the first time ever. Last year, the Jayhawks defeated UNC in Lawrence. This is just the third on-campus matchup in 14 games between the Tar Heels and KU.
• Carolina makes its first appearance in the Skechers Fort Myers (Fla.)Tip-Off at Suncoast Credit Union Arena. UNC faces St. Bonaventure (for the second time ever) on November 25 and Michigan State two days later on Thanksgiving Day. This is the third consecutive year the Tar Heels will be playing the Spartans. Carolina won in Charlotte in the 2024 NCAA second round and Michigan State won in overtime last November in Maui.
• The Tar Heels are making their first trips as ACC opponents to SMU, Stanford and Cal. UNC is 1-0 all-time against the Mustangs in Dallas (12/30/1986), 2-0 vs. the Cardinal in Maples Pavilion (12/3/1983 and 11/20/2017) and 1-0 vs. the Bears in Haas Pavilion (12/22/1972, when its was Harmon Gym).
• Carolina returns to Rupp Arena in Lexington to play Kentucky for the eighth time and the first time since 12/13/2014. UNC is 1-1 in the ACC/SEC Challenge with a home win over Tennessee and loss to Alabama.
• UNC plays Ohio State in Atlanta on December 20 in the CBS Sports Classic. The Tar Heels are 7-4 in the annual event, including 3-0 vs. the Buckeyes.

NEARING 500 WINS IN THE SMITH CENTER
• This is the 41st season the Tar Heels are playing their home games in the Dean E. Smith Center.
• Carolina is 11 wins shy of 500 with an overall record (not counting preseason or exhibition games) of 489-90.
• The Tar Heels are 232-19 in the Smith Center against non-conference opponents.
• The Tar Heels have played 46% of their home games all-time in the Smith Center (579 of 1,263).
• Central Arkansas, Kansas, Navy and USC Upstate each will be playing in the Smith Center for the first time.
• Central Arkansas is the 151st different opponent to play a regular-season or NIT game in the Smith Center against the Tar Heels.
• Carolina has won 489 games in the Smith Center, 210 in Woollen Gym (1939-65), 170 in Carmichael Auditorium (1965-86, 2010), 130 in the Indoor Athletic Court (1924-38) and 63 in Bynum Gym (1911-23).

TAR HEELS IN THE NBA
• Eleven former Tar Heels were on NBA Opening Day rosters, including Cole Anthony (Milwaukee), Harrison Barnes (San Antonio), Tony Bradley (Indiana), Harrison Ingram (San Antonio), Cameron Johnson (Denver), Walker Kessler (Utah), Caleb Love (Portland), Pete Nance (Milwaukee), rookie Drake Powell (Brooklyn), Day'Ron Sharpe (Brooklyn) and Coby White (Chicago).
• Powell averaged 7.4 points as a freshman last season and was selected by Atlanta with the 22nd pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. His rights were traded the night of the Draft to the Brooklyn Nets.
• Powell was the 55th Tar Heel selected all-time in the first round.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

RJ Davis

Kyan Evans

Ian Jackson

Drake Powell

Jarin Stevenson

Seth Trimble

Henri Veesaar

Caleb Wilson

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University of North Carolina Athletics