Malone’s First UNC Squad Must Enjoy ‘November To Remember’
By David Glenn
When the North Carolina Sports Network conducted an informal, unscientific preseason poll of UNC basketball fans throughout October, more than 90 percent of the respondents predicted that the Tar Heels would finish first, second or third in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings this season.
News flash: That’s not going to be easy.
Coach Michael Malone’s first Carolina squad has a bunch of interesting pieces, and it’s certainly capable of making the NCAA Tournament, but it looks absolutely nothing like the most special teams in UNC’s long and distinguished history.
As a starting point, here’s one important thing to keep in mind: Each of UNC’s five NCAA title teams (1982, 1993, 2005, 2009, 2017) was ranked in the preseason top 10 going into the season in which it went on to reach the Final Four and cut down those national championship nets.
This UNC team understandably failed to make this year’s preseason Top 25. That hadn’t happened to the Tar Heels in more than 20 years, or since the 2005-06 preseason, after they had lost the top seven players from coach Roy Williams’ first national title team.
Also, in stark contrast to that unofficial preseason poll of Carolina fans last month, the ACC media predicted that the Tar Heels would finish fifth in the 18-team league, behind Duke, Virginia, Louisville and Miami, and the Heels didn’t receive even a single vote (among 48 cast) for first place.
Preseason rankings aren’t always accurate, of course, and that most recent example of a UNC team that was unranked in the preseason actually turned out pretty well.
Led by a truly special freshman forward, Tyler Hansbrough, the 2005-06 Tar Heels went 23-8, finished second in a 12-team version of the ACC, and ended up #10 in the final rankings. Even they, though, won only a single game (each) in both the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament, leaving an empty feeling after a regular season that definitely qualified as a wonderful overachievement.
If Malone’s first season in Chapel Hill also is going to become a true success story, “overachievement” is going to have to be among the main themes. Given the team’s shaky 3-0 start, which included a shockingly close 80-72 win over Western Carolina, gradual, week-to-week improvement must be a part of it, too.
There’s certainly no Hansbrough-type figure on the 2026-27 Tar Heels. He truly was one of a kind, the first player in ACC history to earn at least one first-team All-America honor in each of his four college seasons. Through UNC’s up-and-down preseason, in October, it wasn’t even clear if the Heels had a serious All-ACC candidate on the roster, although there’s plenty of time for that to change.
(photo via Todd Melet)
Malone does have a hard-charging, big-energy, high-scoring wing guard in senior Terrence Brown, who was an honorable mention All-Big 12 honoree last season at Utah. UNC also has an exceptional freshman in 6-foot-7, 220-pound wing forward Maximo Adams, a McDonald’s All-American who initially had hoped to play for coach Hubert Davis but quickly opted to stick with his “dream school” after Malone’s hiring in April.
In addition, Carolina has one point guard (6-9 Virginia Tech transfer Neo Avdalas) with tremendous size and another (6-4 returnee Isaiah Denis) who plays with toughness and intensity and appears dramatically improved from a year ago. The Tar Heels also have a couple of shooters/scorers on the wing in explosive NC State transfer Matt Able and up-and-down returnee Jaydon Young, a versatile but sometimes unpredictable returnee at power forward in senior Jarin Stevenson, and a very promising but (beyond alley-oops) offensively limited center in 18-year-old international signee Sayon Keita.
During the team’s preseason exhibitions, red flags flew everywhere during the Tar Heels’ 76-58 loss to Indiana in Indianapolis and their 89-82 overtime victory over Charlotte in Chapel Hill. Then came the shaky regular-season home opener against Western Carolina. Most recently, on Tuesday at the Smith Center, the Heels led Wyoming only 31-29 at halftime and were getting absolutely dominated in the rebounding category before ultimately prevailing 76-63.
Here’s the scary part. During UNC’s 18-game ACC schedule, which includes two contests each against Duke and Louisville and one each against fellow top-tier Miami and Virginia squads, almost every game will be much more difficult, and Malone knows it.
That’s why he went ballistic on his team at halftime of the Wyoming game, then openly shared his related sentiments with the media in the aftermath.
“I challenged our manhood at halftime,” Malone said. “We had guys that had just played a whole half of basketball with zero rebounds or one defensive rebound. And I went down the whole roster and challenged each player and challenged the group collectively to go out there and stop getting punked.
“Because the streets talk, and right now the streets are talking. ‘Go into the Dean Smith Center and push them boys around.’ And so I challenged them.
“We’re just trying to get them to understand right now the team that we have. We have to be a team that does not beat themselves offensively, taking care of the ball. Then, defensively, we have to be a team that — I think we’re defending really well, but we’re just not finishing the possession well enough.”
Despite its considerable growing pains, UNC has a great shot at starting this season 6-0. At the Smith Center on Friday (7 p.m., ESPN2), the Tar Heels will face their strongest regular-season opponent yet, 3-0 Georgia, but they will be a significant favorite in that game. Then they’ll be much bigger home favorites against both Marshall (Nov. 20) and Monmouth (Nov. 23).
After Thanksgiving, though, Carolina’s competition will begin to get much tougher, and very quickly.
The Tar Heels will face a dangerous West Virginia team at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte on Nov. 27, then a talented Arkansas squad in Chapel Hill on Dec. 1. None of the following four opponents — Butler (home), Georgetown (away), NC State (in Greensboro) and Kentucky (in New York City) — will be pushovers, either, and the Heels might even be considered the underdog in some of those games, depending on how much improvement they show between now and then.
That’s why Malone must make sure that — day after day in practice, and certainly on game days — this solid but unspectacular UNC team will heed his fiery warnings, meet his high standards, and certify the rest of this month as a November to remember.
“We have to start bringing it from jump street,” Malone said, “not waiting until the second half.”
David Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.
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