Carolina plays UNLV in the quarterfinals of the 2020 Camping World Maui Invitational on Monday, November 30, at 7 p.m. Due to the pandemic, the Maui Invitational is being played in Asheville, N.C., in the Harrah’s Cherokee Center. These will be Carolina’s first games in Asheville since beating UNC Asheville to open Kimmel Arena on 11/13/2011. Carolina is 2-0 in Asheville. The Tar Heels also beat UNC Asheville in the Civic Center on 12/28/95.
Carolina will play either Alabama or Stanford on December 1; Davidson, Indiana, Providence and Texas are on the other side of the bracket. One of those teams will be Carolina’s opponent on December 2. Roy Williams grew up in Asheville, where he attended T.C. Roberson High School and began his coaching career at Owen High School.
Tar Heels Notes:
- The Tar Heels were ranked No. 16 in the nation in the preseason Associated Press poll.
- Carolina defeated the College of Charleston, 79-60, in the Smith Center on November 25 in its season-opening game. Caleb Love led four Tar Heels in double-figure scoring with 17 points and Garrison Brooks (11) and Day’Ron Sharpe (10) combined for 21 rebounds.
- Carolina returns 52.1 percent of its scoring from a year ago. Four Tar Heels who scored 100 or more points return, including senior Garrison Brooks (539 points last year), sophomore Armando Bacot (308), junior Leaky Black (208) and senior Andrew Platek (121).
- Those four returning players combined to score 27 of Carolina’s 79 points vs. Charleston. Five freshmen combined to score 50 points, most by UNC freshmen in a season opener since 2002-03, when Rashad McCants, Sean May, Raymond Felton and David Noel combined for 58 vs. Penn State.
- Love became the fourth freshman point guard to start the first game for UNC in the last four seasons.
- Senior forward Garrison Brooks and freshman guard Caleb Love are two of 50 players on the Naismith Trophy’s preseason list (National Player of the Year). Brooks is also on the preseason list for the NABC Player of the Year award.
- Brooks was selected by the media as the ACC’s Preseason Player of the Year. He was the ACC’s Most Improved Player and earned second-team All-ACC honors in 2019-20.
Runnin’ Rebels Notes:
- The Runnin’ Rebels opened their second year under head coach T.J. Otzelberger on Wednesday at the Thomas & Mack Center falling to Montana State, 91-78.
- Coming off a tie for second place in the Mountain West standings last season, UNLV has an entirely new look this year as 10 of its 13 scholarship players had yet to play in a game for the Runnin’ Rebels as the 2020-21 season began.
- UNLV’s returners include senior forward Mbacke Diong, and junior guards Marvin Coleman and Bryce Hamilton. Other returners from last year’s roster include junior transfer guard David Jenkins Jr., sophomore transfer forward Moses Wood, and walk-on junior guard Trey Hurlburt. Of the nine newcomers added to this year’s roster, seven are freshmen.
- Hamilton was the team’s leading scorer last season. The Runnin’ Rebels’ first First-Team All-Mountain West recipient in seven seasons, he averaged 16.0 points per game as a sophomore. Diong led UNLV in rebounding at 7.9 per contest as a junior. Hamilton was also named a Preseason All-MW honoree earlier this month, while Jenkins Jr. was selected as the league’s Preseason Newcomer of the Year and freshman guard Nick Blake was named the conference’s Preseason Freshman of the Year.
UNC vs UNLV:
- Carolina is 4-1 against UNLV.
- The last meeting was a 79-73 UNC victory in Chapel Hill on 12/29/12. Dexter Strickland led five Tar Heels in double figures with 16 points.
- This is the sixth game between the two schools in the sixth different city. They’ve met in Atlanta in the 1977 Final Four, in Anchorage, Alaska in the 1985 Great Alaska Shootout, in Charlotte, N.C. in the 1999 Food Lion Classic, in Las Vegas and Chapel Hill.
Tar Heels & The Maui Invitational:
- This is Carolina’s eighth appearance in the Maui Invitational (1989-90, 1995-96, 1999-2000, 2004-05, 2008-09, 2012-13, 2016-17 and 2020-21).
- Carolina has won the Maui Invitational four times (1999-2000 under head coach Bill Guthridge and 2004-05, 2008-09 and 2016-17 under Roy Williams).
- Williams also won the Maui Invitational in 1996-97 as head coach at Kansas. His teams are 18-2 in the Maui Invitational (5-1 at KU, 13-1 at UNC).
- Carolina is 20-3 in the Maui Invitational (18-3 in Maui and 2-0 in Chapel Hill).
- Joseph Forte (1999-00) and point guards Raymond Felton (2004-05), Ty Lawson (2008-09) and Joel Berry II (2016-17) have won MVP honors in the Maui Invitational.
How to Watch:
TV: ESPN 2
Streaming: Watch ESPN
Radio: Tar Heel Sports Properties (Jones Angell, Eric Montross)
Satellite Radio: TBD
