By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo: Fayetteville Observer
The North Carolina Tar Heels will visit Kansas Jayhawks on Friday night at Allen Fieldhouse at 7pm.
The Tar Heels and Jayhawks are two of the best college basketball programs in history. Tar Heels are 6-6 all-time against Jayhawks. The Jayhawks have won the last four games.
Both teams are entering this game coming off victories against their opponents in their season opener. Tar Heels were tested by Elon but finished the game on a 21-5 run. Carolina defeated Elon, 90-76.
As for the Jayhawks, they didn’t have to break a sweat. The Jayhawks dismantled Howard Bison, 87-57.
Tar Heels coach Hubert Davis spoke with the media on Thursday about the challenging and excitement to play at Allen FieldHouse against an elite team like the Jayhawks.
“Allen FieldHouse has its own unique atmosphere that none of our guys have seen before,” Davis said. “It’ll be fun for us to be able to play on the road, to play in that atmosphere, to be able to execute against one of the better teams in the country. I know that myself I am and the rest of our players are really looking forward to the challenge.”
The Tar Heels are not afraid of playing on the road and haven’t done so bad historically against great team. The Tar Heels are 6-7 on the road against No. 1 teams.
The Tar Heels have some new faces and some old faces in the roster. From last year’s team, five players, including two starters have returned and one of them is RJ Davis.
As for the new fresh faces, there are ten of them: five freshmen players and five transfers.
Kansas are the No. 1 team this season. The Tar Heels must set the tone by being bold and challenging the Jayhawks front court.
In addition to that, the Tar Heels have to get in transition multiple times. Run, run, run! Carolina must take advantage of their athleticism.
Another factor for the Tar Heels is for their backcourt to outplay the Jayhawks backcourt. To beat this Jayhawks team, they can’t look timid and can’t take their foot off the gas for one minute.
The Tar Heels and Jayhawks last played in the 2022 national championship game in New Orleans, a 72-69 Jayhawk victory.
Tar Heels must win this game. The bitter taste of losing to the Jayhawks in the title game is still there.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com
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