#9 North Carolina (1-0) at #1 Kansas (1-0)

This game between two of college basketball’s blue bloods features the number nine ranked North Carolina Tar Heels traveling to Allen Fieldhouse for the first time since 1960 to face the title favorite and number one ranked Kansas Jayhawks. This will be the first meeting between the two teams since Kansas stormed back in the second half of the 2022 National Championship to take home the crown. Kansas Head Coach Bill Self has only lost 17 times at Allen Fieldhouse since he took over as the head coach back in 2003, so history is definitely on his side in this game. This particular Carolina team appears to have some things to work out before they are ready to compete on the road with Kansas.

North Carolina jumped out to an early lead on opening night and appeared as though they were going to coast to victory against Elon. However, Elon had other ideas. They came back and actually took the lead in Chapel Hill in the second half before the Tarheels put the hammer down and won by 14. This game was no walk in the park for North Carolina and brought the concerns that have existed all offseason to the forefront. Jalen Washington started but got into some early foul trouble and never found his rhythm. He finished with just 8 points and 4 rebounds. While he is not Armando Bacot, Washington needs to be better than that, especially if they want to compete with the Jayhawks tonight. RJ Davis was great, as always, and the shooting improvements from Elliot Cadeau and Seth Trimble were evident as they combined to go 6 for 8 from beyond the arc. This will be a different animal than Elon though.

The crowd at Allen Fieldhouse will be jacked up and ready to go for the first real test for the number one ranked Jayhawks. Kansas played Howard on Monday night and jumped out to a 27 point halftime lead and sort of coasted the rest of the way winning by 30. They had no player play more than 23 minutes, so they will certainly be fresh for the matchup with the Tar Heels. On opening night, Hunter Dickinson was steady for Bill Self’s squad, and transfer Zeke Mayo shot the lights out, scoring 19 in just 23 minutes. The Jayhawks have arguably the best starting lineup in the country, the best coach in the country, and the best home court advantage. The title favorites match up very well with North Carolina.

Areas to exploit for Kansas:

The Kansas Jayhawks will look to pound the ball inside early and often against the unproven and inexperienced Tar Heel frontcourt. Washington got into some foul trouble against Elon, so expect Kansas to go through Dickinson, KJ Adams, and AJ Storr early and often. North Carolina will also struggle to keep Kansas off the offensive glass, especially since they gave up 10 offensive rebounds to Elon. Jae’Lyn Withers will need to step up and play more minutes in a game in which North Carolina will have to play two bigs more often than not. 

Areas to exploit for North Carolina:

With the lack of interior scoring presence, North Carolina will need to rely heavily on its backcourt in this game. Luckily for them, they have the best guard in the ACC in RJ Davis, and two other guards who appear to have taken big steps on the offensive end of the court if you are basing it off of opening night. Interior scoring is not this team’s strength and with the frontcourt of Kansas, it is not somewhere that the Tar Heels are going to want to go. One of the main weak points of the Jayhawk defense is their backcourt. Dajuan Harris is a nice point of attack defender who can pick up some steals, but outside of him, they lack the perimeter defenders that will be needed to contain Hubert Davis’ guards. Rylan Griffen and Zeke Mayo certainly are not known for their defense, so this will be an area to expose for North Carolina. The hurdle with this is that Kansas should be getting a lot of high percentage paint points with their size advantage and interior scoring, so North Carolina will need to be uber efficient on the perimeter in order to keep up with Kansas’ high-quality shot attempts.

The Final Word:

Kansas is ranked as the best team in the country for a reason. They brought back key players in Hunter Dickinson and Dajuan Harris and added high-level talent through the transfer portal. North Carolina did not make a ton of moves and rather relied on the growth of their returning talent. This North Carolina team just isn’t there yet and I’m not sure if they will be at any point this season. North Carolina is a great team, but Kansas is just better and it will show through their ability to feed the post and score at ease in the paint against the inexperienced frontcourt. On the other end, North Carolina’s guards will be able to keep up for a while, but ultimately it will be the lack of interior scoring and lower efficiency shots that lead to a Kansas win. Kansas is just more ready right now. This game could look much different later in the season, but Kansas has the clear edge right now given the depth of their talent, elite coaching, and A+ home court advantage.