Few issues profit the common season in faculty basketball like blue-blood matchups in on-campus venues.
Kansas and North Carolina have introduced simply that for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons. On Monday, the colleges collectively launched their settlement to play a home-and-home within the years to come back. Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse will get the primary matchup (Friday, Nov. 8, 2024), then the Dean E. Smith Heart on UNC’s campus will host the next season (Friday, Nov. 14, 2025).
Regardless of the packages combining for greater than 4,700 wins, 103 NCAA Event showings, 37 Remaining Fours and 10 nationwide championships, right here is one thing of a stunner: the colleges have solely met 12 instances (the sequence is 6-6). They’ve solely performed as soon as earlier than in Lawrence, Kansas, and by no means earlier than on the campus of the College of North Carolina.
Regardless of that, there are deep ties that bind the colleges. For starters, the 2 best coaches in Carolina historical past — Dean Smith and Roy Williams — have connections to KU.
The packages first met in 1957, in one of many greatest NCAA Event video games of all time: a 54-53 three-overtime win within the nationwide championship recreation for UNC. Their most up-to-date matchup was the 2022 nationwide championship recreation, a 72-69 KU win after the Jayhawks set a Remaining 4 document by erasing a 15-point deficit to take the title. Seven of the colleges’ 12 video games in opposition to one another have come within the NCAAs.
“These will likely be two nice video games from packages whose wealthy histories are intertwined a lot,” Kansas coach Invoice Self mentioned in an announcement. “It will likely be a special occasion in each Chapel Hill and Lawrence once we play and I’m wanting ahead to it.”
The final time North Carolina performed in Lawrence? 1960. UNC received 78-70. On the time, Dean Smith was a third-year assistant coach for the Tar Heels.
Simply how a lot historical past is right here? No faculty has extra NCAA tourney wins or Remaining Fours than North Carolina, whereas Kansas is fourth in wins and third in NCAA Event showings.
“These two video games must be thrilling for gamers and coaches on each groups and a win for followers of school basketball,” Tar Heels coach Hubert Davis mentioned. “It is a chance for 2 nice packages to play in one another’s dwelling arenas, that are among the many greatest and most historic in our recreation.”
Kansas has received the previous 4 video games vs. UNC, all of them within the NCAA Event. At a time when neutral-site matchups have gotten much more populated on the November and December calendar in faculty basketball, it is all of the extra refreshing to see among the greatest manufacturers in faculty hoops elect to play one another in on-campus environments close to the beginning of the season. These are the matchups that provide the perfect of the game, in essentially the most intense environments, within the lead-up to convention play.