Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

North Carolina releases loaded non-conference schedule

Gonzaga v North Carolina

GLENDALE, AZ - APRIL 03: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels questions the official against the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the 2017 NCAA Men’s Final Four National Championship game at University of Phoenix Stadium on April 3, 2017 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Getty Images

The Tar Heels released their non-conference schedule over the weekend, and it is about as difficult as any that you will find from the top of the college basketball world.

Let’s start with this nugget: Roy Williams will play his first two games of the season on the road against mid-major competition. He opens at Wofford -- who, by the way, won in the Dean Dome last season -- and he’ll follow that up by playing at Elon three days later. UNC’s first home game will come against former assistant Jared Haase and Stanford before finally playing a couple of cupcakes.

UNC is then off to Vegas to play in the Continental Tire Invitational, whether they get Texas in the opener and either Michigan State or UCLA the next night, before a road trip up to Ann Arbor to face off with Michigan in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

After another home date with another former assistant -- UNCW and C.B. McGrath -- the Tar Heels play three straight weekends against Gonzaga, Kentucky (in Chicago) and Davidson before wrapping up non-league play with Ivy League titan Harvard.

This is the kind of schedule that I love to see. Home-and-homes with other high-major competition and a couple road trips against good, local mid-major teams.

Kudos, Roy Williams.

Here is the full schedule:

Nov. 6: at Wofford
Nov. 9: at Elon
Nov. 12: Stanford
Nov. 16: Tennessee Tech
Nov. 19: St. Francis (PA)
Nov. 22-23: Continental Tires Invitational (Las Vegas)
Nov. 28: at Michigan
Dec. 5: UNCW
Dec. 15: Gonzaga
Dec. 22: Kentucky (Chicago)
Dec. 29: Davidson
Jan. 2: Harvard