The North Carolina Tar Heels get one more exhibition run Tuesday night, and this one comes with a little less margin for error in the details. Charlotte is the opponent, and after splitting their first two tuneups - an 88-70 win over USC and a 76-58 loss to Indiana - North Carolina’s real task is showing cleaner basketball than it has for most of preseason.
The results themselves are not the point. The bigger concern has been how uneven the Tar Heels have looked in stretches, especially on offense.
With Charlotte not rated on the same level as the first two exhibition foes, Michael Malone’s team has a clear chance to show progress. A loss would raise eyebrows, but the bigger watch item is whether North Carolina can look more organized and more efficient before the games start counting.
One of the biggest expectations attached to this roster is better shooting, particularly from deep. North Carolina was poor from three-point range in 2025 and also had trouble at the free-throw line, and Malone made it clear after taking over that this team was going to be built around the backcourt. The Tar Heels moved quickly to reshape that group, bringing in Neoklis Avdalas, Terrence Brown, and Matt Able through the transfer portal.
There’s reason to think that group can improve, even if it hasn’t fully shown up yet. Avdalas and Brown still have plenty of room to grow as shooters, but Malone should help them there.
Able, meanwhile, arrives with a reputation as a reliable perimeter shooter from his lone season at North Carolina State. Still, the early numbers haven’t matched the hope.
North Carolina has shot 39.3 percent from the field and 34.0 percent from three, and that needs to climb fast if the Tar Heels want Tuesday to feel like a step forward.
Just as important as the shooting is how the offense looks as a whole. So far, North Carolina hasn’t really found a rhythm, and the biggest reason seems obvious: this group is still learning how to play together.
With 11 newcomers in the rotation, some awkwardness was always going to be part of the preseason, but the sets still need to be sharper and the ball movement cleaner. Two games in, there’s no reason to sound the alarm.
There is reason, though, to want more crispness and more open looks.
A few players have also had rough starts that stand out even in a short sample. Brown has not looked like the player North Carolina expected when it went after him in the portal. He was a non-factor in both games, and the 6-foot-3, 180-pound guard still has to show why the Tar Heels pursued him so aggressively.
Alexandros Samodurov has also had a quiet preseason. Through two exhibition games, he has only five points and seven rebounds while shooting 1-of-7 from the field. His lack of physicality has been a major part of why those outings have gone the way they have.
Tuesday night gives North Carolina a chance to clean up a few things, calm some of the noise, and hopefully show that the early stumbles were just that: early.
In Other News...
UNC Left Stewing Over Costly Collapse Before Huge Miami Test
North Carolina walked away from Syracuse with a 31-30 overtime loss that stung in every possible way, because it was there more than once for the taking. The Tar Heels led by 10 points in both halves, then built a seven-point cushion in overtime, only to watch the Orange keep hanging around until the final play flipped everything with a game-winning 2-point conversion.
For Bill Belichick and a UNC team heading into a huge matchup with Miami, the frustration was rooted in what the film will show: missed chances in the red zone and too many lapses in basic defensive execution. The loss left the Tar Heels stewing over how a game they controlled in stretches slipped away, and it makes the next one feel even bigger. [Read more 🡒]
UNC Has A Fascinating Frontcourt Question With Alex Samodurov
Alex Samodurov has arrived in Chapel Hill with a rsum that already looks different from most first-year frontcourt pieces. The 6-foot-11 forward from Greece comes to North Carolina after playing professionally for Panathinaikos, and his background includes international seasoning as well as a bronze medal at the 2025 senior EuroBasket. In the exhibition against USC, he gave a glimpse of what he might add, with rebounds and a three-pointer hinting at a skill set that could fit in more than one way.
Now the real question for UNC is how quickly that experience translates to the college game and where Samodurov fits in the frontcourt mix. The staff is still sorting out his role, which makes him one of the more intriguing variables on the roster as the Tar Heels look for reliable minutes inside and around the basket. His ceiling is easy to see, but the timeline for getting there is still part of the story. [Read more 🡒]
UNC Let A Needed Win Slip Away In Brutal Fashion
UNC had a chance to put a much-needed win in the books and spent most of the afternoon in position to do it, only to watch the game tilt late and turn into an overtime gut punch. The Tar Heels led for much of the contest, got a touchdown from Jordan Shipp, and seemed to have enough to finish the job before Syracuse surged with 13 points in the fourth quarter and forced the extra session after a missed extra point.
What made it sting even more was how many openings were there to close it out. Syracuse answered with a long catch-and-run from Umari Hatcher, UNC could not fully cash in on chances to regain control, and a game that had leaned the Tar Heels' way slipped into a 31-30 loss. For a team trying to steady itself, it was the kind of defeat that lingers because the win was there to be taken. [Read more 🡒]