North Carolina’s 2020-21 basketball schedule is finally out, 15 days before the Tar Heels open play on Nov. 25.
The Tar Heels are coming off a 14-19 season that was the second worst in program history and worst ever for UNC Coach Roy Williams. Carolina returns four prominent players from last year’s team, senior forward Garrison Brooks, senior guard Andrew Platek, junior wing Leaky Black and sophomore forward Armando Bacot.
UNC will open the season Nov. 25 at home versus The College of Charleston before playing three games in Asheville, NC, in the Maui Invitational. Carolina faced UNLV in the first game and then plays either Alabama or Stanford, with Davidson, Indiana, Providence and Texas on the other side of the bracket.
UNC will travel to Iowa on Dec. 8 for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and play its last nonconference home game at home Dec. 12 versus Elon before concluding non-league play versus Ohio State on Dec. 19 in Cleveland.
ACC teams will play a 20-game league slate for the second consecutive year.
UNC will play home-and-home games with Duke, NC State, Florida State, Syracuse, Clemson and Miami, will play the rest of the teams once each: at Virginia, at Georgia Tech, at Pittsburgh, at Boston College and home versus Louisville, Notre Dame, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech.
UNC opens league play Dec. 22 at NC State and a week later heads to Georgia Tech. It closes the season March 5 or 6 at home versus Duke. The game at Duke is on Feb. 6.
As for the Tar Heels themselves, Brooks is coming off an excellent season in which he was second-team All-ACC after posting terrific numbers: 16.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 53.5 percent from the field, 2-for-7 from 3-point range, 64.1 percent from the free throw line and 1.9 assists.
Over the final 18 games he played (spanning UNC’s final 19 contests), Brooks averaged 19.9 points and 10 of his 11 games scoring 20 or more points occurred during that span. Brooks also won the ACC’s Most Improved Player award.
A 6-foot-3 native of Guilderland, NY, Platek had the biggest role of his UNC career last season, averaging 18.1 minutes per game. He even had a stretch from January 11 through February 8 when he averaged 35 minutes per contest, but his minutes declined over the final month of the season in part because Christian Keeling started hitting shots and the Tar Heels badly needed scoring.
For the season, Platek averaged 3.9 points converting 36.6 percent of his field goal attempts, including just 13-for-57 (22.8 percent) from 3-point range to go with 1.4 assists and 2.1 rebounds per outing.
Black averaged 6.5 points, shooting 35.9 percent from the field, and 5.0 rebounds. He struggled from the field converting just 16-for-63 (25.4 percent) from 3-point range, was 32-for-46 (69.6 percent) from the free throw line, handed out 84 assists, turned over the ball 56 times, registered 40 steals and 25 blocked shots.
Black missed one game (loss to Wofford) due to an injury but finished the season second on the team with 950 minutes starting 31 of the 32 games he played.
Bacot averaged 9.6 points and 8.3 rebounds while shooting 46.9 percent from the floor. He converted 80-for-124 (64.5 percent) from the free throw line, handed out 39 assists, committed 55 turnovers, blocked 36 shots, and registered 16 steals. Overall, Bacot scored in double figures 16 times and grabbed 10 or more rebounds 14 times. He registered 11 double-doubles. Bacot averaged 24.4 minutes playing all but one of Carolina’s games, each of which he started.
UNC has the No. 2 recruiting class in the nation for 2020 with big men Day’Ron Sharpe, Walker Kessler, wings Kerwin Walton and Puff Johnson and guards Caleb Love and RJ Davis giving the team talent and depth that was lacking a year ago.
