The UNC men’s and women’s basketball teams’ opponents in the inaugural ACC-SEC Challenge this coming season have been locked in, and two marquee opponents will visit Chapel Hill.

The men’s program will host Tennessee in the Smith Center on November 29 at 7:15 p.m. Carolina last faced Tennessee in November of 2021 as part of the Hall of Fame Invitational, when the Vols soundly beat the Tar Heels 89-72. The teams also played a home-and-home series in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, with UNC winning in both Chapel Hill and Knoxville. Carolina is 10-2 all-time against Tennessee.

The women’s team will host two-time national champion and 2023 national semifinalist South Carolina in Carmichael Arena the next evening. It will be the Gamecocks’ first visit to Chapel Hill since 1987, though the two teams most recently met in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. The Gamecocks won that game on their way to a national championship. The last 12 meetings between the two schools have been at neutral sites. UNC leads the all-time series 11-9, though the last non-neutral site game ended with a 98-71 South Carolina victory in Columbia in 1989.

Led by head coach and Basketball Hall of Famer Dawn Staley, the Gamecocks have become one of the premier women’s basketball programs in the country. South Carolina has appeared in each of the last three Final Fours, nine consecutive Sweet 16s and won the 2017 and 2022 national championships under Staley’s watch. Her Gamecock teams have faced off against the Tar Heels seven times, with the Tar Heels holding a 4-3 record in those games (1-2 in NCAA Tournaments).

The South Carolina game marks yet another hurdle in an increasingly difficult non-conference schedule for the Tar Heels next season. Games have already been confirmed against both UConn and Oklahoma, with a potential matchup against Iowa waiting in the wings as well.

The ACC-SEC Challenge is taking the place of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, the marquee non-conference matchup for Tar Heel teams in years past.

 

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jerome M. Ibrahim

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