Carolina will return to the Big Apple in the 2024-25 season. The Tar Heels will take on UCLA in the 11th annual CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. on December 21, with the second game between Ohio State and Kentucky tipping off afterward. CBS will broadcast both matchups.

Madison Square Garden also hosted the CBS Sports Classic in 2022, when the Tar Heels beat Ohio State in overtime in front of a sellout crowd.

Three current members of the Tar Heels have New York connections: incoming freshman Ian Jackson is from the Bronx, R.J. Davis hails from White Plains, N.Y. and Elliot Cadeau is from nearby West Orange, N.J. Head coach Hubert Davis also has his own connections to the city, having played for the New York Knicks for four seasons.

This will be the third time Carolina and UCLA will face off in the CBS Sports Classic, with UNC winning each of the first two meetings. The Tar Heels have won six straight overall against the Bruins, including a 73-66 victory in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. UCLA’s last win in the series came on January 15, 2000 in Chapel Hill. Carolina and UCLA were scheduled to meet in the CBS Sports Classic in the 2021-22 season, but COVID protocols within the Bruins’ program forced them to pull out. The Tar Heels are 6-4 overall in the CBS Sports Classic.

 

Featured image via Dakota Moyer

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