The season may be almost two months away, but Hubert Davis appears intent on keeping the momentum of this offseason going. After a summer that saw the Tar Heels lose Caleb Love and Puff Johnson, but add five potential rotation players to the roster, Davis has linked up with FAU Head Coach Dusty May to plan a secret scrimmage between the two programs.
A Magical Run From FAU
After winning Conference USA, Florida Atlantic (FAU) headed into the 2023 NCAA Tournament as just a 9-seed. But what makes the NCAA Tournament special is that any team can get hot and make a run. No fanbase knows this quite like Tar Heels fans who saw their team make the championship game as an underwhelming 8-seed in 2022. What made FAU different was that they were probably under-seeded from the get-go. Featuring a deep team and an elite coaching staff, the Owls went 31-3 in the regular season before cruising through the Conference USA tournament.
The Owls aren’t catching anyone off guard this season. In 2023-2024, Head Coach May’s squad will bring back their entire core except for departing senior Michael Forrest (who averaged the 7th most minutes per game on the team last season). Unsurprisingly, most prognosticators have FAU around the top 10 in their preseason rankings for the upcoming season. Even with this expected to be just a scrimmage, North Carolina will have their hands full.
Equally High Expectations in Chapel Hill
While the Tar Heels are not coming off a Final Four birth, fans are expecting a bounce-back season from Hubert Davis and company. While North Carolina is losing Caleb Love and Puff Johnson, they bring back their two most important players R.J. Davis and Armando Bacot. More importantly, Davis did everything he could to surround those two players with an abundance of talent. Cormac Ryan, a transfer from Notre Dame, projects to be one of the best shooters to wear baby blue and white since Wayne Ellington. Jae’Lyn Withers and Harrison Ingram are ELITE athletes with impressive pedigrees. Capping it off, Paxson Wojcik and James Okonkwo provide the Tar Heels with depth that could alleviate the burden Davis and Bacot are expected to carry.
While North Carolina isn’t (for now) thought of as highly as FAU headed into the season, Tar Heel fans are correct in anticipating a big season in Chapel Hill. From an outsider’s perspective, one encouraging aspect of this scrimmage is that it shows Davis is expanding his network in unique ways. While FAU is not a blue-blood program by any means, May is considered one of the best tacticians in the sport of basketball. Might Davis pick something up when the two programs meet up? I wouldn’t rule it out.
The date of this scrimmage is currently unknown. North Carolina faced Rutgers in a similar-type scrimmage before last season.
