UNC Basketball Exhibition vs Johnson C. Smith: How to Watch & Game Thread

While the UNC men’s basketball season won’t start for another week and a half, we’ve got the privilege of a televised exhibition game tonight. The Heels will host Division II Johnson C. Smith University’s Golden Bulls in the Dean Smith Center for the teams’ first meeting, even if it won’t be in any official record books.

Scheduling Johnson C. Smith is notable for a few reasons. First, it’s a chance for UNC to bring some shine to a North Carolina HBCU that they haven’t before, and one that isn’t in the UNC system to boot (as a reminder, the HBCUs in the UNC system are North Carolina A&T, Fayetteville State, North Carolina Central, Elizabeth City State, and Winston-Salem State). Second, it’s the alma mater of both of Coach Hubert Davis’ parents. Davis’ father, Hubert Sr, even played basketball for the Golden Bulls in the 60’s, adding another layer of emotional heft to Davis’ decision to bring JCSU to Chapel Hill for this preseason game.

While fans got a brief look at this UNC team at Live Action with Carolina Basketball a month ago, this will be our first opportunity to see them as a whole team, against opponents they don’t practice with, and start to get a feel for what the team will look like this season when it’s not fractured by the nature of scrimmage.

Finally, before we share how you can watch the game, we’ve got a brief injury report ahead of the game via UNC Basketball’s Twitter account: R.J. Davis, Puff Johnson, Jalen Washington, and Justin McKoy will not play tonight. The update included that Davis will definitely be ready for opening night on November 7th. All right, here’s how you can catch this preseason action:

Time: 7:30 PM ET

Location: Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC

TV/Streaming: ACC Network Extra on WatchESPN or the ESPN App

Radio: Check GoHeels’ schedule page and click the speaker icon under this game; they haven’t said anything official but there seems to be an audio broadcast available.

Feel free to use this as a game thread as well, and share your thoughts on the game below!