Three takeaways from UNC’s 2026-27 ACC schedule release

Yesterday UNC announced their official ACC schedule for the 2026-27 men’s basketball season. Now that the dates and opponents are set, Michael Malone and his staff have an idea of what their team will be up against this fall when conference play begins.

Let’s discuss three takeaways from the schedule release so that we can feel out how good (or bad) UNC’s gauntlet will be.

Advertisement

No West Coast trips

After having to participate in a three-game road trip on the West Coast last season, UNC will stay at home when they face off against California, Stanford, and SMU. As many fans know, the Heels didn’t handle that stretch well during the 2025-26 season. SMU ended up being a somewhat decent team, but they had no business losing against Cal or Stanford. Now they have a chance at redemption against all three in the Dean Smith Center, with the game against the Golden Bears opening up ACC play.

Louisville is the toughest road game outside of Duke

While it’s great that the Heels will not have to do the West Coast trip this year, the bad news is that they have to face off against Louisville on January 5th at the Yum! Center. The Cardinals are receiving a lot of preseason hype this season, and some even think they have a chance to win the ACC. This will be UNC’s third ACC game of the season, so they will have to make sure they’re sharp in hopes of earning a big-time Quad 1 victory.

Advertisement

February is a nightmare

What’s the only thing worse than playing Louisville on the road? Having to play them again at home on February 8th. In fact, that game will spark a four-game gauntlet that spans across most of February. After facing off against the Cardinals again on February 8th, they will take on Duke in Cameron on the 13th, Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, and Miami at home. Oh, and then they finish off the month against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

It goes without saying that we should learn a lot about this team once we are done with February. If they can get out of the month winning at…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/three-takeaways-unc-2026-27-140000262.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-09-10 14:00:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.