1. Carolina rolled to a 94-54 win over Central Arkansas. The Tar Heels have now won 21 straight season openers.
2. Monday marked the UNC debut of Luka Bogavac, who did not warm up with the team in early warmups but then came out with the Tar Heels approximately 30 minutes before tip and scored ten points in his 20 minutes. Huge credit to the Tar Heel coaches and administrators involved in making it happen. Bogavac also tied Kyan Evans for the team high with five assists.
3. You will eventually get tired of reading about Caleb Wilson, but that time hasn’t come yet. Wilson got all his points at the rim or the free throw line through midway in the second half, then just decided to step out and hit a three-pointer to show that he could. He finished with 22 points on 8-for-10 shooting, grabbed four rebounds, and handed out three assists in his 25 minutes. Seven of his eight made field goals were dunks. The other was that three-pointer.
4. He was also part of the most fun play of the night. Late in the second half, Henri Veesaar blocked a Bear shot and threw an outlet to Jaydon Young. Young threw a long (maybe a little too long) pass to Seth Trimble, who saved the ball on the baseline behind his back to Wilson, who knew exactly what to do with it and dunked it home. It was the kind of play you instantly knew goes on the season highlight reel, and was a nice example of the unselfish way these Tar Heels have played early in the year. They finished with 23 assists on 33 field goals.
5. Veesaar did something surprising: collected his first career double-double. Not his first Tar Heel double-double, but his first collegiate double-double, including his time at Arizona. His previous rebounding high was nine. He grabbed ten on Monday, including four offensive.
6. Carolina’s big to big passing is going to be something opposing teams have to prepare for. Even backup center Zayden High threw a couple of assists. As you would expect, UNC dominated all paint categories against the outsized Bears–they had a 44-30 rebounding edge and a 46-20 advantage in points in the paint.
7. The connection between the Tar Heels and Bears that led to their first-ever meeting on Monday night: Central Arkansas head coach John Shulman was an assistant coach on Jeff Lebo‘s staffs at Tennessee Tech and Chattanooga. They were assistant coaches together at East Tennessee. Central Arkansas is most famous, of course, as the college program of Scottie Pippen.
8. A dynamic first half included the Tar Heels scoring 16 of their first 31 points in transition and mounting an 18-0 run. In other words, it was fun to watch. That 18-0 run was bigger than any run the Tar Heels put together at any time last season.
9. An added feature on this year’s Tar Heel Sports Network radio broadcasts is a halftime interview with a Tar Heel assistant coach. Jeff Lebo handled duties on Monday night and had good insight on Carolina’s transition play (ignited by good defense), Bogavac’s addition to the rotation (Lebo mentioned to keep an eye on his quality passing ability) and playing the second half with a big lead (with Carolina’s increased depth, a good opportunity for players deeper in the rotation to get a game opportunity to show they deserve more minutes). It’s just one more way to get a little more behind the scenes insight on a Tar Heel-centric broadcast.
10. Another familiar face that unexpectedly showed up Monday night: longtime ACC official Les Jones was one of the three game officials. Jones did five Carolina games as recently as the 2017-18 season, but hadn’t done a Tar Heel game since February of 2018. He worked largely in the Atlantic-10 and Big South last season.
11. If things felt a little weird Monday, it’s because the last time Carolina played a game without RJ Davis in the box score was March 11, 2020. Even RJ would tell you these Tar Heels are fun to watch, though.
12. The next one is a big one: Kansas comes to town on Friday night.
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