UNC Men’s Hoops Schedule Breakdown: Central Arkansas

How does UNC fair against Central Arkansas?

Mar 21, 2025; Milwaukee, WI, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Hubert Davis during the first half of a first round NCAA men’s tournament game against the Mississippi Rebels at Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images | Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

The UNC men's basketball program is entering the 2025-2026 campaign after some time following its loss to the Ole Miss Rebels in the first round of the NCAAT. The Tar Heels simply did not have the firepower to compete and were missing the juice needed to overcome a strong Chris Beard team.

Nonetheless, the Tar Heels have a brand new roster that brings in a ton of new names from juniors Kyan Evans, Henri Veesaar and Jarin Stevenson, international player Luka Bogavac, future first round draft pick of the 2026 NBA Draft, freshman Caleb Wilson, along with fellow freshmen Derek Dixon and Isaiah Denis, plus more. Seth Trimble remains the one and only senior who will have spent all of his college career in Chapel Hill, once the first game comes around.

For the team's first game, the University of Central Arkansas Bears are coming to the Dean E. Smith Center to take on the Tar Heels on Monday, November 3. Head Coach Hubert Davis will begin his first game of year No. 5 as making decisions (as he likes to say, since being the successor to former head coach Roy Williams). And similar to the football team with Bill Belichick, there seems to be a level of "deep run or bust" written on this season, due to the amount of inconsistency the program has gone through since the 2021-2022 campaign.

University of North Carolina Head Coach Hubert Davis watches his team play Clemson during the first half Monday, Feb 10, 2025; Clemson, South Carolina, USA; at Littlejohn Coliseum. | Ken Ruinard / staff / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

How Did Central Arkansas Perform Last Season?

Bears' Head Coach John Shulman did not have the best season, as his squad completed the year out with a record of 9-24. Some notable losses are: BYU, University of Utah, Georgia Tech, University of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Lipscomb.

Layne Taylor, the leading scorer for Central Arkansas last season scored 17.4 points and took his talents to Murray State, a big loss to the roster. In addition to senior big man Elias Cato, who was right behind Taylor in the points department with 14.5, exhausted his eligibility. Brayden Fagbemi, who averaged 11.4 points, signed with the UC Davis Aggies men's basketball team for the upcoming season, too.

This roster for Coach Shulman features a lot of new names from Truman Byrne, R.J. Newton, Harry Beauchamp, but the missing pieces of the team's best scorers last campaign leaves them to find new players to step into the spotlight.

The Tar Heels will face the team in purple in some time, and the yet another campaign under Coach Davis will commence.

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