North Carolina Basketball announces non-conference schedule

The 2022 national runner-ups have their non-conference slate set. Well, for the most part. North Carolina announced Friday on twitter their non-conference schedule as of now with dates, locations and the teams they know they’ll be playing.

Here’s the schedule of games they know for sure. (Games at home unless otherwise denoted).

Oct. 28: Johnson C. Smith (Exhibition)

Nov. 7: UNC-Wilmington

Nov. 11: College of Charleston

Nov. 15: Gardner-Webb

Nov. 20: James Madison

Nov. 24 – Nov. 27: Phil Knight Invitational (Portland, OR)

Nov. 30: @ Indiana (ACC-Big Ten Challenge)

Dec. 13: The Citadel

Dec. 17: Ohio State (CBS Sports Classic, New York City)

Dec. 21: TBA (Jumpman Invitational, Charlotte, NC)

Their opponent for the Jumpman Invitational is still up in the air (no pun intended), but otherwise, that’s the non-conference slate for North Carolina. They’ll play 11 games outside the ACC before playing 20 league games, totaling the standard 31 regular season games.

More on North Carolina schedule

The Tar Heels get out to a fairly uneventful start, without any real challenges until Thanksgiving weekend, when they’ll head to Portland for the Phil Knight Invitational and Legacy tournaments, featuring two separate eight-team fields.

Both events will take place between Nov. 24-27 at the University of Portland’s Chiles Center, Rose Quarter’s Moda Center, and Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Eight teams will participate in the Phil Knight Invitational from seven different conferences. Alabama, Iowa State, Michigan State, North Carolina, Oregon, Portland, UConn, and Villanova will spend their Thanksgiving in Portland. A bracket will be released at a later date. Each team will get to play three games, setting each other up for quality NCAA Tournament resume builders.

Looking at the Phil Knight Legacy tournament, there will be eight teams involved as well but with eight different conferences attending. Duke, Florida, Gonzaga, Oregon State, Portland State, Purdue, West Virginia, and Xavier are getting the nod, playing in three games throughout the holiday as well.

Elsewhere, North Carolina visits Bloomington for a matchup with the Hoosiers in Assembly Hall. That should be electric. And the only other game of note so far is their bout with Ohio State in Madison Square Garden as part of the annual CBS Sports Classic.