UNC Basketball: Tar Heels reportedly agree to home-and-home against Georgetown
In the summer months, most college basketball stories that we get — at least ones that aren’t something bad — are usually going to be about recruiting or scheduling. In this case, we have one of the latter.
On Wednesday, Jon Rothstein reported that North Carolina has agreed to schedule a home-and-home series against the Georgetown Hoyas starting this coming season. The first game would likely happen at the Smith Center sometime this December, with UNC then headed to DC during the 2026-27 season.
The last time the Heels and Hoyas have met was back in the 2007 NCAA Tournament. That infamous Elite Eight game didn’t go well for Carolina.
They led by double digits as late as with seven minutes left, only for Georgetown to close with a 16-6 run to send the game to overtime.
Things went very poorly from there, as Georgetown then scored the first 14 points of OT, and UNC wasn’t able to answer until it was too little, too late.
While that game doesn’t evoke many great memories from a UNC perspective, the two teams’ most famous meeting very much does.
In what remains one of the most famous college basketball games of all time, Carolina beat the Hoyas in the 1982 NCAA Tournament championship game to win Dean Smith his first career national championship. The game-winning shot famously came from a freshman then simply known as “Mike” Jordan.
In addition to it just being a great game between two great teams and two soon to be legendary coaches, that shot also began the lore of Michael Jordan, and became famous for being the first extremely memorable clutch shot that Jordan made in his career.
As for the current day teams, both come into 2025-26 with something to prove. UNC are looking to bounce back after a season that saw them just barely squeak into the NCAA Tournament.
Carolina’s roster has undergone a makeover in general, as Hubert Davis tries to get things on track after going through a couple disappointing seasons over his four-year tenure.
For Georgetown, they’re still looking to make the NCAA Tournament at all under coach Ed Cooley. Since a controversial move over from fellow Big East team Providence, the Hoyas haven’t made the big dance, although he did improve them by nine wins last year, his second in charge there. With the exception of a miracle conference tournament run under then-coach Patrick Ewing that got them into the 2021 NCAA Tournament, the Hoyas haven’t made a tournament since 2015.
While perhaps this matchup doesn’t seem to have the appeal as it might have in many seasons in the past, UNC vs. Georgetown should be an interesting and fun date on the schedule this coming season.
