Men's Exhibition Basketball

Belmont Abbey at North Carolina

Time: 7:30 p.m. today

Where: Smith Center, Chapel Hill

Radio: WCHL-1360

OBSERVATIONS

This will be UNC's only exhibition game before Monday's season-opener against Florida International. The Tar Heels played a closed scrimmage at Vanderbilt on Sunday. NCAA rules prohibit teams from publicizing details about workouts against other Division I schools, but coach Roy Williams said, "We just didn't play well at all. We were just ugly. We were yucky. ... But since then, we've gotten a lot better. I think the seriousness has hit them, the recognition of how good other people are that they might not have ever heard of. I think that was a good slap in the face for us, as opposed to waiting until the season started."

Sophomore forward Ed Davis was expected to return to contact practice Thursday after injuring his shoulder Sunday. "He's been cleared, they've done all the tests, but it's probably a little sore," Williams said. "He didn't do anything in a contact way the last two days, but he will today."

Meanwhile, wing Will Graves continues to have a sore back.

"Will's going to have back issues for quite a while. He's had four shots ... in the back, and he's got the vicious cycle, again," Williams said. "His weight is up so he can't condition, but is the back hurting because his weight is up? So it's a little bit of both, there. ... He's just got to fight through it, lose some weight, work through that part of it every day. There's no question he was a better basketball player at 239 last year than he is at 254 right now."

Latest Comment View all comments