With Indiana basketball’s regular season schedule yet to be released, the Hoosiers announced Monday a preseason exhibition game with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The contest will be played Oct. 18 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
In the regular season, the Hoosiers and Tar Heels have met 16 times, with Indiana winning 10 of those contests. The last time the pair played was Nov. 30, 2022, in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Indiana won the matchup 77-65, led by a 21-point performance from then-senior forward Trayce Jackson-Davis.
The Hoosiers also defeated North Carolina 63-50 in the 1981 national championship game for the program’s fourth title.
North Carolina will come into the 2026-27 season with a new look, starting with former Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone being named to the same role with the Tar Heels. Malone won the 2023 NBA championship with the Nuggets before being fired in April 2025.
Malone now tries to bring the six-time national championship program back to prominence. The Tar Heels dismissed former head coach Hubert Davis in March after a stunning loss to Virginia Commonwealth University in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The No. 11-seeded Rams erased a 19-point deficit in the second half to defeat the Tar Heels 82-78 in overtime.
Davis led North Carolina for five seasons, compiling a 125-54 overall record. The Tar Heels reached the national title game in 2022, falling to the University of Kansas 72-69.
After eight players entered the transfer portal, North Carolina looks for new options to replace their production. The Tar Heels’ four-player transfer portal class was ranked No. 9 in the nation, per 247Sports.
North Carolina brought in former Virginia Tech freshman guard Neoklis Avdalas, University of Utah junior guard Terrence Brown, North Carolina State University freshman guard Matt Able and Northwestern freshman forward Cade Bennerman.
The Tar Heels also have the No. 15 freshman recruiting class for 2026, according to 247Sports. The incoming class is headlined by five-star Spanish center Sayon Keita and four-star forwards Maximo Adams and Kevin Thomas.
Indiana will now play an exhibition game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse for the second consecutive season. The Hoosiers took down Baylor University 76-74 last October after being down by 13 points with just over seven and a half minutes left in the first half.
Indiana head coach Darian DeVries praised the “great opportunity” of playing an exhibition matchup against a high-major opponent last season.
The Hoosiers finished the 2025-26 season with an 18-14 overall record and a 9-11 mark in Big Ten play, missing the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season. Indiana's season concluded with a 74-61 defeat to Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament on March 11.
