Derek Dixon Steps Up, UNC Football Signs Nation's No. 12 Class, Big Test For Women's Basketball
Plus: Transfer portal declarations, Tar Heels earn postseason honors, Drake Maye hears MVP chants, Dyami Brown honors Tylee Craft, Throwback Thursday
Derek Dixon stepped up in a big way in UNC’s win over Kentucky, the Tar Heels signed the nation’s No. 12 football recruiting class, Women’s Basketball faces a huge challenge in Texas, several Tar Heels earn postseason honors as others hit the transfer portal, Drake Maye is hearing NFL MVP chants, and Luke Maye is the star of this week’s Throwback Thursday. On to the updates…
🏀 Basketball
Have we seen a changing of the (point) guard for UNC Basketball? Tuesday night against No. 18 Kentucky, freshman Derek Dixon got the call in crunch time over starter Kyan Evans and delivered 5 clutch points with the game on the line.
Looking at the box score, Dixon played 24 minutes to Evans’ 16. We’ll find out Sunday against Georgetown if it was a case of Hubert Davis riding the hot hand or if a change to the starting lineup is imminent.
Beyond Dixon’s outstanding play, it continues to be the Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar show. Both big men continued their impressive seasons with double-doubles: Veesaar with 17 points and 10 rebounds and Wilson with 15 and 12.
Frontcourt mate Jarin Stevenson, not to be overshadowed, led the Tar Heels in plus/minus for the third game this season at +8.
And as UNC alum and longtime ESPN producer Bryan Ives pointed out, it was a “notable” win for Carolina, now having knocked off both Kansas and Kentucky in the same season for the first time since 1981-82:
The ‘82 reunion tour continues Sunday against Georgetown in Chapel Hill.
🏈 Football
Wednesday was National Signing Day, and the Tar Heels loaded up with a huge 2025 football recruiting class, consisting of 39(!) players. Here’s the complete rundown of all the signees. UNC’s class is ranked No. 12 in the nation by ESPN.
Among the Signing Day highlights:
4-star defensive lineman Vodney Cleveland flipped from the Texas Longhorns to UNC.
Former Florida State offensive lineman commit Da’Ron Parks committed to the Tar Heels after de-committing from the Seminoles on Monday.
Tight end Dream Rashad flipped his commitment from Purdue to Carolina.
And as the new class arrives, a number of players have already announced their intention to transfer when the portal officially opens on Jan. 2. Don Callahan at Inside Carolina is maintaining a running list of transfers, which currently stands at seven players. Expect that list to grow significantly.
The Tar Heels placed five players on the 2025 All-ACC Football Teams.
Defensive lineman Melkart Abou Jaoude, Second Team All-ACC
Linebacker Khmori House, All-ACC Honorable Mention
Linebacker Andrew Simpson, All-ACC Honorable Mention
Wide receiver Jordan Shipp, All-ACC Honorable Mention
Kicker Rece Verhoff, All-ACC Honorable Mention
Bill Belichick also was honored this week, becoming a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This would seem to be a no-brainer of a decision.
In other UNC-related pro football news, Drake Maye continues to hear NFL “MVP” chants in just his second season in the league after leading the New England Patriots to their 10th straight win. R.L. Bynum at Tar Heel Tribune has the complete weekly rundown of Tar Heels in the NFL.
Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Dyami Brown is helping keep former Tar Heel wideout Tylee Craft’s memory alive by honoring him during last weekend’s game for “My Cause, My Cleats” weekend.
“I had a college teammate (Tylee Craft), he died last year around October due to lung cancer,” Dyami Brown said. “He was working with this organization, the American Cancer Society, so I pretty much just dedicated this whole thing to him.”
And in another selfless act, former UNC offensive lineman and current New York Giant Joshua Ezeudu spent time during the Thanksgiving holiday distributing turkeys and food to New York families in need.
🏀 Women’s Basketball
Following the UNC men’s big victory in the ACC/SEC Challenge, it’s the women’s turn Thursday night as the Tar Heels face a huge challenge against No. 2 Texas in Austin (7:00 ET, ESPN2).
UNC comes in ranked No. 10 in this week’s Coaches Poll, but wins against top-5 teams have been hard to come by for Courtney Banghart’s teams at UNC (or most coaches’ teams, for that matter). Can Carolina pull off another upset tonight?
If Indya Nivar plays the way she’s been playing to begin this season, then a win at Texas is certainly possible. Following her triple-double (just the second in program history) last week, Nivar was named ACC Player of the Week.
🏅 Olympic Sports
UNC Volleyball is the last team standing among UNC’s fall Olympic sports and will begin NCAA Tournament play by facing UTEP on Thursday in Madison, Wisconsin.
Three of the Tar Heels’ top players received postseason All-ACC honors on Monday. Safi Hampton was named First Team All-ACC, while Chelsea Thorpe and Maddy May were named Second Team All-ACC.
Former UNC Women’s Soccer standouts and current NWSL players Ally Sentnor (Kansas City Current), Evelyn Shores (Angel City FC), and Maddie Dahlien (Seattle Reign) helped the U-23 U.S. Women’s National Team to a 4-2 victory over England this week.
And in Field Hockey, current Tar Heels Reese Anetsberger and Dani Mendez joined UNC signee Sofia Ferri in helping the U-21 U.S. Women’s National Team take down New Zealand, 5-2, in the opening round of the Junior World Cup in Santiago, Chile.
⏪ Throwback Thursday
In honor of UNC’s big win at Kentucky (and Drake Maye’s MVP-caliber season), let’s look back at one of the legendary shots in UNC Basketball history.
On March 26, 2017, Luke Maye hit the game-winning shot with 0.3 on the clock to beat Kentucky in the Elite Eight (Box Score) and send the Tar Heels back to the Final Four, where they would go on to win the with the National Championship.
🏁 Final Thoughts
Thanks again to everyone for supporting the Tar Heel Times Newsletter. I hope you have a great weekend, and please leave a comment to let me know how you’re enjoying the content so far, what you’d like to see more of, or anything else that’s on your mind. I truly appreciate your support.
Go Heels!
James