Welcome Back to the Tar Heel Times Newsletter
A fresh season of curated UNC sports, news, and recruiting buzz
Welcome back, Tar Heel fans!
It’s been a while since I hit “send” on a newsletter, but with football season around the corner and basketball recruiting heating up, I figured now’s the perfect time to bring it back. Twice a week, I’ll be sending you a curated mix of UNC sports updates, recruiting buzz, and the occasional behind-the-scenes story. You can learn more on the About page., but for now, lets dive in.
Basketball
While the 2025-26 Tar Heels continue to work hard in the gym and bond off the basketball court this summer, former UNC stars were working hard at forging professional careers in the NBA Summer League. Here’s who participated and a great roundup of how each of them performed:
RJ Davis, Los Angeles Lakers
Caleb Love, Portland Trail Blazers
Armando Bacot, Memphis Grizzlies
Leaky Black, Washington Wizards
Garrison Brooks, Detroit Pistons
Harrison Ingram, San Antonio Spurs
Pete Nance, Milwaukee Bucks
Cormac Ryan, Milwaukee Bucks
Justin McKoy, Portland Trail Blazers
The big winner, of course, was RJ Davis, who earned an Exhibition 10 contract with the Lakers. Here are more details on Davis’ deal and what an Exhibition 10 deal entails.
I’ve also updated the Tar Heels’ 2025-26 basketball roster with the information we have so far. Besides updated heights, weights, and jersey numbers, the big missing piece remains Montenegrin shooting guard commit Luka Bogavac. His status is still uncertain, and the last I heard is that he’s waiting on immigration clearance. Someone feel free to update me if there’s been news beyond this.
In other UNC Basketball news, details of General Manager Jim Tanner’s 5-year contract were released last week. He’ll make a base salary of $850,000 per year with incentives to earn even more. Nice work if you can get it!
And finally for this edition, Carolina will play a pre-season exhibition game against the BYU Cougars and former Tar Heel recruit AJ Dybantsa in Salt Lake City on Oct. 24. As the visiting team in this “neutral site” game, UNC will receive a $500,000 payout.
Basketball Recruiting
On the recruiting front, the 2026 UNC Basketball Recruiting Board has been updated, and there have been a few changes.
Four-star small forward Maximo Adams, from Chatsworth, Calif. has received a UNC offer following his strong play at Peach Jam. Here are a few highlights:
Five-star point guard Deron Rippey, Jr. included UNC in his top-12. Here’s his list along with official visit dates in parentheses: Kentucky (Aug. 1-3), Miami (Aug. 27), North Carolina (Aug. 31-Sept. 2), Alabama (Sept. 12-14), Texas (Sept. 17-19), Syracuse (Sept. 25-27), Indiana (Oct. 17-19), Tennessee (Oct. 23-25), Kansas (Nov. 2-4).
Five-star wing Anthony Thompson has included the Tar Heels in his top 7 along with Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio State, Purdue, and Texas.
Five-star point guard Taylen Kinney trimmed his list to 12 and eliminated UNC. And five-star wing Tyran Stokes also has cut the Tar Heels from his list.
Finally, four-star wing Bryson Howard has announced an official visit to Carolina beginning Sept. 5. Unfortunately there’s no home football game that weekend as the Tar Heels visit Charlotte. Here are Howard’s 2025 NBPA Top 100 Camp highlights:
This Week’s Tar Heel Birthdays
Legendary UNC basketball coach Roy Williams celebrates a milestone 75th birthday on August 1. And who remembers the late-season heroics of North Carolina native Stilman White, whose Tar Heel basketball career spanned from 2011-2017?
Bill Guthridge, UNC asst./head basketball coach: July 27 (1937-2015)
Stilman White, point guard: July 27, 1992 (33)
Cole Holcomb, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker: July 30, 1996 (29)
Derrick Phelps, 1992-93 national champion point guard: July 31, 1972 (53)
Roy Williams, Hall of Fame basketball coach: August 1, 1950 (75)
Poll
Tar Heel Tidbits
And finally for some out-of-this-world news. Double Tar Heel Zena Cardman (UNC ‘10, ‘14), is the mission commander for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff is scheduled for 12:09 p.m. July 31 from Kennedy Space Center.
Questions & Feedback
There was way too much summer news to include in this first newsletter, so I’ll include updates on Football, Football Recruiting, Women’s Basketball, Tar Heels Overseas, and more, in Thursday’s edition.
If you enjoy this format, have questions regarding UNC sports that you’d like answered, or have suggestions on how to steer the newsletter more towards your liking, please let me know in the Comments section.
Go Heels!
James