The North Carolina men's basketball team won't be heading to Hawaii this year, but it will still be taking part in the 2020 Maui Invitational. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the early season tournament has been moved to Asheville and will take place at Harrah’s Cherokee Center from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2.
According to the bracket released on Wednesday morning, the Tar Heels are set to take on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in the third game of the quarterfinals on Nov. 30 at 7 p.m.
The University of Alabama and Stanford University are also competing on the same side of the bracket as UNC, with The University of Texas at Austin, Davidson College, Indiana University Bloomington and Providence College making up the four teams on the other side.
This will be the eighth time North Carolina has competed in the Maui Invitational, and the program comes into the tournament having won the title four times, the second most in tournament history. The Tar Heels most recently won in the 2016-17 season, the same year they won the NCAA National Championship.
Every year North Carolina has won the Maui Invitational title, the team has gone on to at least make the NCAA Final Four, with titles coinciding with NCAA National Championships in 2004-05 and 2008-09 as well.
UNC is 4-1 all time against UNLV, and the opening game will be the first matchup between the Tar Heels and the Runnin' Rebels since Dec. 29, 2012, when North Carolina won 79-73 in the Dean E. Smith Center.
12 games will be played total, with a loser's bracket after the quarterfinals, and a game played to determine third and fourth place on Dec. 2 at 1:30 p.m. before the title game the same day at 4:00 p.m.
Versus the other teams in the bracket, North Carolina is 12-0 against Stanford in head-to-head matchups, with the most recent game a 90-72 victory for the Tar Heels and 6-4 against Alabama after a 76-67 win over the Crimson Tide in 2019.
Overall, North Carolina is 20-3 in the tournament, going 18-3 in games played in Lahaina, Maui, and 2-0 in games played in Chapel Hill.
