Following their announcement of an exhibition game at the Dean Smith Center in late October, the UNC basketball team revealed that they will play on October 15 in the St. Jude Tip-Off Classic.
The Tar Heels will travel to Memphis, Tennessee, for a charity exhibition game versus the Tigers, led by Penny Hardaway. ESPNU will broadcast the FedEx Forum tip-off, which is set for 7:00 PM EST. It’s natural that UNC basketball will play in an exhibition game, which will benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, as many players who have donned the Carolina Blue have spent a lot of time at the local children’s hospital in Chapel Hill.
Hubert Davis and the Tar Heels have a fantastic opportunity to witness some game action for a worthy cause. The two preseason games for the UNC basketball team will provide the group of players a chance to get to know one another before the regular season begins, even though the Tar Heels return a big number of important players.
For Memphis, Hardaway and the Tigers lost each of their top six scorers from a season ago but reloaded the roster via the transfer portal. This exhibition will be the first opportunity that the Tigers have to see their new-look roster in action against another opponent.
The new NCAA rules allow teams to schedule exhibitions such as this one, as the days of “secret scrimmages” may ultimately become a thing of the past. Now, there’s more flexibility for programs to compete in preseason contests while doing it for a good cause, as this exhibition is a perfect example of just that.
