1 Seed UConn Huskies 4 Seed North Carolina Tarheels 36-0 28-7
Friday, March 27th, 2026
Time: 5:00
Place: Fort Worth, Texas
TV: ESPN
Prior Meetings
NORTH CAROLINA vs| UCONN
UCONN LEADS 10-5
H: 4-1 | A: 2-2 | N: 4-2
01/12/80 UNC 84, UConn 51 Chapel Hill, N.C.
03/26/94 #4 UNC 81, #3 UConn 69 Piscataway, N.J.
12/02/95 #2 UConn 77, #24 UNC 62 Richmond, Va.
11/15/01 #1 UConn 94, UNC 74 Storrs, Conn.
11/21/04 #9 UNC 71, #4 UConn 65 Raleigh, N.C.
12/05/05 #7 UNC 77, #8 UConn 54 Hartford, Conn.
01/15/07 #2 UNC 82, #6 UConn 76 Chapel Hill, N.C.
01/21/08 #1 UConn 82, #3 UNC 71 Storrs, Conn.
01/19/09 #1 UConn 88, #2 UNC 58 Chapel Hill, N.C.
01/09/10 #1 UConn 88, #7 UNC 47 Storrs, Conn.
01/17/11 #3 UConn 83, #10 UNC 57 Chapel Hill, N.C.
01/16/12 #3 UConn 86, #24 UNC 35 Storrs, Conn.
12/06/23 #17 UConn 76, #24 UNC 64 Uncasville, Conn.
11/15/24 #2 UConn 69, #14 UNC 58 Greensboro, N.C.
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North Carolina Season
Similar to Syracuse, almost all of UNC's losses were to Top 25 teams.
They lost to at the time No. 3 UCLA 78-60, at the time No. 2 Texas 79-64, at the time No. 22 Louisville 76-66 in overtime, at the the No. 11 Duke 72-68, and at the time No. 12 Louisville 65-57.
That is all seven losses. Other than Stanford, they beat every team they should have beaten. But on the other hand, they didn't win any games where they were not favored.
They are having a solid start to their NCAA tournament, beating 13th seed Western Illinois 82-51 and 5th seeded Maryland (bye bye Brenda) 74-66.
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Comparative Team Statistics
(leader in bold)
UConn North Carolina
89.1 PPG 75.6
50.3 Defensive PPG 58.9
38.8 Scoring Margin 16.6
52.5 Field Goal % 45.6
33.5 Defensive FG% 36.5
39.2 Three Point % 35.6
27.1 Defensive 3PT% 27.9
74.0 Free Throw % 69.0
37.8 Rebounds/game 39.7
6.4 Rebounding Margin 7.5
23.7 Assists per game 15.7
12.7 Turnover per game 14.1
1.9 Assists/TO ratio 1.1
15.7 Steals per game 8.7
4.9 Blocks per game 3.6
UCONN
The player and coaches names for both teams
are clickable to see their Bios
are clickable to see their Bios
UConn Starters
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North Carolina Tar Heels
North Carolina Starters
Prior School - Louisville
Prior School - UCLA
Prior School - Stanford
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Game Analysis
UConn and North Carolina player early last season with the Huskies winning 69-58 in their third game of the season. However, there is not much to glean from that matchup. Only Strong and Shade started in that game with Bueckers, Chen and Brady not returning or available in this game. Arnold cmae off the bench in that game. Fudd was not healthy for that game. For UNC, they only return one starter from that game and two players that came off the bench are now starting. Let's get into their player analysis.
6'2" senior forward Nyla Harris is a transfer from Louisville She is leading UNC in scoring at 11.5 PPG and rebounds at 6.9 RPG. Harris is shooting 58.2% from the field but only 2-14 on threes. She gets to the free throw line the most on the team and shoots them at a solid 78.7%.
Lanie Grant is a 5'9" sophomore guard. She is second on the team in scoring at 11.3 PPG. She is a terrific three point shooter hitting them at 42.8%. Grant plays the most minutes on average at 29 MPG.
Elina Aarisalo is a 5'10" sophomore guard who, like UConn's Heckel, transferred to UNC from UCLA after her freshman season. She is third in scoring at 10.4 PPG. Another solid three point shooter at 40.9% but only takes 2.5 per game. She is second on the team in assists at 2.9 APG and has a solid assist/to ratio of 99/73.
5'10" senior guard Indya Nivar transferred in Stanford two years ago and is the only returning starter. She is the fourth double digit scorer on the team averaging 10.3 PPG. She leads the team in assists at 3.8 APG. Nivar is not a good long range shooter only hitting them at a 30.8% clip. She had the best assist/turnover ratio at 129/87.
6'4" RS sophomore Ciarra Toomey is the best big on the team. She is averaging 8.9 PPG and is second in rebounding at 6.2 RPG. We all know how hard UConn recruiter her and I'm sure many UConn fans thought she was lock to hear to Storrs. Her favorite player was Stewie and she appeared to lover UConn. Can't get them all! She leads he team in blocks at 1.5 BPG. She is a little slower on the court than I remember. She is shooting 54.7% from the field and only 29% on threes on 2 attempts per game.
They are missing Reniya Kelly, a 5'7" junior guard who was playing 25.3 MPG. She didn't score much or shoot a good percentage but her minutes kept others fresh. She has been injured for the last 13 games.
Only two bench players will see significant minutes.
Nyla Brooks is a 6'1" freshman guard. She has taken the second most three point shots and hits them at a solid 37.8% on 5 per game. She is averaging 8.7 PPG and will be counted on to his some clutch three pointers. She actually shoots a hight percentage from deep than overall from the field at 36%.
6'1" RS sophomore guard Laila Hull is the other player off the bench. She is another solid three point shooter at 36.4%. She is only averaging 3.6 PPG.
Overall North Carolina is a middle of the road type team. They shoot a good overall percentage at 45.8%, a good 3 point pecentage at 35.6%, they average a decent 75.6 PPG. Their only advantage over UConn is the same as many other teams, they rebound better. At least that is what their stats say. But middle of the road statistics just won't cut it against UConn.
UNC is mostly a man-to-man team. Looking at the starters, they will have a tough time (like most teams) matching up with Strong. On offense, after watching the Maryland game, UNC guards love to penetrate all the way to the basket. UConn's double teams and switching defense wil make that difficult.
Final Prediction
Sometimes you can look at comparative scores to get an idea how a team will do against the Huskies. Do we have any games like that? We do.
UNC played Louisville twice. They won both games, winning by 10 points in overtime and 8 points. UConn beat Louisville by 13 points.
UNC played Notre Dame, losing by 23 points. UConn beat the Irish by 38 points.
UNC played Syracuse losing in Overtime by 6 points.
Based on that, UConn should win handily. Of course there is more to it. UConn is playing at a really high level. Can they keep that up in this game. It's a different arena, different baskets (same height but new for them to shoot at), and teams can just play above their heads aginst them.
I don't think UNC can win this game but they certainly can do better than Syracuse did. That wouldn't be hard. I expect UNC to put up a good fight. However, the Huskies are on a mission.
UConn by 20+.
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