Who’s Playing
Stanford Cardinal @ N. Carolina Tar Heels
Current Records: Stanford 11-6, N. Carolina 12-6
How To Watch
What to Know
N. Carolina is 3-0 against Stanford since November of 2017, and they’ll have a chance to extend that success on Saturday. Both will face off in an ACC battle at 2:15 p.m. ET at Dean E. Smith Center. The timing is sure in the Tar Heels’ favor as the squad sits on five straight wins at home while the Cardinal have been banged up by three consecutive losses on the road.
N. Carolina will head into Wednesday’s contest hoping to keep the good times rolling: they only won by two when they last took the court, which might have inspired the 26-point they dealt California on Wednesday. N. Carolina blew past California, posting a 79-53 victory. For those keeping track at home, that’s the biggest win the Tar Heels have posted since December 14, 2024.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead N. Carolina to victory, but perhaps none more so than Ian Jackson, who went 8 for 15 en route to 20 points plus seven rebounds. The dominant performance also gave Jackson a new career-high in offensive rebounds (two). Another player making a difference was Seth Trimble, who scored 12 points in addition to six rebounds and three steals.
Meanwhile, Stanford came up short against Wake Forest on Wednesday and fell 80-67.
The loss doesn’t tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Jaylen Blakes, who earned 15 points along with seven assists. His performance made up for a slower matchup against Virginia on Saturday. Maxime Raynaud was another key player, dropping a double-double on 14 points and 11 rebounds.
N. Carolina is on a roll lately: they’ve won six of their last seven matches, which provided a nice bump to their 12-6 record this season. As for Stanford, their defeat dropped their record down to 11-6.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the two teams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. N. Carolina hasn’t had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 82.9 points per game. However, it’s not like Stanford struggles in that department as they’ve been averaging 76.5. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
N. Carolina didn’t have too much breathing room in their game against Stanford in their previous matchup back in December of 2020, but they still walked away with a 67-63 victory. Will N. Carolina repeat their success, or does Stanford have a better game plan this time around? We’ll find out soon enough.
Series History
N. Carolina has won all of the games they’ve played against Stanford in the last 8 years.
- Dec 01, 2020 – N. Carolina 67 vs. Stanford 63
- Nov 12, 2018 – N. Carolina 90 vs. Stanford 72
- Nov 20, 2017 – N. Carolina 96 vs. Stanford 72
