North Carolina vs. Kentucky to headline 2023 CBS Sports Classic: What to expect from the matchup

North Carolina and Kentucky will headline the 2023 CBS Sports Classic, the schools announced Tuesday. Here’s what you need to know:

• UCLA and Ohio State will open the doubleheader event on Dec. 16 at 3 p.m. ET at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena.
• This will mark the 43rd meeting between the Tar Heels and Wildcats, with UNC leading the all-time series 25-17.
• The two blue bloods last met in the 2021 CBS Sports Classic hosted in Las Vegas. Kentucky won 98-69.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

What to expect from the matchup

North Carolina’s nonconference slate was already pretty daunting — the Tar Heels will play at least three preseason top-25 teams, and possibly more — but the confirmation of Kentucky as its CBS Sports Classic opponent only ramps things up another level.

We don’t get these two blue bloods on the floor every year, but when we do? It’s usually must-see TV. So, what might that matchup look like this season?

Well, almost like a battle of opposites. First, there’s Kentucky, which brought in the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class (per usual), flush with expected one-and-done studs like Justin Edwards — who The Athletic draft expert Sam Vecenie listed at No. 1 on his way-too-early 2024 big board — and D.J. Wagner.

That said, as we’ve seen the last several seasons, youth ain’t all it was once cracked up to be in college basketball. You need old dudes to win. So credit John Calipari, then, for two later offseason moves; first, convincing SEC Sixth Man of the Year Antonio Reeves to come back for his COVID year of eligibility, and second, landing former West Virginia big man Tre Mitchell in the wake of Bob Huggins’ retirement debacle.

The Cats still aren’t teeming with depth — top-10 recruit Aaron Bradshaw broke his foot this summer and is still out rehabbing — but they’ve got more than enough talent to be deserving of a top-15 ranking.

And then on the flip side, you have UNC, which also radically remade its roster this summer… but for different reasons, and via a different method.

Last season, the Tar Heels became the first preseason No. 1 team since the NCAA Tournament expanded in 1985 to miss the field entirely, and nine players left the team thereafter. In came five transfers, led by Notre Dame’s Cormac Ryan and Stanford’s Harrison Ingram, as well as two freshmen, including top-10 point guard Elliot Cadeau, who reclassified up a year and came to Chapel Hill this summer.

It’s a decidedly older roster that Hubert Davis is working with, but still one with multiple new pieces around holdovers Armando Bacot and R.J. Davis. At that point in the season, fortune usually favors the experience, but it’s entirely possible the newness of both squads balances that out.

Expect a high-scoring shootout nonetheless, in what should be one of the more highly-anticipated games of the season. — Marks

Backstory

This year’s CBS Sports Classic is the 10th edition of the event that “annually brings together four of the nation’s most successful college basketball programs,” with the quartet touting a combined 26 national titles. In the 2022 edition held in Madison Square Garden, the Tar Heels topped the then-No. 23 Buckeyes 89-84 in overtime and the Bruins beat the Wildcats 63-53 in a top-20 clash.

Required reading

(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)