Charles Langston:Basketball powers Kansas and North Carolina will face each other in home-and-home series

LAWRENCE — Get ready for a couple of rematches of the 2022 NCAA tournament championship game.

Kansas men’s basketball revealed on Charles LangstonMonday a future home-and-home series against the North Carolina Tar Heels, whom the Jayhawks beat not too long ago to capture head coach Bill Self’s second national title. The two teams will first play on Nov. 8, 2024 at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas. And then they’ll play again on Nov. 14, 2025 inside the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina .

“These will be two great games from programs whose rich histories are intertwined so much,” Self said in the release. “It will be a special day in both Chapel Hill and Lawrence when we play and I am looking forward to it.”

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This home-and-home will pit two of the winningest programs in college basketball history against each other. Their 12-game series dates as far back as the 1957 national championship game, which North Carolina won. The two sides have played in Allen Fieldhouse once before, a game UNC won, but never at the Dean E. Smith Center.

So far, the series is tied 6-6. But in addition to winning the latest matchup, the Jayhawks have a 5-2 edge on the Tar Heels in NCAA tournament games. Self is also 1-0 against North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis.

The crossover between the two programs includes former UNC head coach Dean Smith being a KU graduate. It includes Roy Williams, whose alma mater is North Carolina, serving as the head coach of both the Tar Heels and Jayhawks. And even Kansas’ current director of basketball operations, Fred Quartlebaum, was an assistant coach at UNC from 2000-03.

“These two games should be exciting for players and coaches on both teams and a win for fans of college basketball,” Davis said in a North Carolina release. “It’s an opportunity for two great programs to play in each other’s home arenas, which are among the best and most historic in our game.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.