Alabama to face North Carolina in Chapel Hill in Sweet 16 rematch

Alabama men’s basketball will face North Carolina on December 4 as part of the second annual ACC/SEC challenge, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein reported Wednesday for CollegeHoopsToday.net. The SEC confirmed the game later Wednesday.

The game will take place in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in the Tide’s first trip to the Dean Smith Center since December 1990.

The ACC/SEC challenge began last November when Alabama hosted Clemson. The event replaced the SEC/Big 12 challenge, which took place in January during the SEC’s regular season.

This December’s game will be a rematch of Alabama and North Carolina’s meeting in the Sweet 16 this past March. The Tide upset the West region’s No. 1 seed Tar Heels in Los Angeles to advance to the Elite Eight, and then the Final Four. It was the third meeting between Alabama and North Carolina in the Nate Oats era, after a Tide loss in the Bahamas in November 2019 and a Tide win over then-No. 1 North Carolina in Portland, Oregon in November 2022.

Alabama’s 2024-25 schedule now includes confirmed games against six other Sweet 16 teams from last season: North Carolina, Houston, Illinois, Purdue, Creighton and Tennessee.

Alabama’s non-conference schedule, which it has yet to officially announce, will also include games against Notre Dame or Rutgers in Las Vegas; at North Dakota; and home against McNeese State and Kent State.