University of North Carolina Athletics
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Lucas: Schedule Rapid Reactions
September 7, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Quick takeaways from Carolina's 2017-18 schedule announcement.
By Adam Lucas
1. It still feels a little odd seeing an Atlantic Coast Conference game in December. The Tar Heels will host Wake Forest on Saturday, Dec. 30. That's in that traditionally well-attended post-Christmas/pre-New Year's slot when many families make a journey to the Smith Center, but it also means Carolina will play a home ACC game without the students in town. The Tar Heels' last two late December ACC openers have been on the road (a win at Clemson in 2015 and a loss at Georgia Tech last year).
2. As soon as the Tar Heels finish with that home opener, they're staring at a very difficult two-game road swing. Visits to Florida State and Virginia in the span of four days will be a very challenging way to indoctrinate some young players into the reality of road ACC games. Of course, that's why Roy Williams ensured his team would already have played true road games at Stanford and Tennessee.
3. Most of the nonconference schedule has been covered already. But that's a really tough two-week stretch, with very limited practice time, at the end of November. Carolina plays four games on the west coast the week of Nov. 20, then will fly a red-eye home, host Michigan about 60 hours later, bus to Charlotte for a game against Davidson 48 hours later, and host Tulane 48 more hours later.
4. Always a key in the new ACC scheduling era: check for the Saturday/Monday turnarounds. The Tar Heels will again have two of them; a home game against Georgia Tech followed by a road game at Virginia Tech, and a road game at NC State followed by a home game against Notre Dame. In general, because of the travel logistics, it's considered tougher to go on the road in the back half of the Saturday/Monday scenarios. But there's a somewhat hidden element to that State/Notre Dame twosome. Look a little further out, and the Tar Heels will host Duke on Feb. 8, then travel to NCSU on Feb. 10 at noon, then play Notre Dame at home on Feb. 12. That's three ACC games in five days. You have to go back to the 1991-92 season to find an example of Carolina playing three regular season games in five days during the ACC portion of the schedule--but one of those games in that stretch (Notre Dame in New York City) was a non-conference affair. The last time the Tar Heels played a more compressed schedule of ACC games only, it was a three games in four days stretch during the 1990-91 campaign. But that was created by a game against NC State being moved due to the outbreak of the first Gulf War. The last time Carolina had three regularly scheduled ACC games in five calendar days was during the 1979-80 season--nearly 40 years ago. The Tar Heels swept those three games, with wins against Duke, Georgia Tech and NC State.
5. Last year's schedule was notoriously backloaded. This year's finish appears to follow the same pattern, with three road games out of the final four contests, with those three road trips being Louisville, Syracuse and Duke. The Cardinals and Blue Devils should be top-10 teams, and don't overlook the fourth opponent in that four-game stretch--the final home game of the season is against Miami, which should be a top-25 squad. It's not out of the realm of possibility that by the time February arrives, Carolina's final five regular season games could be against ranked teams.
6. The ACC had already announced the schedule rotation, so this was already known, but it's a little different seeing it on paper. There are always surprises in every league basketball season, but on first glance, it looks like Carolina drew a very difficult rotation for 2018. The home-only slate includes Pitt and Boston College, teams the Tar Heels probably wouldn't mind playing on the road, and also includes Georgia Tech and Wake Forest. That means, as you would expect, that the road-only portion is absolutely loaded: Carolina plays Florida State, Virginia, Louisville, Syracuse and Virginia Tech only one apiece--and all of those games are on the road. That's a significant hurdle.
7. It's a bit of a mixed verdict on when those road-only games will be played. Florida State and Virginia fall early, when Roy Williams is likely to still be tinkering with his young squad. Virginia Tech is a couple of weeks later, and then the Cardinals and Orange fall at the end of the season, when Williams traditionally has his team playing very well.
8. Not a bad time for the open weekend in ACC play: Carolina won't play the weekend of Feb. 23-25, giving Williams some time for intensive work with his team before closing with a two-game kick against Miami and Duke.
9. Here's a mark of how much the ACC schedule has changed in less than a decade. When Carolina won the program's last national title, in 2009, the Tar Heels played six regular season ACC games on Wednesday and four on Sunday. So out of 16 league games, ten were on either Wednesday or Sunday. This season, the Tar Heels have zero scheduled ACC Sunday games and just two on a Wednesday.
10. Let's get this out of the way now: start taking naps as soon as possible to be ready for senior day. Yes, the final home game of the year is a 9 p.m. start on a weeknight. But they could start the game at 2 a.m. and fans should still pack the Smith Center to see the final home appearance for Joel Berry and Theo Pinson.
11. I hope I never get old enough that the release of the new basketball schedule doesn't feel just a little bit like Christmas. Life just feels a little better when you know for certain when and where you'll be able to watch Carolina play basketball.
1. It still feels a little odd seeing an Atlantic Coast Conference game in December. The Tar Heels will host Wake Forest on Saturday, Dec. 30. That's in that traditionally well-attended post-Christmas/pre-New Year's slot when many families make a journey to the Smith Center, but it also means Carolina will play a home ACC game without the students in town. The Tar Heels' last two late December ACC openers have been on the road (a win at Clemson in 2015 and a loss at Georgia Tech last year).
2. As soon as the Tar Heels finish with that home opener, they're staring at a very difficult two-game road swing. Visits to Florida State and Virginia in the span of four days will be a very challenging way to indoctrinate some young players into the reality of road ACC games. Of course, that's why Roy Williams ensured his team would already have played true road games at Stanford and Tennessee.
3. Most of the nonconference schedule has been covered already. But that's a really tough two-week stretch, with very limited practice time, at the end of November. Carolina plays four games on the west coast the week of Nov. 20, then will fly a red-eye home, host Michigan about 60 hours later, bus to Charlotte for a game against Davidson 48 hours later, and host Tulane 48 more hours later.
4. Always a key in the new ACC scheduling era: check for the Saturday/Monday turnarounds. The Tar Heels will again have two of them; a home game against Georgia Tech followed by a road game at Virginia Tech, and a road game at NC State followed by a home game against Notre Dame. In general, because of the travel logistics, it's considered tougher to go on the road in the back half of the Saturday/Monday scenarios. But there's a somewhat hidden element to that State/Notre Dame twosome. Look a little further out, and the Tar Heels will host Duke on Feb. 8, then travel to NCSU on Feb. 10 at noon, then play Notre Dame at home on Feb. 12. That's three ACC games in five days. You have to go back to the 1991-92 season to find an example of Carolina playing three regular season games in five days during the ACC portion of the schedule--but one of those games in that stretch (Notre Dame in New York City) was a non-conference affair. The last time the Tar Heels played a more compressed schedule of ACC games only, it was a three games in four days stretch during the 1990-91 campaign. But that was created by a game against NC State being moved due to the outbreak of the first Gulf War. The last time Carolina had three regularly scheduled ACC games in five calendar days was during the 1979-80 season--nearly 40 years ago. The Tar Heels swept those three games, with wins against Duke, Georgia Tech and NC State.
5. Last year's schedule was notoriously backloaded. This year's finish appears to follow the same pattern, with three road games out of the final four contests, with those three road trips being Louisville, Syracuse and Duke. The Cardinals and Blue Devils should be top-10 teams, and don't overlook the fourth opponent in that four-game stretch--the final home game of the season is against Miami, which should be a top-25 squad. It's not out of the realm of possibility that by the time February arrives, Carolina's final five regular season games could be against ranked teams.
6. The ACC had already announced the schedule rotation, so this was already known, but it's a little different seeing it on paper. There are always surprises in every league basketball season, but on first glance, it looks like Carolina drew a very difficult rotation for 2018. The home-only slate includes Pitt and Boston College, teams the Tar Heels probably wouldn't mind playing on the road, and also includes Georgia Tech and Wake Forest. That means, as you would expect, that the road-only portion is absolutely loaded: Carolina plays Florida State, Virginia, Louisville, Syracuse and Virginia Tech only one apiece--and all of those games are on the road. That's a significant hurdle.
7. It's a bit of a mixed verdict on when those road-only games will be played. Florida State and Virginia fall early, when Roy Williams is likely to still be tinkering with his young squad. Virginia Tech is a couple of weeks later, and then the Cardinals and Orange fall at the end of the season, when Williams traditionally has his team playing very well.
8. Not a bad time for the open weekend in ACC play: Carolina won't play the weekend of Feb. 23-25, giving Williams some time for intensive work with his team before closing with a two-game kick against Miami and Duke.
9. Here's a mark of how much the ACC schedule has changed in less than a decade. When Carolina won the program's last national title, in 2009, the Tar Heels played six regular season ACC games on Wednesday and four on Sunday. So out of 16 league games, ten were on either Wednesday or Sunday. This season, the Tar Heels have zero scheduled ACC Sunday games and just two on a Wednesday.
10. Let's get this out of the way now: start taking naps as soon as possible to be ready for senior day. Yes, the final home game of the year is a 9 p.m. start on a weeknight. But they could start the game at 2 a.m. and fans should still pack the Smith Center to see the final home appearance for Joel Berry and Theo Pinson.
11. I hope I never get old enough that the release of the new basketball schedule doesn't feel just a little bit like Christmas. Life just feels a little better when you know for certain when and where you'll be able to watch Carolina play basketball.
Players Mentioned
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