University of North Carolina Athletics
View From the Press Box
June 21, 1999 | Men's Basketball
December 30, 1998
By Rick Brewer
Associate Athletic Director for Sports Information and
Communications
"Join the Navy and see the world."
For many years that was the line used by the United States Navy in seeking enlistments.
Today one could substitute "North Carolina basketball team" for "Navy" and be correct.
Over the last 30 years the Tar Heels have played in just about every locale imaginable. Carolina has faced some of the top teams in the game on their home courts.
But, the Tar Heels have also played in arenas where other nationally-ranked schools would never appear. The chance of losing to a little-known, but outstanding team is generally regarded as too great a risk. That possibility has never bothered Dean Smith or Bill Guthridge. Their feeling has been that playing a difficult schedule and especially facing tough opponents on their own courts will only make Carolina a better team. "You find out what you need to work on in order to be a better team," says Guthridge. "We could play a much easier schedule than we do, but that would give our players a false sense of their own ability. We want to find out our problem spots early and try to improve in those areas before we begin conference play." In the last three decades Carolina has played at Indiana, UCLA, Purdue, Syracuse, Utah, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Iowa and Notre Dame. There have been trips to Ohio State, Illinois, LSU, Texas, Stanford, Villanova, DePaul, Alabama, Michigan State, Marquette, Providence and Kansas City to face Kansas and Kansas State.
The Tar Heels have also played at Houston, Pittsburgh, Stetson, Richmond, Hampton, Old Dominion and Pepperdine.
Some of these have been set up as "Homecoming" games for players as Smith and Guthridge have tried to play a game in or near the hometown of each player so his family and friends could see him play. For example, Carolina once faced Towson State in Hershey, Pa. for Jeff Lebo, at Mercer for Al Wood, at the Palestra against La Salle for Dave Popson and in a Tulsa Tournament for Steve Hale.
The Tar Heels have played in Spain twice, in Japan, England, Greece, Germany and the Canary Islands.
There have been nine trips to Hawaii and three to Alaska for games. Carolina has also played at either Madison Square Garden or The Meadowlands on a regular basis. Tar Heel coaches have felt it was important to play in New York City for a number of reasonsthe team has had so many outstanding players from there, there are a number of UNC alumni in the area and playing in front of the New York media is generally regarded as a help to individual players in bids for post-season honors.
Travelling with the Tar Heels has provided an opportunity to see some unusual settings for gamesat Californias old Harmon Gymnasium, Memorial Gymnasium at Vanderbilt where the court is raised above the floor, Yales Payne Whitney Gym, Municipal Auditorium in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl Classic which seemed better suited for opera than basketball and the James L. Knight Center in Miami for the Orange Bowl Classic which was an auditorium with seats on only one side of the playing court.
Former Clemson and Duke Coach Bill Foster was the Miami coach in 1985 when Carolina played in the Orange Bowl tournament. Matched against Manhattan in the opening round, the Tar Heels scored a 129-45 victory, setting a school record with an 84-point win. Brown then upset Miami, sending the Bears against Carolina in the championship game. The Tar Heels rolled past Brown, 115-63. Afterwards, Smith was almost apologetic for the way the games went. "We agreed to be in this tournament as a favor to Bill Foster," explained Smith. "Hes trying to build a program here and asked us to play in the tournament, hoping to increase interest. I didnt know who the other teams were going to be. Were in a tournament at Dallas next year with SMU. We may end up playing Manhattan and Brown there, too." The games at Miami were not unusual. Carolina has played at a number of places where a coach wanted to bring in a topflight opponent to help build his program. That includes games against Boston University at the old Boston Garden, South Florida, Biscayne, Middle Tennessee State, Nevada-Reno and East Tennessee State where the Tar Heels opened a new arena.
Carolina has played games where many Top Ten teams would never dream to go-- utler, Jacksonville, Tennessee-Chattanooga, Princeton and Detroit. That Detroit game was scheduled because Tommy LaGarde and Tom Zaliagiris were from the area, but the Titans featured future NBA players John Long and Terry Tyler. There have been games against Arkansas in Pine Bluff, Missouri at the Checkerdome in St. Louis and Georgetown and Kentucky at The Meadowlands. Tar Heel teams have played in the Kodak Classic at cold and snowy Rochester in late December; the Far West Classic at Portland; the Cable Car Classic in San Francisco; and the Mile High Classic in Denver. Some of these road games have produced tremendous victories. Others have resulted in losses.
Still, the problems that come with playing away from homethe travel, having regular schedules disrupted, competing in front of hostile crowdshave eventually helped make Carolina a better team. Plus, players have had a chance to visit parts of this country and the world, for that matter, that they normally might never see.
The Carolina schedules annually are difficult, but they have been made that way for good reasons.
