University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Visit Indiana In ACC/BIG TEN Challenge
November 30, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 30, 2004
The University of North Carolina men's basketball team will play its sixth game in 13 days when it visits Indiana in Assembly Hall on Wednesday at 9 p.m. in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
Carolina is 1-4 all-time in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, with the lone win coming last season against Illinois in Greensboro, N.C.
Wednesday's game will be nationally televised by ESPN, the fifth of eight consecutive nationally-televised games for Carolina. The contest at IU will be a homecoming for UNC junior big man Sean May, a native of Bloomington and 2002 graduate of Bloomington North High School. May and IU guard Errek Suhr were teammates at Bloomington North.
May's father, Scott, played at Indiana from 1973-76 and was the 1976 National Player of the Year during IU's undefeated, NCAA title season. Scott May also won a gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. That U.S. team was coached by UNC's Dean Smith and also included Tar Heel assistant coach Bill Guthridge and players Walter Davis, Phil Ford, Mitch Kupchak and Tommy LaGarde.
Carolina In The ACC/BIG TEN Challenge
Carolina is 1-4 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge with the lone win coming last year in Greensboro, N.C., vs. Illinois. The Tar Heels are 0-1 against Indiana in this event, with the loss coming in Chapel Hill in 2001-02.
Last season vs. the Illini, Carolina got its first-ever win in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Dec. 2, 2003, in Greensboro when it defeated No. 11 Illinois, 88-81.
Sean May set then-career highs with 23 points and 14 rebounds and blocked an Illinois shot with about 90 seconds remaining to protect an 81-78 UNC lead.
Jawad Williams also had a double-double for UNC, finishing with 18 points and 12 rebounds. For the second straight game, Williams' biggest play may have been a tip out on a missed UNC free throw. Williams tipped a missed Rashad McCants free throw back to McCants to preserve possession with 46 seconds left and Carolina holding an 82-78 advantage.
McCants hit three three-pointers and finished with 20 points in the game. Carolina guards Raymond Felton, Melvin Scott and Jackie Manuel held Illinois star Dee Brown to just 3 of 17 shooting (including 2 of 10 three-pointers) and eight points.
The Tar Heels made 22 of 28 free throws as a team while the Illini hit just 7 of 18 from the charity stripe.
Prior to the win over Illinois, Carolina four appearances in this event included a pair of losses to Michigan State, a loss in 2001-02 at the Smith Center to eventual national runnerup Indiana and a loss in 2002-03 at Illinois.
The Tar Heels were beaten, 86-76, at home by Michigan State on Dec. 1, 1999. That was Carolina's first loss in a home opener since 1928. Michigan State went on to win the NCAA title that season. The Spartans knocked off the Tar Heels, 77-64, the following year in East Lansing, Mich., to hand Matt Doherty his first loss as UNC's head coach.
In 2001-02, the Tar Heels got a career-high 27 points from senior center Kris Lang, but could not overcome the outside shooting of the Hoosiers and fell to 0-3 for just the second time in school history. Indiana guards A.J. Moye and Tom Coverdale combined to hit seven three-pointers and score 37 points.
Series vs. Indiana
Indiana leads the all-time series with Carolina, 7-4.
The Hoosiers have won four of the last five games in the series, with the lone UNC win being a 106-92 win on Nov. 25, 1988, in the Preseason NIT consolation game in Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Carolina is 1-2 in games played in Bloomington. The Tar Heels' last appearance at Indiana was a 61-57 win on Dec. 22, 1979. The Hoosiers defeated UNC in Bloomington during the 1962-63 and 1964-65 seasons. The Hoosiers have proven to be a thorny opponent--with a 7-4 all-time record against Carolina they've got a better winning percentage than any non-conference opponent with multiple games played except Army (3-0 all-time against the Tar Heels), West Virginia (5-0), and Navy (14-6).
Tough Stretch For UNC
The Tar Heels will play their sixth game in 13 days when they visit Indiana on Wednesday night.
Carolina is coming off a 97-65 home win over Southern California on Sunday night. Prior to that win, UNC had completed a four-game, nine-day road trip across five time zones with the 2004 Maui Invitational championship.
After playing the Hoosiers, the UNC team will return home early Thursday morning and have two days to prepare for the Dec. 4 noon tip-off with Kentucky in the Smith Center. The Tar Heels will then get a breather from game action to concentrate on fall semester final exams, playing just one game between Dec. 4 and Dec. 19.
