University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heel Basketball Notebook (Weather Info)
February 11, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Without a doubt, one overriding question has been the most frequently asked/emailed/tweeted concern from fans as Carolina prepares for Wednesday night's visit from Duke: Will impending winter weather affect the game?
The answer is a resounding, "It is way too early to know."
According to the ACC Basketball Operations Manual, "The only reason a game should be postponed and/or cancelled is if the conditions affect the safety of the teams or game officials involved." The policy goes on to state, "The decision should be withheld as long as possible to try and play the game at the regularly scheduled time (and in no instance earlier than 24 hours prior to the game as conditions may change rapidly enabling the game to be played)."
Only two officials, not three, are required to be able to make it to the game site for a game to be played.
One other interesting polnt of policy: "It is understood that inclement weather may alter game operations and preparations and may result in less desirable (but clearly playable) situations. In those instances, the games should be played."
With the season already into mid-February, and the fact that any postponement has to include an agreed-upon reschedule date, it would take a very significant storm to move the game from Wednesday at 9 p.m. There simply aren't many windows to reschedule the game.
The question of whether television will be able to air the game and whether you, personally, will be able to make it to the Smith Center are separate questions. ESPN was unable to air the Carolina-Georgia Tech game as scheduled because the production truck was unable to reach Atlanta. One television truck was arriving at the Smith Center Tuesday afternoon. The other was in Raleigh and should be in Chapel Hill on Wednesday morning. As for the on-air talent, Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas will be there. Scheduled sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards is unlikely to be able to make it, and Dick Vitale--because he is coming from out of town--is uncertain at this point.
The Carolina athletic department is keeping tabs on the situation and will attempt to make any relevant decisions in a timely fashion. Naturally, however, they can't judge the individual situations of all 22,000 fans and urge everyone to make prudent decisions for their own personal situation.
Wednesday's starters: Kennedy Meeks has started the last five games for the Tar Heels. But his production has tailed off in the last two games, as he posted seven points and three rebounds in 18 minutes against Maryland, followed by three points and six rebounds in just 12 minutes at Notre Dame.
Roy Williams traditionally has not spent a lot of time discussing his various starting lineups, but he indicated Tuesday afternoon there's a chance he might make a change for the Duke game. "We've had some discussions within our staff," the head coach said. "Brice (Johnson) has really done some good things. You have to think a little bit about matchups, about whether they're playing a post player or not, and that kind of thing. The decision hasn't been made yet."
For the last two games, Duke has used a starting lineup of Jabari Parker, Rodney Hood, Tyler Thornton, Rasheed Sulaimon and Amile Jefferson. That gives them four players capable of playing on the perimeter. Johnson has been vulnerable to burly post scorers, but that is not really Jefferson's role. The Tar Heel sophomore has been productive lately, with three straight double-digit scoring games and 21 rebounds over that same stretch--a sequence during which he has played more minutes than Meeks in each of the three games.
Keys to the win: Last night on his radio show, Williams listed his keys to a Tar Heel victory: "We've got to make shots. We have to put the ball in the basket. We hope we can do a good job rebounding. We hope we can play without turning it over. We need them to shoot a little lower percentage than they normally do. They are a very good basketball team. We need to play our best basketball game of the year to have a chance."
