University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: The New Schedule
February 13, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
With the snow still falling in Chapel Hill last night, most of the attention was on a Carolina-Duke game that wasn't played.
But today, even as more snow comes down this afternoon, focus turns to what has become a very difficult stretch of four games in eight days. Carolina will practice this afternoon at the Smith Center, as Roy Williams will have to refocus his club on a challenging stretch that will shape their ACC finish.
The Tar Heels will host Pittsburgh on Saturday, then must turn around and travel to Florida State for a Big Monday game. What had looked like a long week of recovery now instead features a home date with the Blue Devils on Thursday, Feb. 20 (game time and TV details are still to be announced) before a home game against Wake Forest on Saturday, Feb. 22.
That's four games in eight days, including what will be a very fast turnaround from a likely night game against Duke to a noon tipoff against the Deacons. There are, of courses, some challenges with such a schedule.
Players, for the most part, would rather play games than practice. But Tar Heel coaches will have to keep an eye on the minutes of Marcus Paige, who has averaged 37 minutes per contest in the last four games. He admitted to some fatigue before Christmas when his minutes piled up.
For the coaches, the new slate could be a scouting issue, but good fortune means no one ended up with back to back scouting responsibilities. Steve Robinson has Pitt, but C.B. McGrath has Florida State. Robinson has Duke, and then Hubert Davis has Wake Forest. That means each coach will be able to watch plenty of film without having to divide his attention.
In fact, if you have to play four games in eight days, the sequence doesn't set up horribly. The game against Pittsburgh is a big one, as the fourth-place Panthers come to Chapel Hill at 8-4 in the league, with Carolina right behind them at 6-4. The top four teams in the ACC get a double bye in the ACC Tournament.
Because of Wednesday night's postponement, Tar Heel players and--more importantly--coaches had an opportunity to watch Pitt's game against Syracuse last night, a rare scouting luxury during the conference season. Now they have to wonder how the Panthers will respond to a buzzer-beating defeat against the Orange; Jamie Dixon's team has lost three of five, and the two wins have featured a combined three overtimes to earn wins over Miami and Virginia Tech.
Saturday's 1 p.m. tipoff is the first-ever Smith Center stripe-out.
The Big Monday road game at Florida State comes 48 hours later. The Tar Heels will practice early on Sunday afternoon in Chapel Hill before flying out later that evening.
Games in Tallahassee have been wildly unpredictable in the Roy Williams era, and the Seminoles have lost five of six. But they also have wins over Miami, Maryland and Notre Dame, and playing them on the road ensures the Tar Heels won't be distracted by what's certain to be a UNC campus buzzing about the second attempt at a game against Duke.
There won't be much buildup needed when the Devils arrive on Thursday. Duke will be coming off a 9 p.m. game on Tuesday night in Atlanta, which means they're likely to arrive back on campus Wednesday morning around 2 a.m. That will be a physical challenge.
The issue for the Tar Heels will be mental. As Marcus Paige said this week of facing the rival Devils, "I've been thinking about it all week." Tar Heel players were excited about the possibility of playing in front of a rowdy Smith Center crowd on Wednesday, and now have to summon that emotion again next week.
But let's be honest: getting excited for a Duke game, no matter when it's played, shouldn't be a problem. The question is whether the Tar Heels can be ready to go again 36 hours later when Wake Forest--a team that already owns a win over Carolina--arrives in Chapel Hill after three days off.
The four-game set is the most compressed ACC schedule for the Tar Heels since a similarly unusual scheduling quirk. In 1991, Dean Smith and Carolina were scheduled to host NC State on Jan. 16. But the Persian Gulf war began that same night.
Similar to Wednesday evening, some fans were already at the Smith Center when the decision was made to postpone the game (the contest would have conflicted with a televised address from President Bush). Players had already been through early warmups and were in the locker room when they were told they wouldn't play.
Some Tar Heels found themselves in a comparable situation on Wednesday. Already prepared for warmups but with no opponent in town, Luke Davis and James Michael McAdoo went out on a vacant Smith Center floor and got in a quick shooting workout before heading home.
In 1991, the canceled game led to back-to-back UNC-NC State battles on Feb. 6 and 7. The Tar Heels ultimately played four games in eight days. The only slight advantage was that all four of the games were in-state.
After a split of the Wolfpack back-to-backs on Wednesday and Thursday, with each team winning at home, Carolina hosted 11th-ranked Virginia (blowing them out, 77-58) on Saturday and then--just like this year--finished the set with a home game against Wake Forest (the homestanding Heels won on Wednesday, 85-70).
Adam Lucas is the editor of CAROLINA.
