University of North Carolina Athletics
Rapid Reactions: Basketball Schedule Release
September 2, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
1. The most unique characteristic of the 2015-16 schedule comes in late January, when Carolina will make just the second three-game Atlantic Coast Conference road trip in the program's history (the other came last year, when Carolina went 1-2 on trips to Boston College, Pitt and Duke). This year's version might be even tougher, however. One of the three road games last year was a quick eight-mile bus ride. There are no bus rides in this season's trifecta. It includes games at Louisville, Notre Dame and Boston College.
That means Carolina will travel 3,190 air miles in the span of nine days, a nearly NBA-like schedule. Waiting at the end of that three-game road set? Home dates with Pitt and Duke, programs the Tar Heels went 0-3 against last year.
2. Still, though, those games against the Panthers and Blue Devils are part of a three-game ACC homestand, the first such stretch since 1998. After dropping four ACC home games last year, Carolina needs to reestablish a Smith Center advantage. That's especially true because the Tar Heels have one game only against Louisville and Virginia, and both those contests come on the road.
3. Carolina will enter the final two weeks of the season with the opportunity to make a strong NCAA Tournament case. The Tar Heels play three of the final four games on the road, including likely top-10 showdowns against Virginia and Duke, along with a visit to always-rabid NC State. The lone home game in that sequence? A home date with frequently maddening Syracuse. It's a very difficult cap to what is an extremely challenging final 10 games of the ACC schedule.
4. It's all based on television, but the gap between the two Carolina-Duke games has gotten shorter and shorter in recent years. It's probably unfair to both squads that they will face off twice in the final 17 days of the season. A home-and-home used to provide a true picture of a team's growth over the course of an entire ACC slate and provided a chance for injuries or fluky personnel situations to even out. That won't be the case with two meetings in less than three weeks.
The teams also met twice in 17 days at the end of last season, with Duke taking both games.
5. That's not even the shortest turnaround on the schedule, however. Carolina will face Boston College twice in 11 days in the middle of ACC play, with the second game coming at the tail end of that aforementioned three-game road swing.
Briefly: The best feature of the ACC schedule might be just one 9 p.m. game, which comes in the home battle with Duke...Watch for the home game against Clemson to be a tougher ticket than you might expect. It falls in the week between Christmas and New Year's, when the most appealing home game typically becomes a sought-after ticket for families who are back in town for the holidays...The two nonconference true road games at Texas and Northern Iowa are terrific building opportunities for key road games later in the season...Don't forget that the ACC Tournament moves back to Washington, D.C. this year.
