University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Rapid Reactions
September 12, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
1. The schedule sets up perfectly for a team that will be defining some roles and developing some personality early in the year. Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson were dominant figures in multiple ways for last season's squad. Getting the chance to go on a road trip to Tulane, then an extended Hawaiian trip, and then the visit to hostile Indiana—all within the span of three weeks—will force the 2017 Tar Heels to spend a significant amount of time together, and play quality competition that will give them a good evaluation of areas that need to improve.
2. Those games will also be beneficial because Carolina's first two ACC games are on the road for the first time since the 1997-98 season. Roy Williams would not want to take his squad into Georgia Tech and Clemson without any idea of how they would react to an unfamiliar environment; the games in Hawaii, at Indiana, and against Kentucky will be good gauges.
3. Short turnarounds are always an important feature of the Atlantic Coast Conference schedule. There are three such instances in this year's slate. The first is manageable, because it includes back-to-back home games—hosting Florida State at the Smith Center on Saturday, Jan. 14 and then hosting Syracuse on Monday night, Jan. 16. Both of those clubs are ranked in the top 25 in ESPN's early top 25.
The second one is more challenging from a logistical standpoint. The Tar Heels must go to Pittsburgh on Feb. 25 (the last time Carolina went to Pitt, it was in the middle of a snowstorm), then quickly return home and prepare to leave for a game at Virginia on Feb. 27.
It's not a Saturday/Monday turnaround, but don't overlook the Thursday/Saturday combo of a home game against Virginia Tech on Jan. 26 followed by the long road trip to Miami for a 1 p.m. tip on Jan. 28.
4. Remember the days when teams played everyone in the ACC one time, then made a second pass through the league in the second half of the conference slate? This year, Carolina plays Virginia twice in nine days and Duke twice in 23 days.
5. How does the nonconference schedule get made? It helps to know someone. Of the seven nonconference games on the schedule that aren't part of a specific event (Maui Invitational, ACC/Big Ten, CBS Sports Classic), five have a direct connection to the coaching staff. The Tulane game was scheduled with the previous Green Wave coaching staff that included Shammond Williams, Roy Williams and Don Monson at Long Beach State are close friends, Radford is the alma mater of assistant coach Steve Robinson, Tennessee is coached by another longtime Williams friend, Rick Barnes, and Monmouth is coached by King Rice. The only other two games on the nonconference schedule are Davidson (a frequent Tar Heel opponent) and Northern Iowa (a return game for Marcus Paige's “home” game last year). Remember that the ACC will add two more conference games for the 2019-2020 season, so it remains to be seen how many of these non-tournament/non-"made for TV" games survive.
6. What do players look for first when the schedule is released? “You look for the big games,” said Theo Pinson. “You know Maui will be tough. Kentucky in Vegas is a big one. Then you look for those marquee away games, and the tough stretches through ACC play.”
Joel Berry agreed. “I like to look at what top teams we're playing,” he said. “I want to play the best of the best, because that's how you see where you are with your game. I want to see if we're getting the chance to play the top teams in the nation during the regular season to get ready for the postseason.”
7. The player who takes the most Roy Williams-esque approach to the schedule is Justin Jackson. “For me, I just look at the first game we play,” he said. “I know Late Night is Oct. 14, and soon after that the games start. I really just look at the next game.” Somewhere, Williams is smiling.
8. If Pinson is indeed looking for those tough ACC stretches, he'll probably land on somewhere in the back half of the league slate. For the second straight year, Carolina's league schedule appears backloaded. Last year, the Tar Heels played five regular season games against ranked league opponents. All five of those games were in February and March. This year, there are four games against members of the ESPN early top five scheduled for the final four weeks of the regular season, and five games against ESPN's top 13 in that same stretch.
Can we all agree right now that Carolina probably is not as good as we will all believe they are in mid to late January, and not as bad as some people will want you to believe in late February? That's an interesting setup, because Williams' teams traditionally improve over the course of the regular season. The Tar Heels will be playing better basketball late in the year than they will early on--and they'll have to be, because of the schedule.
9. Look for the Monmouth game to be the nonconference game that surprisingly becomes a tougher than expected ticket. With kids out of school and families looking for an activity between Christmas and New Year's, plus a kid-friendly 7 p.m. tip, the Tar Heels are likely to put over 20,000 people in the Smith Center on Dec. 28.
10. It would be nice to see the release of the ACC basketball schedule get a little more extravagant treatment. There's just something about going through your calendar and penciling in all those nights when you know you'll be staying up late, and looking at the mornings when you know you'll be useless at work. Television partners make this a difficult proposal, but it would be nice to have a set day during the summer when fans know they can look forward to getting the new schedule.
