University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati
Lucas: Schedule Rapid Reactions
November 10, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Quick takeaways from the release of the Carolina basketball schedule.
By Adam Lucas
1. It's a strange year. Let's get that out of the way right at the top. There's no reason to expect the basketball schedule to be normal when nothing else has been normal dating back to the last time we actually saw the Tar Heels play basketball.
2. In a couple relevant ways, this schedule is a throwback to the 2005-06 season. That's the last time Carolina only played 27 regular season basketball games, and that's the last time the Tar Heels opened the Atlantic Coast Conference season against NC State.
3. That game against the Wolfpack on Dec. 22 is part of a difficult opening ACC slate, as the Heels go to Raleigh on Dec. 22, break for Christmas, then travel to Georgia Tech on either Dec. 29 or 30. After a home game with Syracuse on Jan. 2, Carolina is back on the road for a Jan. 5 or 6 date at Miami. The last time the Tar Heels played three of the first four ACC games on the road was the 2016-17 campaign. That national championship team went 3-1 in that stretch.
4. Playing the first two ACC games on the road used to be a rarity, as it didn't happen at all between the 1997-98 season and the 2016-17 season. But including this year, it's now been a feature of the Carolina schedule for three of the past five seasons. Virginia, Louisville, Duke and Florida State have played their first two ACC games on the road a combined one time in the past five seasons. Of course, if you're an optimist, that just means the Tar Heels have a home-heavy schedule on the back end, as five of the final eight games will be at the Smith Center.
5. Every year the routine is the same: look to see what Carolina's road-only matchups will be, and look for Saturday/Monday turnarounds. This season, the road-only matchups are Boston College, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh and Virginia. That's not an "easy" slate, but it's more manageable than it has been in some seasons. There are four other ACC teams that are either ranked or receiving votes in yesterday's Associated Press preseason poll. The Tar Heels have home-and-home dates with Duke and Florida State, are home only against Louisville, and are road only at Virginia. The bad scheduling luck with the Wahoos continues, as this marks the third time in the past five years that the Carolina-Virginia series will be contested only in Charlottesville. During those five years, just once has the only meeting been in Chapel Hill.
6. The Saturday/Monday turnarounds are more challenging. The first one comes in early February, when the Tar Heels play at Duke on Saturday, Feb. 6, and then host Miami on Feb. 8. The game in Durham is annually a physically and mentally exhausting one. Playing a well-coached team like Miami 48 hours later will be tough. But the second quick turnaround might be even more difficult, as Carolina hosts always-physical Florida State on Saturday, Feb. 27, and then must visit Syracuse on Monday, March 1. The short turnarounds with the back half on the road are always more difficult, and the Orange present some preparation problems because of their unique defense. It helps that it will be the second meeting of the season with Jim Boeheim's team, but that first meeting will have been almost two months previous.
The Tar Heels were a collective 2-4 in their three quick turnaround sets last season. But prior to last year, which hopefully will be an aberration in many ways, Carolina was 21-9 in the Saturday/Monday games since that format entered the league schedule for the 2013-14 season. That's an even more respectable mark when you consider that many of those Monday games are often some of the higher profile games on the schedule.
7. Having both Duke games on a Saturday is a positive for the rivalry, for college basketball and (not coincidentally) for the ACC.
8. Four of the first six conference games being on the road will be a test for a young team. Of course, no one knows exactly what kind of crowds the Tar Heels will face in those games. But it's still a test just to maintain focus and handle what is sure to be an even more complex travel routine than during a normal season. By the time Carolina returns home for a two-game home set with Wake Forest and State on Jan. 19/20 and Jan. 23, we'll know quite a bit about this year's team.
9. Go ahead and prepare yourself that some of the early-season games could be ragged. No exhibition games and no secret scrimmages--not even a Late Night, a good chance to play with the lights on at least--mean there will be situations where the team you see in late November and early/mid December won't be the same team you see in February. The eighth game of the year, at NC State, is a conference game. Last year's eighth game of the year was the home contest against Ohio State, and you probably remember how disjointed that one was.
10. Hopefully, the ACC has plans to fill in the missing game times sooner rather than later. Attendance is clearly less of a priority this year than in past seasons, but it simply makes it very difficult on fans to be handed a sheet of paper with multiple "or" dates for games, and close to zero set game times or television networks. It's a slight mystery how we could be two weeks away from the first game of the season and not a single ACC game time or network is set. The power of television in action (or inaction), folks.
11. The schedule release will doubtless bring up ticket questions. If you missed last week's update, the answer is that there's no answer as of yet.
12. But the bottom line is that we're going to have a Carolina basketball season, and here's proof. In 2020, that's a victory.
1. It's a strange year. Let's get that out of the way right at the top. There's no reason to expect the basketball schedule to be normal when nothing else has been normal dating back to the last time we actually saw the Tar Heels play basketball.
2. In a couple relevant ways, this schedule is a throwback to the 2005-06 season. That's the last time Carolina only played 27 regular season basketball games, and that's the last time the Tar Heels opened the Atlantic Coast Conference season against NC State.
3. That game against the Wolfpack on Dec. 22 is part of a difficult opening ACC slate, as the Heels go to Raleigh on Dec. 22, break for Christmas, then travel to Georgia Tech on either Dec. 29 or 30. After a home game with Syracuse on Jan. 2, Carolina is back on the road for a Jan. 5 or 6 date at Miami. The last time the Tar Heels played three of the first four ACC games on the road was the 2016-17 campaign. That national championship team went 3-1 in that stretch.
4. Playing the first two ACC games on the road used to be a rarity, as it didn't happen at all between the 1997-98 season and the 2016-17 season. But including this year, it's now been a feature of the Carolina schedule for three of the past five seasons. Virginia, Louisville, Duke and Florida State have played their first two ACC games on the road a combined one time in the past five seasons. Of course, if you're an optimist, that just means the Tar Heels have a home-heavy schedule on the back end, as five of the final eight games will be at the Smith Center.
5. Every year the routine is the same: look to see what Carolina's road-only matchups will be, and look for Saturday/Monday turnarounds. This season, the road-only matchups are Boston College, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh and Virginia. That's not an "easy" slate, but it's more manageable than it has been in some seasons. There are four other ACC teams that are either ranked or receiving votes in yesterday's Associated Press preseason poll. The Tar Heels have home-and-home dates with Duke and Florida State, are home only against Louisville, and are road only at Virginia. The bad scheduling luck with the Wahoos continues, as this marks the third time in the past five years that the Carolina-Virginia series will be contested only in Charlottesville. During those five years, just once has the only meeting been in Chapel Hill.
6. The Saturday/Monday turnarounds are more challenging. The first one comes in early February, when the Tar Heels play at Duke on Saturday, Feb. 6, and then host Miami on Feb. 8. The game in Durham is annually a physically and mentally exhausting one. Playing a well-coached team like Miami 48 hours later will be tough. But the second quick turnaround might be even more difficult, as Carolina hosts always-physical Florida State on Saturday, Feb. 27, and then must visit Syracuse on Monday, March 1. The short turnarounds with the back half on the road are always more difficult, and the Orange present some preparation problems because of their unique defense. It helps that it will be the second meeting of the season with Jim Boeheim's team, but that first meeting will have been almost two months previous.
The Tar Heels were a collective 2-4 in their three quick turnaround sets last season. But prior to last year, which hopefully will be an aberration in many ways, Carolina was 21-9 in the Saturday/Monday games since that format entered the league schedule for the 2013-14 season. That's an even more respectable mark when you consider that many of those Monday games are often some of the higher profile games on the schedule.
7. Having both Duke games on a Saturday is a positive for the rivalry, for college basketball and (not coincidentally) for the ACC.
8. Four of the first six conference games being on the road will be a test for a young team. Of course, no one knows exactly what kind of crowds the Tar Heels will face in those games. But it's still a test just to maintain focus and handle what is sure to be an even more complex travel routine than during a normal season. By the time Carolina returns home for a two-game home set with Wake Forest and State on Jan. 19/20 and Jan. 23, we'll know quite a bit about this year's team.
9. Go ahead and prepare yourself that some of the early-season games could be ragged. No exhibition games and no secret scrimmages--not even a Late Night, a good chance to play with the lights on at least--mean there will be situations where the team you see in late November and early/mid December won't be the same team you see in February. The eighth game of the year, at NC State, is a conference game. Last year's eighth game of the year was the home contest against Ohio State, and you probably remember how disjointed that one was.
10. Hopefully, the ACC has plans to fill in the missing game times sooner rather than later. Attendance is clearly less of a priority this year than in past seasons, but it simply makes it very difficult on fans to be handed a sheet of paper with multiple "or" dates for games, and close to zero set game times or television networks. It's a slight mystery how we could be two weeks away from the first game of the season and not a single ACC game time or network is set. The power of television in action (or inaction), folks.
11. The schedule release will doubtless bring up ticket questions. If you missed last week's update, the answer is that there's no answer as of yet.
12. But the bottom line is that we're going to have a Carolina basketball season, and here's proof. In 2020, that's a victory.
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