Carmichael Comments: Schedule Release Special Edition

The wait is (almost) over.

Ever since the Carolina women's basketball team was defeated by Ohio State in the NCAA Tournament's Second Round in March, the Tar Heels' passionate fanbase has anticipated the start of the 2023-24 season. With the non-conference schedule already complete (and the subject of a Carmichael Comments back in August), we knew this season would be special.

Now? Even more so.

The ACC officially announced the conference schedule for the year ahead on Tuesday night, giving Carolina fans 30 dates to circle on their calendars and a roadmap for the journey to March Madness.

The 30-game (that's one more than last year and several recent seasons, thanks to the fact that the Thanksgiving tournament is a three-game event this year) schedule is impressive. Over a third – 11 of 30 – games will be contested against teams with a NET ranking in the top 20 last season. While each year brings its own set of results, metrics, and rankings, the non-conference and ACC mix will provide the Tar Heels with numerous needle-moving opportunities. At least 15, and up to 16, of the 30 games will come against NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago, with 10 of those in the ACC. Of the 16 home games (the most since 2019-20, Courtney Banghart's first season in Chapel Hill), seven will be against NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago.

Playing in the ACC affords Carolina those luxuries and a strength of schedule that turns heads come March. While the ACC opponents don't change year-in and year-out, the order of the games and their locations does. Now that we have the schedule in front of us, I analyzed all you need to know – so you don't have to!

Extra Holiday Rest
The Final Four moves back a weekend this year thanks to 2024 being a leap year, so the trickle-down effect of the expanded calendar for the season is a later start to ACC play. A year ago, the ACC began the league schedule prior to Christmas, and the Tar Heels took their designated ACC bye in the first window of games in order to play in the Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte. Even with that early start, two games were played between Christmas and New Year's Day. Now, with an extra week on the back-end of the season, ACC play will begin in full on Sunday, Dec. 31. Not only will the Tar Heels not have to take a bye to play on the national stage in the Jumpman Invitational, but they'll enjoy 12 days between games from Dec. 19-31. A season ago, the gap around Christmas was just nine days.

Starting at Home
For the second straight season, the ACC slate begins in Carmichael Arena - the first time since 2015 and 2016 that Carolina has opened ACC play at home in consecutive seasons. In a way, that's a return to equality after back-to-back road starts in 2020 and 2021. This year's ACC home opener is a noon tip on New Year's Eve against Clemson in front of a national TV audience on The CW, the ACC's newest TV partner providing broad distribution of conference action. That's not only a terrific showcase for the program to play on over-the-air free TV for the first time since a Jan. 2010 game at UConn on CBS, but it's a fantastic arrangement for fans attending the game, too. An early tip allows plenty of time to get ready for New Year's celebrations in the evening and provides the perfect cap to the Jordan Year.

Carolina will not only play the opener at home, but Game 2 in Carmichael Arena as well. Syracuse will visit Chapel Hill for the first game of the 2024 calendar year on Jan. 4, marking the first time since 2016 that the Tar Heels will stay home for the first two league contests.

January Showdowns
Coincidentally enough, the first three games of that 2016 season were home games against Clemson and Syracuse, followed by a road test at Notre Dame. That will play out once again in 2024, with the first road challenge coming on Jan. 7 at the Fighting Irish's Purcell Pavilion in Indiana. Carolina will be looking to buck a trend of home-court advantage in the series, with the host winning the last six games between the two tradition-rich programs. The game will be contested in front of a national audience on ESPN2 and marks the start of a run of four out of six games against ACC teams who reached last year's NCAA Tournament. The quartet is comprised entirely of teams that the Tar Heels play just once in a given season – Notre Dame, Florida State, Louisville, and Miami. The regional home-and-home challenges will come in February, but more on that later.

Carolina will head right back out on the road to see another NCAA Tournament team from last season with a trip to Tallahassee on Jan. 11 and a matchup with Florida State. The Tar Heels earned a road win at the Tucker Center in 2022 and will look for two in a row on Florida's panhandle. ACC Rookie of the Year Ta'Niya Latson returns to lead FSU in 2024.

The front end of the in-season home-and-home with Virginia will take place at Carmichael Arena on Jan. 14, providing an always-popular Sunday home game on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday weekend. From there, Carolina heads to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech on Thursday, Jan. 18. Atlanta is a Tar Heel hotbed, and Carolina fans frequently challenge Tech fans in numbers and volume at McCamish Pavilion.

Then, Carolina will play back-to-back home games for the second and final time in ACC play, welcoming a pair of Elite Eight teams from last season. Louisville will return to Chapel Hill on Jan. 21 for the first time since the then-No. 3 Cardinals were toppled in an epic game in 2022. That game felt like an arrival for Carolina women's basketball on the national stage and also a completion of the rebirth of Carmichael Arena as a true home court advantage. With Louisville falling on a Sunday, expect another great environment. Miami will visit four days later, on Jan. 25. The Hurricanes knocked off Oklahoma State, Indiana, and Villanova en route to the program's first Elite Eight a year ago.

The month of January ends with a Jan. 28 road game in Charlottesville against Virginia, marking the Tar Heels' first Sunday game in Hooville since 2010. The last seven trips to John Paul Jones Arena have all been on Thursdays.

February Rivalries
Let's list some schools that we haven't mentioned so far:
-NC State
-Virginia Tech
-Duke
Ah, yes. Those teams. The two most-played rivals in Carolina history, and a program on a parallel growth track that somehow always delivers epic nail-biting matchups. Six of the final nine games of the regular season, a whole two-thirds of the back half of ACC play, will be played against these rivals.

As the calendar flips to February, Carolina will visit Reynolds Coliseum at NC State on Feb. 1. It's the third straight Thursday game at 8:00 p.m. in Raleigh for the Tar Heels, who will search for their first win in the state's capital city since 2019.

Three days later on Feb. 4, Virginia Tech comes to Carmichael. If you're reading this column, you probably don't need a refresher on what's transpired in the last three matchups between these two teams – games decided in overtime, with less than two seconds to go, and a true buzzer-beater in Chapel Hill last year. This game, played on a Sunday, on either ESPN2 or ESPNU, will inevitably draw a huge crowd and be one of the most anticipated games of conference play.

After a week like that, players and fans alike might need a break. Great news: we'll all get one. There's no midweek game for Carolina in the second week of February, the designated ACC bye window for the Tar Heels. As we mentioned above, having a bye in the middle of the ACC schedule was absent last year for Carolina. Not only is it back for this season, but the timing is close to perfect at roughly two-thirds of the way through conference play and in the midst of rivalry matchups.

Coming out of the bye, Carolina will make the short trip to Durham to play archrival Duke on Sunday, Feb. 11. The Tar Heels will be aiming for a third straight win at Cameron Indoor Stadium, a feat that has not been accomplished since 1992-1994 (the era leading up to Carolina's 1994 national title, of course).

The ensuing week features another rivalry. Following a Thursday night home game against Pittsburgh on Feb. 15, the Tar Heels visit Winston-Salem on Sunday, Feb. 18 to play longtime adversary Wake Forest.

The final week of February is a reverse mirror image of the first. Thursday, Feb. 22 brings NC State to Chapel Hill for the second game between the two teams. Last year's NC State visit, a memorable Carolina win, was the first sellout at Carmichael Arena since 2015. With the South Carolina game in November also on a Thursday, the home season will be bookended by incredible atmospheres on Thursdays.

Sunday, Feb. 25 marks the annual trip to Blacksburg for the rematch with Virginia Tech. That game will be the final home contest for two-time ACC Player of the Year Elizabeth Kitley at Virginia Tech, and likely the final home game for star point guard Georgia Amoore as well. It's only fitting for the Tar Heels to be at Cassell Coliseum for such an occasion.

The final road game of the year is on Thursday, Feb. 29 at Boston College, the biennial return to New England for New Hampshire native Courtney Banghart. Carolina, by the way, is 2-1 all-time on Leap Day, falling in 1988 and winning in 1992 and 2004.

Classic Finish
As is customary, the regular season concludes against Duke. Since it's an even year, the finale will be in Carmichael on Sunday, Mar. 3. The Tar Heels have won at home in consecutive years against Duke and will aim to run that streak to three on Senior Day.

What a season it will be. Now, let's tip it off.

That's all for now. Go Heels!

-Matt