ROBERT WILLETT - rwillett@newsobserver.com
Final preparations are made on Thursday morning Nov. 10, 2011 aboard the USS Carl Vinson in Coronado, CA, for the Carrier Classic game between North Carolina and Michigan State. The game will be played on the deck of the aircraft carrier tomorrow afternoon.
CHAPEL HILL -- There are questions being asked that have never been asked before about a college basketball game. These are uncharted waters, a nautical reference entirely appropriate as North Carolina prepares for Friday's game against Michigan State on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson.
The team got its first look at the aircraft carrier and its makeshift, open-air arena Wednesday, with still so many unanswered questions in the minds of players and coaches alike.
Just for example: Weather isn't usually a factor in college basketball, but it will be Friday, whether that's the temperature dropping as the sun sets or the potential for precipitation.
"We found out a couple of days ago that there was a 50 percent chance of rain. That's a part of the game," North Carolina point guard Kendall Marshall said, before laughing at the oddity of that statement. "Well, not playing outside, but adversity, things like that."
If it's adversity Marshall wants, he's going to get it. The unprecedented logistical complications of playing a basketball game on an aircraft carrier are only the first of many challenges that await the Tar Heels in the first month of the season.
The Tar Heels will play five of their first eight games away from home. Even after Friday's game-slash-event is over, there's still the quick turnaround for Sunday's game at UNC-Asheville and the quality of upcoming opposition, which includes games against Wisconsin, Kentucky, South Carolina and USC or UNLV. It's all designed to pose a stiff challenge to the Tar Heels while attacking any sense of complacency they may have brought into the season with them.
"I hope there's some success that will give them a little confidence in being able to handle the different scenarios, different situations, different arenas, not having your home crowd to make you play better or faster defensively and those kind of things," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "We have a pretty good team, so I think we should challenge them. If it was like '06 or 2010, I'd be scared stiff, but we'll see how we respond."
The game on the carrier is unquestionably most unusual, jolting the Tar Heels out of the comfort zone where they typically reside. They travel comfortably by bus and charter flight, stay in luxurious hotels and play under some of the nicest roofs in the country.
There is no roof Friday, no showers - the team will return to its hotel after the game to shower before heading to the airport - and no home crowd. The audience, composed largely of servicemen, is expected to be enthusiastic and neutral, an experience that may resemble the NCAA tournament. The arena is unlike anything the game of college basketball has ever seen.
"This game, this weekend, is going to shake everybody," Williams said. "This is an unusual deal. It's not anything that anybody's ever been involved in. I think our mental preparation is really going to be something extremely important."
When it's over, they'll leave San Diego late Friday night and fly directly to Asheville, where they'll arrive around 6 a.m. Saturday for a Sunday afternoon game.
North Carolina has traditionally avoided playing nonconference road games against in-state opponents, but the Tar Heels were invited to open UNCA's new arena, and Williams accepted despite the travel situation and the quality of the opponent. (Eddie Biedenbach's Bulldogs return four starters from last year's NCAA tournament team.)
"Some of my coaching buddies think it's wacko," Williams said. "But you have to challenge a team so many ways, and this will be a big challenge for us."
