CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina players could be forgiven if they took an extra minute during their blowout of South Carolina State on Tuesday to enjoy the friendly chants, familiar rims and expansive locker room of the Smith Center.

Because the top-ranked Tar Heels won't be experiencing that home court advantage again for a while.

Tonight's 11:55 p.m. EST tipoff against Old Dominion in the Las Vegas Classic marks the first challenge in a six-game road stretch for the Tar Heels -- the most games in a row a team coached by Roy Williams has ever played away from home.

"It'll be a long time,'' said Williams, whose 1997-98 Kansas team played five away from home. "If we go 0-6, I'll be walking down here at 4 in the morning, laying down and kissing the floor."

The away stretch is a quirk, Williams said, but unavoidable because of tournament schedules and long-term agreements.

After two games in the neutral-site Las Vegas invite, the team travels to Ohio State on Wednesday for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge (UNC had played the past two years of the made-for-ESPN event at home.)

The Dec. 1 game at Kentucky is the latest in an eight-year series that is expected to be extended; the Dec. 4 trip to Penn marks sophomore guard Wayne Ellington's "home game"; and the Dec. 16 match against Rutgers is the second game in a five-year series.

The Tar Heels also have an exam week during that stretch.

So in all, there will be 28 days between their victory over the Bulldogs and their next home game, Dec. 19 against Nicholls State.

"Yeah, we'll miss this place,'' junior guard Marcus Ginyard said. "But we're really going to be able to see how tough this team is ... see how mentally tough we are."