Want to play basketball against UNC this week? Try sliding into the Tar Heels’ DMs
.JPG "North Carolina coach Roy Williams talks with his players during the team’s NCAA college basketball game against Virginia on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021, in Charlottesville, Va.")
North Carolina’s so desperate to get another home game scheduled, it took to Twitter on Monday to openly solicit an opponent for this week.
Welcome to scheduling in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Tar Heels aren’t trying to sit idle for another week between games. And with the fewest home games of any team in the ACC, UNC coach Roy Williams would prefer any replacement game be in the Dean E. Smith Center.
Carolina lost another home game when the ACC announced Saturday that Tuesday’s scheduled game against Virginia Tech was postponed due to contact tracing within the Hokies program. If the Heels aren’t able to get another game, they won’t play again until Saturday at home against Louisville.
“We’re just seeing what is out there, we’ve lost three home games, don’t necessarily see that there’s going to be much of an opportunity to get those games back,” Williams said Monday on the ACC coaches video conference. “And they’re all three home conference games. So we would like to see if something will fit. And we’re not going to see that sitting here in the office looking at each other and trying to talk ourselves into somebody else’s situation.”
Since beating Pittsburgh on Jan. 26, the Heels have played just four games when their initial schedule called for six. Games have been shuffled around accordingly due to contact tracing and COVID quarantines; UNC had its Jan. 30 game against Notre Dame moved up to Jan. 2 to replace a postponed game against Syracuse.
That left the Heels with a week off between their game against the Panthers and at Clemson. Last Monday, their game against Miami was postponed because of Tar Heels players and team managers who attended a gathering maskless. So, it forced another week off between Duke and its loss at Virginia.
A scheduling solution in the ACC?
The Irish just had their scheduled home game Wednesday against Clemson postponed and would be a fit for UNC, scheduling-wise, but it’s not as simple as that with Carolina looking for a home game. UNC was not originally scheduled to play Notre Dame on the road.
“That’s one of the things that’s being explored,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said on the ACC call. “If we can’t play that, one I think we’d research a non-league game.”
Miami doesn’t play until Saturday against Georgia Tech. When its game against UNC was postponed, the school made it known it was not paying for a return trip to Chapel Hill. Asked if the Hurricanes were considering adding UNC back to the schedule, UM coach Jim Larranaga said on the coaches call “No. The answer is no.”
Williams said he’s had to be more creative in practice to keep his players engaged with so much time off between games. He added the stop-and-start nature of the schedule this season has constantly meant he’s had to make adjustments with how they practice.
“It’s hard to get rhythm, it’s hard to get into a routine, it’s hard to get into what everybody’s accustomed to,” Williams said. “And with seven of our top guys freshmen, they don’t have any idea what’s going to happen from one (day) to the next.”
Williams said UNC has contacted about eight schools already. They began with those schools they had to cut from the schedule once non-conference play was limited to just seven games when the NCAA pushed back the start of the season.
“We’re playing fewer home games than anybody in the country anyway. So we’re trying to see what we can do,” Williams said. “And it’s an ongoing process. We had a great idea this morning and made one phone call and it didn’t work. So you just move on to the next one.”
This story was originally published February 15, 2021 at 12:27 PM.