CHAPEL HILL – The University of North Carolina, which a year ago faced the most difficult schedule in the country according to KenPom.com, is scheduled to play 14 opponents this season who participated in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
The Atlantic Coast Conference released the 2018-19 men’s basketball schedule Thursday. UNC’s slate of opponents includes six non-conference and eight ACC teams who played in last year’s NCAA Tournament. The Tar Heels will face three of those opponents twice, giving UNC 17 games in the regular season against the 2018 NCAA field.
A difficult schedule is nothing new for the Tar Heels. KenPom has ranked UNC’s strength of schedule in the top 10 nationally in 10 of Roy Williams’ previous 15 seasons as head coach. Over the last four years, UNC’s schedule ranked first (2017-18), sixth (2016-17), sixth (2015-16) and first (2014-15).
Carolina opens both its overall schedule and ACC play with two road games – at Wofford (Nov. 6) and Elon (Nov. 9) to begin the season, and at Pitt (Jan. 5) and NC State (Jan. 8) to start conference action.
The regular-season home opener is Nov. 12 against Stanford, which is coached by Jerod Haase, an assistant coach for the Tar Heels under Williams from 2003-12. C.B. McGrath, who also served as an assistant at UNC from 2003-17, brings UNCW to the Smith Center on Dec. 5.
The Tar Heels play in the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational for the third time, beginning with home games against Tennessee Tech (Nov. 16) and St. Francis (Pa.) (Nov. 19). Carolina will spend Thanksgiving Day in Las Vegas on November 22 when it plays Texas.
The Longhorns are the first of six opponents in a seven-game stretch against non-conference foes who played in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. That includes Michigan State or UCLA in the final day of the Las Vegas Invitational (Nov. 23), at Michigan in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge (Nov. 28), Gonzaga (Dec. 15), Kentucky (Dec. 22 in Chicago in the CBS Sports Classic) and Davidson (Dec. 29). UNC concludes non-conference play in the regular season on Jan. 2 vs. Harvard.
Carolina beat Michigan, 86-71 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge last year in Chapel Hill, but the Wolverines advanced to the NCAA title game. This will be the Tar Heels’ first trip ever to Ann Arbor.
UNC and Gonzaga have met three previous times, all at neutral sites, including Phoenix in 2017 when Carolina defeated the Bulldogs, 71-65, in the national championship game.
The Tar Heels and Kentucky will be playing for the 40th time, and the first since UNC’s 75-73 win in Memphis in the 2017 NCAA regional final.
In ACC action, Carolina plays eight games against teams that finished in the top three in the regular-season standings last season, and one game apiece against teams that finished in the final six places in the 2018 standings.
The Tar Heels have home and away games against Duke, Miami, NC State and Louisville; home games only against Florida State, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Virginia and Virginia Tech; and away games only against Boston College, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh and Wake Forest.
Carolina and Duke are scheduled to meet twice in the final six games in the regular season – Feb. 20 at Duke and March 9 in the Dean E. Smith Center. This is the latest date UNC and Duke are scheduled to meet for the first time in a season since the end of the Big Four Tournament in 1980. In 2014, the teams were scheduled to play on Feb. 12, but the game was postponed to the 20th due to a winter storm.
The ACC Tournament is March 12-16 in Charlotte.
Tickets in the 2018-19 Tar Heel Package, which includes a ticket to every regular-season home game except Duke, are now available.
New for this season, there are two price points for the Tar Heel Package – $725 or $625. The $725 package will be the traditional Tar Heel Package, located about halfway up in the upper bowl of the Smith Center. The $625 option will be located in the last 6 rows along the upper level baseline sections (sections 200-204, 213-222A and 228A-233).
Seat assignments for tickets bought through the Tar Heel Package will occur in mid-September based first on Rams Club priority points, then by the date ordered.
Late Night with Roy, Carolina’s annual unofficial start to the college basketball season, is Friday, Oct. 12 at the Smith Center. The Tar Heels will play one public exhibition game, at home on Nov. 2 against Mount Olive.
A Few More Notes:
The Tar Heels open ACC play with two road games at Pittsburgh on Jan. 5 and N.C. State on Jan. 8.
UNC gets a 10-day break in between games after playing at Miami on Jan. 19 and playing at Georgia Tech on Jan. 29.
The Duke games are Feb. 20 in Durham and March 9 in Chapel Hill.
