North Carolina almost had an opponent nailed down Monday morning to fill one of three open slots on its basketball schedule, but then it fell through.

Such has become the unfortunate norm for Roy Williams and the Tar Heels. They want to play games but are having trouble finding anyone. In fact, UNC reached a point of desperation Monday morning when the program tweeted out a call to any program interested in playing.

“We're looking for a home game this week (February 16-18). Please contact us if interested,” the tweet read on the program's official Twitter handle.

Williams took part in the weekly ACC conference call later in the morning and went much more into the detail about the process while expressing his obvious frustration.

“We're just seeing what is out there,” he said. “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. And they're all three home conference games, so we would like to see if something will fit.”

Clemson was originally slated to visit the Smith Center on Jan. 9, but the game was postponed by the ACC because of COVID issues within the Tigers’ program. Miami was in Chapel Hill ready for last Monday's game, but the Hurricanes were uncomfortable after seeing a video of two UNC players maskless at a celebration party following Carolina’s win at Duke two nights earlier.

Then Saturday evening, UNC learned Tuesday night’s home game versus Virginia Tech was called off because of COVID issues in the Hokies’ program. Clemson hit the pause button Monday afternoon for the second time this season.

Such is life in the ACC right now, and UNC has been significantly affected. As it stands, if no league games are made up, Carolina will play a maximum of 17 conference games, seven at home and 10 on the road. That isn’t exactly an equitable distribution, which Williams has noted multiple times over the last few days.

“We’ve played six home games and that’s not a good situation, so we're just trying to see if we can find some more games to play here,” Williams said Monday.

Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey suggested during Monday’s conference call the Fighting Irish and Tar Heels could meet again, though that is highly unlikely.

“That’s one of the things that’s being explored,” he said.

The problem, however, is they played in January in Chapel Hill, and the only way the two could meet in another regular season game would be in South Bend, IN, which would mean UNC would play 11 ACC road games. That is not at all likely to happen.

In a piece THI ran Sunday, there are open dates that could bring Miami, Clemson and Virginia Tech to Chapel Hill, but it’s very unlikely Miami will agree to return to Chapel Hill. Clemson could visit March 3, as UNC plays March 1 at Syracuse and the Tigers are off during that week. Both teams close their regular seasons on March 6.

Virginia Tech and UNC basically have one available slot, and that’s Feb. 27. Otherwise, there don’t appear any available windows. So, UNC has increased its effort to find non-ACC opponents to fill the slots.

“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,” Williams said. “So, we're just trying to see if there is any interest out there and, if there is, we'll look at it and see if it's something that would fit in with what we're doing.”

In the fall, the NCAA placed a maximum number of scheduled games for Division One basketball programs at 24 while allowing three exempt games played in sanctioned tournaments, which includes the three games UNC played in the Maui Invitational in Asheville. Carolina's four other non-league games gave it seven on the season.

With the ACC scheduling 20 games, seven nonconference tilts was the maximum number the Tar Heels could play. But, if UNC does not make up any of the three postponed games, it can go out and schedule three nonconference opponents to fulfill the maximum game allotment allowed by the NCAA.

Hence, the Monday morning tweet.

“We would like to play, and we'd like to play a home game, so that limits things,” Williams said. “We've checked with probably seven or eight programs that are having problems with COVID or something themselves. The first people we checked with for years, at Kansas and at North Carolina, we've tried to help the programs in our state by playing them, which gives them a little more attention, and we give the money.

“And so, the first people we checked with were those people that we had to cancel the games because of the late start to the season. And now, we're just willing to talk to a lot of people. But it's not an easy situation because I’m… we've already got commitments for next year and we're playing fewer home games than anybody in the country anyway.”

As of Monday afternoon, the Tar Heels’ next game is Saturday at home versus Louisville, which has not played since Feb. 1 and has played just one game since Jan. 27. UNC has played only three times since Jan. 26.