CHAPEL HILL - It didn’t matter who the opponent was, North Carolina players were just happy to play a game again after beating Northeastern, 82-62, in the Smith Center on Wednesday night.
Prior to the win, two of the Tar Heels’ last three games had been postponed, starting first with Miami on Feb. 8 before Tuesday’s matchup against Virginia Tech was postponed just about an hour before Carolina’s loss at Virginia last Saturday.
UNC scrambled to find an opponent earlier this week before Northeastern came calling. The Huskies, who currently sit in second place in the CAA, may not have been the traditional ACC foe the Heels’ are used to facing this time of year, but that didn’t matter to anyone within the Carolina program.
A game is a game, and the Tar Heels were happy they finally got to play one again.
“I was really, really excited about it, just because we had a game,” freshman guard Kerwin Walton said after the win. “I was just happy to finally get a game because people are canceling on us and everything's being postponed and we go weeks without games. It’s just slow, just practicing and practicing and then it kind of wears you down a little bit, so I think everybody was super excited about just having the game today.”
UNC is undefeated in the Smith Center this season, so finally playing at home was a huge plus.
Including the victory over Northeastern, only seven of the Tar Heels’ 20 games have been in Chapel Hill. In comparison, Carolina has averaged around 16 home games in its previous three seasons and, with only three regular season home contests currently remaining on its schedule, UNC will be lucky to hit the double-digit mark with the amount of postponements currently happening across the ACC.
“We play 14, 15 or 16 home games normally in our schedule and some teams in our league play 19, 20, 21,” UNC Coach Roy Williams said. “And the whole thing that’s going on right now, I feel a heck of a lot safer coming here and playing than I do getting on a plane and going somewhere else and playing.”
Dealing with the uncertainty of not knowing if games are going to be played or not has not been easy for Carolina players, either. Getting into a routine and rhythm is huge for any team in any sport, and the Heels just have not been able to do that recently.
“Rust acquires pretty quickly and you can see that just because, with any team that has a big span of time (between games), they’re usually a little rusty coming back,” freshman forward Walker Kessler said. “So, I just think it was huge for us to get a win and get back into the flow.”
For freshman point guard Caleb Love, who finished with six points and a season-high nine assists against the Huskies, simply practicing all the time takes its toll on players more than one might think.
“We’ve had games getting cancelled left and right, so just getting this game was good for us to get our flow going,” Love said. “Just practicing is tough on our body, so just getting games and playing a different opponent than ourselves is good for us.”
Looking ahead, things don’t look great for Carolina. The Heels’ game at Boston College next Tuesday has already been postponed due to contact tracing within the Eagles’ program. Not to mention Louisville, which is supposed to visit UNC on Saturday, is currently on pause again after its game against Syracuse on Wednesday night was postponed due to another positive COVID-19 test within the Cardinals’ program. The Cardinals were just coming off a pause.
Uncertainty will continue to follow this team as they get closer to the end of the regular season, which is just 16 days away. But it’s something the players are just going to have to deal with during this unprecedented year for college basketball.
“Everything's kind of a surprise, so you never know what's gonna happen,” Walton said. “But we just keep our fingers crossed and hope that everything goes our way, and we manage to keep getting games.”
Whether or not games continue to be played remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: The Tar Heels will be ready and excited to play whoever pops up on their schedule from now until the end of the season.
