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Carolina’s complete hoops schedule is now officially arduous.
When the non-conference basketball opponents were announced, we already knew Hubert Davis and the Tar Heels would be under immediate pressure from anxious UNC alumni and fans who are expecting a total turnaround season.
The big ‘if’ is how youngster Elliot Cadeau and 5 old-ster transfers will help thrust the four returnees back into the national picture as a good bet for the NCAA tournament; you know, seeding and region versus anxiety about not getting in again.
If they have any improvement from the new faces and a revitalized bench, they should win the first four games against Radford, Lehigh, UC-Riverside and Northern Iowa in the opener of the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas.
But the needle moves dramatically with either Texas Tech or Villanova in the next round at Atlantis and Arkansas, Memphis, Michigan or Stanford in the third game. Then comes tenacious Tennessee here in late November.
What we just found out with the release of the ACC schedule, always-athletic Florida State comes to town for the conference opener on December 2, followed by national opponents UConn, Kentucky and Oklahoma on neutral courts.
That looks scary despite all the blind optimism trolling through social media. When the Heels come home on December 29 as heavy favorites against Charleston Southern, having gone 7-4 through their first 11 games among the nation’s toughest schedules would be a good start.
But three straight road games at Pitt, Clemson and N.C. State to resume ACC play? Pitt doesn’t have a rematch in Chapel Hill like Clemson and State do. It can’t help that six of those next nine conference games are on the road.
Besides Clemson and State, the rest of the ACC slate includes home and home with Syracuse, Miami, FSU and Duke. The eight single games are Louisville, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame at home; BC, Georgia Tech, Virginia (and Pitt) are away.
Davis, who has reportedly been very demanding in preseason practice, is not the only ACC coach working in new players. So it is more difficult to discuss how hard sweeping home-and-homes will be beyond the always-tough Duke, State and Miami series.
Suffice to say there should be a lot of close games again, of which the Tar Heels lost more two-possession outcomes than they won in 2022-23. Carolina cannot get on the bubble early and be fighting to stay on the right side of it and still get benefit of doubt from the selection committee.
So fans, as well as the team, have to take them one at a time. All together now, deep breath.
Featured photo via AP Photo/Chris Seward.
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