Yeah, I'm excited and it's only May. Can't wait. All games are from here:
https://www.tarheeltimes.com/schedulebasketball-2019.aspx. We play 31 regular season games per year, and this year we'll play 20 ACC games. Here it goes...
We play 20 ACC games starting this year, in a move to create more competitive schedules and create inventory for the ACC Network. And on that note, to launch the network we are starting the season with a conference game! Yep, our first game of the season is versus Notre Dame in Chapel Hill on November 6th to kick off the network. Given our team's inexperience I'm glad it's a home game, as ND should be pretty good this year.
After that we kickoff the 11 game non-conference schedule. The order of the games is not entirely set, but 9 of the 11 teams are already finalized. We've got:
Home games vs: Wofford, Elon, Yale, Ohio State
Road games @: Gonzaga, UNC-Wilmington
Neutral site CBS Sports Classic in Las Vegas vs: UCLA
Three games in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas against a combination of: Gonzaga, Michigan, Oregon, Alabama, Seton Hall, Iowa State, and Southern Miss
Unscheduled: 1 remaining game (likely a home game against a mid-major)
We've got our usual barnstorming tour around the Carolinas, with return games with Wofford and Elon coming to Chapel Hill. We scheduled 2-for-1s with these schools, so we play 1 game at their place and they give us 2 seasons of games in Chapel Hill. We're also playing at UNC-W to give CB McGrath a game. The Gonzaga home-and-home concludes with us playing in Spokane, and we'll get to see Mick Cronin's UCLA squad in Vegas.
In an odd scheduling quirk, we could play Gonzaga twice in the non-con if we meet again in the Battle 4 Atlantis. I expect us to be the #1 and #2 seeds in that bracket, meaning a possible finals matchup with two wins each. I think we'll be the #1 seed in that tourney? If so, that means unfortunately we'd start with Southern Miss rather than a more interesting team. Assuming we take care of business there we likely play one of Michigan or Oregon, before getting to the final game.
Because of the potential Michigan matchup in the B4A and our game this past year, I don't expect the ACC - B1G challenge game to be against Michigan. We only get paired with the big market B1G teams for TV reasons, so our challenge game is going to be against Ohio State in Chapel Hill this year.
Overall, the tough non-con games will be @ Gonzaga, the final two B4A games, and maybe the Ohio State game. UCLA's team is in flux and our home slate should be pretty easy.
The ACC schedule breaks down like this:
Home and Away: dook, NC State, Notre Dame, Pitt, UVA, Wake Forest
Home only: BC, GT, Miami, Clemson
Away only: FSU, Syracuse, Louisville, Virginia Tech
Here is the rotating three year schedule we'll be on with the new 20 game ACC format:
https://theacc.com/news/2019/2/14/acc-announces-future-mens-basketball-20-game-opponents.aspx
As you can see, this is really the year we get the easy home slate. Our only tough home games should be dook and UVA (and maybe ND since it's the first game of the season). We do get pounded with two games against UVA and away games vs FSU, Cuse, and Louisville though. Will be tough to come up with road victories, but should prepare us for difficult atmospheres. In subsequent years those groupings will rotate, and I like that we at least got UVA broken away from Louisville and FSU. Virginia Tech will possibly be an easy out this year, losing most of their top players and Buzz.
