All Heels on deck: UNC to play on Carrier Classic

Kendall Marshall and some of his North Carolina basketball teammates have been inadvertently preparing for the Carrier Classic since the end of the regular season.

For the first time in college basketball history, UNC and Michigan State will play a game on an aircraft carrier Friday that — weather permitting — will be held outdoors at the mercy of the elements.

Some Tar Heels took their game outside the Smith Center last year and played pick-up games with fellow students on blacktops across the UNC campus. But Marshall isn’t sure that preparation will translate to Friday’s season opener.

“I think Michigan State’s a little bit better than the guys we play against outside on campus,” Marshall said.

The unusual nature of the game doesn’t necessarily work against UNC since the Spartans are as new to the idea of playing on an aircraft carrier as the Tar Heels are. There’s uncertainty whether the Tar Heels will play outside or underneath the flight deck on a court with shelter.

The chance of precipitation for Friday has decreased from 60 percent at the start of the week to 20 percent on Wednesday.

Head coach Roy Williams didn’t seem to care where they played, so long as they’re finally playing.
“We just have to go play Michigan State wherever they tell us to play,” he said. “A few years back I said ‘if anybody invites me to play, I’m going to play.’ And it’s the same thing now.

“But kids just don’t play outside anymore. A hundred years ago when I played, we played a lot more outside than we did in the gym.”

Williams seemed unfazed by the prospect of playing outdoors. In 1984, when Williams was an assistant for Dean Smith, the Tar Heels played Missouri in a game on a roof at Pearl Harbor.

But his players seem less thrilled about playing outside. Both Marshall and forward Tyler Zeller said if they had their choice, they’d play indoors.

“Growing up, I didn’t really play a lot outside, so it’ll be interesting from that aspect of it,” Zeller said. “It’s our first game of the year and usually you have some teams that warm up with and you get the jitters out, but this year you go right into Michigan State and it’s something you have to be even more prepared into the first game.”

Williams took a trip to the carrier in December and asked several weather-related questions. He said the control tower should block out direct sunlight onto the court, but he worries about the change in temperature that would occur with the 4 p.m. Pacific game time and how that will affect his players and what they wear.

The coach won’t take “the wind blew it” as an excuse from his players, and Zeller knows he can’t use “the ship is moving” if his patented hook doesn’t fall. With the Carrier Classic being the first of its kind, there are still a lot of unknowns for those playing on Friday.

“You know it’s a part of the game — well, not playing outside — but adversity,” Marshall said after catching himself. “Of course part of the excitement is playing outside on a carrier.

“I have so many questions about it. I feel like nothing’s really making sense so I just put it in the back of my head and I just think all questions will be answered once we get out there.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.