UNC Basketball: The Tar Heels will now play the Kentucky Wildcats in the CBS Classic

When we woke up yesterday, everyone had an eye on Saturday as Roy Williams and his #22 Tar Heels prepared to match up against #20 Ohio State in the CBS Sports Classic at 4:30pm in Cleveland.

In an unexpected twist, we found out that Carolina would instead play Kentucky at 2:00pm.

Huh?

Carolina’s official athletics website GoHeels.com said this change was made, “To more closely align COVID-19 testing protocols between the competing programs and their respective conferences.”

What?

This is all very unclear and strange. Part of the answer is letting Ohio State play whenever is convenient for their fans, since the B1G rolled out a Buckeye-red carpet to Lucas Oil Stadium for the football team to participate in the conference championship game (kicking off at noon on Saturday). Letting Ohio State’s basketball team tip-off at 4:15pm ought to allow Buckeye fans watch both games back-to-back.

Why Carolina was dropped as their opponent is more of a mystery. When it comes to COVID-19 mitigation strategy, I err on the side of caution, but I must say that I’m puzzled at what is achieved by switching UNC and UCLA.

In any event, instead of getting revenge on the Buckeyes for the 74-49 beat down they put on the Heels in last year’s ACC/B1G Challenge in Chapel Hill, Carolina will have to settle for piling more misery on John Calipari’s misfiring Kentucky squad. The ever-youthful Wildcats are enduring a miserable season so far, with losses to Richmond, Kansas, Georgia Tech, and Notre Dame. After they play UNC, UK heads to the KFC Yum! Center for a finger-lickin’ butt whippin’ courtesy of #23 Louisville.

Kentucky is shooting an atrocious 24.4% from three so far this season and averages 16.8 turnovers per game. Those stats are both worse than Carolina’s woeful averages (27% and 16.5 turnovers per game). Cue the Spider-Man meme!

This game has all the ingredients of a chaotic pick-up game at the Y. Carolina’s size and rebounding should come in handy with misses to grab from both sides in hearty helpings. But in case a brickfest is too much for your eyes to bear, let me leave you with two videos to cleanse your palate.