UNC vs. Northeastern: How to Watch

In a year full of odd twists and turns, perhaps the oddest twist occurred on Monday when Carolina Basketball essentially did a public “hit me up” text on Twitter:

It’s really remarkable, when you think about it. One of the bluest of blue bloods in college basketball couldn’t find a game and had to act like your cousin who lived next to a court and was trying to get a pick up game going. Instead of a workout at the local Y, though, the stakes were for a game to count in the 2020-2021 basketball season.

The good news for Carolina was that the text solicited a ton of answers, and within 10 hours, the Tar Heels announced that they had a game scheduled for tonight against the Northeastern Huskies of the CAA.

The Huskies were in the position themselves thanks to how the CAA scheduled their basketball games. A lot of smaller conferences were looking to reduce travel and potential Covid issues by doing their games in back-to-back formats To save wear and tear, that means every weekend had a game, leaving weekdays free. Then, Northeastern’s opponents for this weekend, UNC-Wilmington, had to postpone their series due to Covid, and it left the Huskies staring at a situation worse than Carolina’s, in a lot of ways. Their last game was a loss against Townson on Sunday, and they wouldn’t have another game until next Saturday versus William and Mary. That’s two weeks without a game, and for a team that’s near the top of the CAA and looking to get into the NCAA Tournament, it’s not a good situation.

Also, it’s likely that the Tar Heels are making it worth it to Northeastern to make the trek down from Boston. They were basically planning to come to North Carolina this week anyway, just a little further away from the beach - and it’s not exactly beach weather right now.

It just goes to show how odd this season has been as a whole when other teams in the league have a free spot this week but couldn’t be bothered to play a game with UNC that was already postponed last week. While this game won’t help Carolina in the league standings, it’ll be valuable both as an NCAA Tournament-style of game, needing to prepare for a pretty good opponent on short notice, as well as establishing momentum so they don’t sit for yet another week between games.

This is summarized below, but note that because of other obligations, this game will not be on TV. ESPN has all of their open spots filled, and as of this writing none of the local RSN’s have picked up the game due to professional sports obligations. This might change as one, of those teams, the Charlotte Hornets, is dealing with a short Covid pause of their own, and there may be an opening to show the game. If that happens, this will be updated accordingly.

Also, pay attention to the announcers calling this game: There’s a name calling the action that Tar Heel fans may enjoy.

• Time: 7:00 PM ET
• Location: Roy Williams Court at the Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center, Chapel Hill, NC
• TV: ACC Network Extra, note this is a streaming-only game as the actual ACC network will have other basketball on, Kyle Straub will handle the play by play and...Tyler Hansbrough, yes, the one and only, will be doing color.
• Radio: Tar Heel Sports Network (list of affiliates) with Jones Angell on play-by-play and Eric Montross next to him for analysis.
• Streaming: ACC Network Extra, the streaming only partner of ESPN. It’s available for those with access to the ACC Network via Watch ESPN on the Internet, and the ESPN App from Apple and Android. You can stream the radio broadcast on GoHeels.com and Tune In
• Line: UNC -14.5