A couple days ago, North Carolina and NC State announced that their men's basketball teams were going to play a neutral site, non-conference game in Greensboro. This game comes in addition to the regularly scheduled game in ACC play. The need to do this comes about after recent changes to the ACC schedule dictated that teams would only play two teams twice during conference play. One of UNC's doubles is locked up by the Duke series, and the conference made it so that only one series is guaranteed and the other changes from year to year. That's meant that UNC and State were only scheduled to play once this season, and it's theoretically possible to not face them at all.
That is all pretty stupid, but I can't say I know a better solution. With the ACC now super bloated, you can't do a true round robin, and the powers that be across college sports aren't in any rush to make the ACC or other conferences less bloated. This game in Greensboro does seem to be a good solution to a dumb set of problems.
The announcement also got me thinking about the series in general. It's a long and storied one in the history of college basketball, even if a different local team's games against UNC get more attention. However, it's still produced some good memories, and that's what I want to talk about today. In honor of the recent announcement, what's your favorite UNC-NC State basketball memory?
The Tar Heels have had a pretty big edge for much of the series in men's basketball lately. A good chunk of that has to do with Roy Williams. In addition to him just being a great coach in general, he had a palpable dislike of the Wolfpack and always had his UNC teams up for those games. For a while, it seemed like no matter how the rest of the game played out, the Tar Heels would come out victorious. Such was the case in one particular night in February 2014.
After trailing by eight going into halftime, the Marcus Paige-led Tar Heels clawed their way back, taking a lead around the seven minute mark. The teams then went back and forth, with TJ Warren free throws tying the game to send it to overtime. In OT, State seemingly took over, going up six at several points. However, Paige then took over, scoring or assisting on 12 UNC points, as the Tar Heels outscored the Wolfpack 11-4 over the final two minutes. Paige's layup in the dying seconds to give Carolina the lead for good is one of those plays that will forever stick with me.
That's my personal choice, but now we want to hear from you. What is your favorite UNC-State basketball moment/game from over the years?
