When you turn on your TV tonight, the court is going to look a little different. Carolina leaves the friendly confines of the Dean Smith Center for the first time this season, not to return until next weekend. The task in front of them is a new event for Carolina: The Fort Myers Tip-Off.
Unlike previous years, this isn’t a tournament. Carolina knows who their next opponent in the event will be — Michigan State — and the winner tonight doesn’t advance to a championship game. It’s all in the vein of
trying to change up the way the Tar Heels spend the time around Thanksgiving.
It does make sense. The last three seasons Carolina has found themselves in playing tournaments far away from Chapel Hill and wearing themselves down just to turn around and play a big matchup that’s arranged by ESPN. The Phil Knight Tournament in 2022, Battle 4 Atlantis in 2023, and Maui Invitational last year were three grueling games, and that work seemed to carry over into the next marquis game. It set a bad tone for the season in two of the three years.
Hubert Davis said after the Maui Invitational last year that it would probably be the last time they do something like it. Their rivals in Durham have already moved on from doing these and host their own “event” at home, and this year fellow blue blood Kansas is at The Players Era tournament in Las Vegas, while Kentucky is just at home. There are just better ways for schools like them to play good competition but not wear themselves out.
The first opponent for Carolina is St. Bonaventure, and if that program sounds familiar it may be because its General Manager is someone familiar to those in the basketball world: Adrian Wojnarowski. The former NBA insider for multiple outlets did a bit of an abrupt turn last September when he left ESPN and the hectic news-breaking world to be the first GM at his alma mater. “Woj” gave an interview with Jones Angell and Adam Lucas for the Carolina Insider podcast explaining his decision, as well as what it’s like to be a GM at a school the size of St. Bonaventure. He also talked his relationship with Jim Tanner, Carolina’s GM, which makes sense as he used to be an NBA agent and was likely a source of information for Woj. It’s a good listen before tonight’s game.
As a neutral-court event, it was anything goes as to who would broadcast it. The selling point for why it ended up on Fox? It gives the network programing on Thursday to follow their NFL broadcast. So, for the only time this season, Carolina fans will get to experience the Fox Basketball Experience.
So, if you aren’t in Fort Myers to watch tonight, here’s how you can catch the action:
- Time: 6:00 PM ET
- Location: Suncoast Credit Union Arena — Fort Myers, Florida
- TV: FS1: Jeff Levering — who is the main broadcaster for the Milwaukee Brewers and does work for Fox for college football and basketball — will handle play by play and a familiar voice in LaPhonso Elllis will handle color
- Radio: Tar Heel Sports Network with Jones Angell, Tyler Hansbrough, and Adam Lucas. Here’s a list of affiliates airing the THSN broadcast. You can also listen to them on GoHeels.com, The Varsity Network, Tune In, and Sirius XM on channel 193.
- Streaming: Fox One app—If you don’t have access to FS1, Fox One is offering seven days for free which will get you through the Tip Off
- Line: UNC -10.5
