W. Basketball: Heels release season’s slate -

Visit to UConn highlights schedule

The ACC released its 2009-10 women’s basketball schedule on Friday, and North Carolina has yet another season filled with perennial national championship contenders.

The Tar Heels open their season with a five-game home stand, including an exhibition game against Francis Marion, the Division II school that UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell led to two national championships before coming to UNC in 1986.

The Tar Heels then travel to Las Vegas to take on the University of Nevada-Las Vegas for their first away game of the season.

In fact, road trips seem to be a theme for UNC’s season this year.

The schedule includes an away game at Michigan State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, a trip to Storrs, Conn., to take on the 2009 national champions in Connecticut, and a game against South Carolina in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

The game against Connecticut gives the Tar Heels a chance to even the score — last season, UNC played UConn when the two teams were ranked No. 2 and No. 1,

respectively.

The result was a 30-point UNC loss at Chapel Hill, and the Huskies went on to go undefeated.

North Carolina also features a sizeable slate of TV games. All told, nine of UNC’s 31 games are scheduled to be televised, including eight ACC games and the game at UConn.

Another wrinkle in the schedule, continued from last year, is a game after the conclusion of the ACC Tournament but before the start of the NCAA Tournament.

Because of the two-week delay between the two events, Hatchell has, for the past two years, tried to schedule a game in between in hopes of staving off rust heading into the NCAA Tournament.

Last year’s opponent was South Dakota, and for this season, UNC stayed a little closer to home, booking North Carolina Central on March 14.

Last year, Hatchell said the team was scheduling the pre-postseason game because she felt her team lost a bit of its edge by peaking during the ACC Tournament, before the long layoff leading up to the NCAA Tournament.

To contrast, men’s basketball usually has just one week off between the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament, as opposed to two weeks off.

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.