Illinois poses challenge for UNC basketball

Just in time for fall semester finals, the North Carolina men’s basketball team is set to begin its own series of rigorous tests on the hardwood.

The first one comes Tuesday night when the Tar Heels travel to Champaign, Ill., to face the No. 20 Illinois Fighting Illini as a part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

The Tar Heels face three of the best teams in the country during the next two weeks: the Illini, No. 10 Kentucky and No. 19 Texas. Those games all happen in UNC’s next five contests.

For the Tar Heels to pull out a win against Illinois, they need to emulate the last five minutes of the College of Charleston game more than any other stretch of play of this season.

The suffocating defense held the Cougars to 38-percent shooting on the game.

“I think we’re going in the right direction,” forward John Henson said. “I think we have to pick it up a little bit more, and we’re going to do that in practice. It’s a big-time three, four-game stretch for us. This is going to determine what kind of team we can be, so we’ll see.”

Recently, North Carolina has been good in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, winning its last four games.

After losses to Minnesota and Vanderbilt, it would be hard to believe that UNC would be the favorite in Champaign, but the Tar Heels undeniably have the talent at their disposal to win.

“It’s hard to go on the road and play an ACC/Big Ten Challenge against a very good Illinois team,” UNC coach Roy Williams said.

Illinois coach Bruce Weber pointed out that he thought UNC’s speed and athleticism could give the Illini problems.

“One thing that scares me about them is their pressure,” Weber said in a teleconference Monday.

Weber also pointed to the interior, where he felt his team would have a strength advantage against Henson and Tyler Zeller, as his two forwards, Mike Davis and Mike Tisdale, outweigh the Tar Heels.

The battle in the interior will go a long way to determining who wins this particular chapter of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

The Big Ten won the challenge for the first time in the contest’s 11-year history last year.

“Obviously it’s a big game for us,” Weber said. “There’s a lot of buzz. To have Carolina, one of the top programs in the history of the game, it’s huge.”

Illinois sits at 6-1 this season, only falling 90-84 in overtime to Texas in Madison Square Garden.

That is the only team they’ve played so far with a Top-25 ranking, so the Illini, like the Tar Heels, are looking at the game as an early-season test.

“It’s great for the fans, but it’s a great game for us,” Weber said. “This week is a good test to see how good we are.”

Illinois will prove a slightly different challenge from Charleston because the team sports five players who average more than 10 points per game — a far cry from the Cougars, who relied on Andrew Goudelock for the majority of their offense.

Even so, the Tar Heel perimeter defense will be tested by Demetri McCamey, who was a first team All-Big Ten selection, and is averaging 15 points per game so far this season.

“Playing better, having more focus,” guard Dexter Strickland said, are the keys to the Illinois game. “It’s our first away game besides Puerto Rico. Just going out there, keeping our main focus on listening to what the coaches say and just winning.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.