Tar Heels coming in 2016

It’s official: Hawaii will host North Carolina at the Stan Sheriff Center in 2016 prior to the Tar Heels’ participation in the Maui Invitational. When they meet Nov. 16, 2016, at the Sheriff, it will have been nearly 22 years since the last time the teams played.

The Heels will be the biggest-name team to appear against UH in the Sheriff in many years — Kansas and Indiana in 1997 and Michigan State in 2005 are some of the last of that caliber that come to mind. Even with its recent academic fraud scandal, UNC sits among the top tier of teams in the college game and still boasts legendary coach Roy Williams.

There was word of this game during last season when former coach Benjy Taylor talked about beefing up the schedule in coming years, along with the Las Vegas Invitational (which UH has since pulled out of).

To see it finalized ramps up the excitement quite a bit. With a couple of exceptions, teams have been skittish about playing UH on its home court in advance of three more games in the islands.

The Michigan State game 10 years ago had a lot to do with that. Illinois and Pittsburgh braved it the last few seasons; Pittsburgh didn’t want to do it in the Sheriff — not that it helped the Panthers in the end in what became one of Taylor’s signature wins. Illinois escaped in OT in 2012 and ended up winning the Maui in an admittedly down year for the field.

Here was the breaking news about it, with a press release quote from coach Eran Ganot, who presided over finalizing it on the schedule.

There are still a number of holes to fill on the 2015-16 schedule, especially now that UH dropped Cal, San Diego State and two games in Vegas as part of the LVI.

Looking past the upcoming season, are you excited to see the baby blue — likely a number of Heels fans will travel — in the Stan Sheriff?

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Paul Jackson at Think Tech Hawaii recently did a couple of Hawaii Sports Update shows featuring UH basketball as the subject. Here’s me on the show last week and Benjy Taylor earlier this week.