North Carolina and NC State are going to add a neutral-site, non-conference meeting in Greensboro to their men’s basketball schedule, and it comes on top of the usual ACC game. The move is a response to the conference’s new scheduling setup, which limits teams to playing only two opponents twice during league play.
UNC’s locked-in double is Duke, and with the other repeat series changing from year to year, the Tar Heels and Wolfpack were only set to meet once this season. In theory, they could have gone a year without playing at all.
It’s a clunky system, and the new Greensboro game feels like a practical fix for a messy reality. The ACC’s gotten too big for a true round robin, and there’s no real sign that college sports’ power brokers are interested in shrinking these leagues back down.
But the announcement also brought the rivalry itself back into focus. UNC-NC State has given college basketball plenty of memorable moments over the years, even if other in-state matchups tend to draw more of the spotlight. So in the spirit of the news, it’s worth asking: what’s your favorite UNC-NC State basketball memory?
One that stands out came in February 2014, when Roy Williams’ Tar Heels turned a game that looked like it was slipping away into another win over the Wolfpack. Williams had a clear edge in the series during his UNC tenure, and his teams always seemed ready for State. That night followed the same script for a while.
UNC went into halftime down eight, then Marcus Paige helped spark the comeback. The Tar Heels finally grabbed the lead around the seven-minute mark, but the game kept swinging. TJ Warren’s free throws tied it and forced overtime.
State looked to have control in the extra period, building leads as large as six. Then Paige took over.
He either scored or assisted on 12 of UNC’s points, and Carolina finished the overtime stretch with an 11-4 edge over the final two minutes. Paige’s late layup to put the Tar Heels ahead for good is one of those plays that sticks.
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