The remaining puzzle pieces of the journey to March for the 2021-22 North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball team are finally in place. Carolina's 18-game ACC slate was announced last week, joining the 11 non-league tilts to form the full season docket that tips off on Nov. 9.
For starters, the 18 conference games marks a return to normal for Carolina and the rest of the ACC, as the conference played 20 league games in the 2020-21 season in light of the pandemic. Well, we should say attempted to play 20 league games – Carolina ended up with 17, and an unbalanced 17 at that, with no games against Boston College, Duke, or Virginia, and three matchups with Virginia Tech, plus two with faraway teams such as Miami and Syracuse.