When the ACC basketball schedule was released in September, there was a very obvious theme to the layout of North Carolina’s 18-game sequence:
- A difficult five-game stretch with three road games against upper-echelon ACC teams;
- A six-game midseason window presenting an opportunity to pile up wins;
- The Duke game sandwich in the home stretch, seven games in which the Heels have five games against preseason top-5 ACC teams, a trip to Syracuse...and a trip to State.
The Heels, to an objective observer, have survived the first stretch fine—a close loss at Florida State was not unexpected, and an ugly loss at Virginia seems to be an annual rite.