Another pre-game article

Tar Heels tip off tonight
By Dan Wiederer

Top-ranked North Carolina opens its season tonight in Charlotte against Davidson...

...Good news for ESPN. Like the Tar Heels, Davidson also likes to run, run, run and scored 120 points in a season-opening win over Emory. Sophomore guard Stephen Curry is the headliner of the squad, having averaged a Southern Conference-best 21.5 points per game a year ago. He had 27 points, including five of the Wildcats’ 19 3-pointers against Emory.

But Curry is just one of five returning starters on a team that won 29 games last year. Forward Boris Meno is the one Williams seems most concerned about from a match-up standpoint.

“He’s a (power forward) who can go all over the floor and do so many things offensively,” the UNC coach said. “He can be a real weapon.”

Tonight’s contest will be the first of as many as six games for UNC this season at Bobcats Arena.

The Tar Heels went 2-0 there last season, downing Sacred Heart and Winthrop in the NIT Season Tip-Off.

This year’s ACC tournament as well as the NCAA tournament’s East Regional semifinals and championship will be played at Bobcats Arena in March.

Still, Williams insists that had nothing to do with Carolina deciding to open the season there and he wonders how he could be so lucky, as the No. 1 team in the country, to open the season on the road against a dangerous mid-major.

“I think someone at Davidson got to (UNC senior associate athletic director) Larry Gallo and gave him some money and lo and behold, they were on our schedule,” Williams said. “You think I’m lying. But I’m still trying to figure out how they got there.”

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No. 1 North Carolina vs. Davidson
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Bobcats Arena, Charlotte
Records: North Carolina 0-0, Davidson 1-0
On the air: ESPN, WECT-6, 1540 AM, 96.5 FM, 105.5 FM