UNC travels cross-country for ACC games at Stanford and Cal, adjusting to long flights, time differences and an uncommon West Coast road swing.
North Carolina is trading Chapel Hill’s pine trees for the Bay Area’s redwoods this week, as the Tar Heels head west to take on both Stanford and Cal in a swing that will test more than just their jump shots.
While it may not seem like a major factor, travel is something North Carolina will have to manage on this trip. The Tar Heels will make a more than 3,000-mile journey for their games, staying on the West Coast from Wednesday through Saturday.
They also will have to adjust to the time difference. The Bay Area is in the Pacific time zone, so Wednesday’s game at Stanford is set for 6 p.m. local time — 9 p.m. for those on the East Coast.
North Carolina will take on Stanford on Wednesday at 9 p.m. Eastern before facing Cal in Berkeley at 4 p.m. Eastern on Saturday.
Of course, with conference realignment, traveling across the country for league games has become the new normal — even if it still feels strange. It’s something everyone will have to get used to. Last week, North Carolina played in Dallas, but that’s just a one-hour difference from Eastern time. Playing not one but two conference games on the West Coast is something else entirely.
UNC coach Hubert Davis, who played in the ACC when conference games never left the Eastern seaboard in the late 1980s and early ’90s, acknowledged the oddity of playing league games in California.
"Obviously, yes, going across the country in the middle of conference season is not something that's normal," said Davis. "But it's something that's been done before."
The furthest game west of Dallas in Salt Lake City that Carolina had played up was their exhibition game against BYU on Oct. 24, a game that the Tar Heels last on the final buzzer.
Despite playing in the Pacific time zone for the first time this season, Davis isn’t worried about making the time adjustment.
"These guys through AAU and high school, they've played all over the place," said Davis. "Adjusting the time zone for an 18 or 19-year-old kid, I think, is overrated."
It’s also worth noting that Kyan Evans and Henri Veesaar are no strangers to playing out West. Evans spent the past two seasons at Colorado State, while Veesaar played at Arizona.
Last season, it was Stanford and Cal that made the trip east, with both teams facing Carolina at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill.
North Carolina handily dispatched the Golden Bears 79-53 on Jan. 15, 2025, before losing 72-71 at the buzzer in an upset against Stanford — the Cardinal’s first win over UNC in program history.
The Tar Heels already have one road loss this season, a blowout at SMU, and they’re determined not to relive that kind of nightmare. The time zone probably won’t matter as much as some might think, but it’s still a factor worth watching.
If things go sideways in the Bay Area, though, it won’t be the main reason why.
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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Basketball: The challenges of playing on West Coast
Category: General Sports
