In front of a Pacific sunset and with waves breaking nearby, North Carolina will start its basketball season and drive for a sixth national championship.
North Carolina will play Michigan State at 7 p.m. EST today (ESPN Ch. 33) near San Diego on the USS Carl Vinson, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Coach Roy Williams of UNC was an assistant to Dean Smith in a game played at Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy base in Hawaii.
When he coached at Kansas, Williams had one game in North Dakota that was blasted by a blizzard, requiring an 18-hour bus ride home.
But he and his players have never experienced anything like what they'll experience today.
"I don't think I've ever been on a boat, period," point guard Kendall Marshall said.
"There's a first time for everything."
The Carl Vinson was launched in 1980. Its cost was about $4.5 billion, it weighs 101,300 tons and is named for a former congressman from Georgia. Navy SEALS took the body of Osama Bin Laden to the ship after they killed him in Pakistan, and the ship served as the platform for Bin Laden's burial at sea.
The flight deck is 1,092 feet long. The basketball court will be on the deck, weather permitting. Today's forecast for San Diego includes a 20 percent chance of rain. If it rains, the court will be set up inside the ship.
With tipoff at 4 p.m. on the West Coast, the sun will be up when the game starts. The carrier's "island," the only raised structure on the flight deck, most likely will block out most of the sun so players shouldn't have to fight the glare. As the sun sets, the temperature will start to drop. The San Diego forecast calls for a high of 70 degrees, with a temperature of about 65 at tipoff and falling after sundown. Breezes and wind also could affect shooting and passing.
"I really do believe that the elements will be a big factor in the game, so you've got to be able to make adjustments," Williams said. "We better be running hard enough that we don't get cold (when the sun disappears). I am concerned about that."
Williams did not have his team practice outside in Chapel Hill to prepare. Marshall and center Tyler Zeller said that although they appreciate the uniqueness, they'd rather play indoors.
"I don't want to shoot and the ball go sailing one way or the other," Marshall said.
Zeller is concerned about the elements, too, and said he rarely played outside growing up in Washington, Ind.
"They've already got rid of my theory that the boat will move, so I'll have to get a new one," Zeller said with a laugh, citing a need for an excuse for any missed shots.
The Tar Heels, ranked No. 1 in the nation, have all five starters back from last season's 29-8 team. The Spartans are unranked and have lost their past five games against the Tar Heels. The last time the teams met was the 2009 national-title game in Detroit. North Carolina won 89-72.
"We were really good then," Williams said. "We're not real good now."
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