This week begins Tar Heels college basketball season. Actually tomorrow night is the first time every team in the nation can hold hoops practice. The Illini have their “midnight madness” event set for Saturday night after the college football game versus Miami of Ohio. Yes, it’s really early this season. Moved way up from mid-October.
And the Illini and Tar Heels have had some fantastic contests in hoops: the ’05 National Title game, the Big Ten ACC Challenges, the night I asked Roy Williams about ESPN coverage of Harrison Barnes, and he went off on an AWESOME RANT.
And now the Illini and Tar Heels take the series to the gridiron. Illinois added a home-and-home series with the Tar Heels in 2015 & ’16, with the Illini traveling to Chapel Hill on Sept. 19, 2015, and the Tar Heels coming to Champaign on Sept. 10, 2016.
Previously announced 2015 non-conference games against Kent State and Western Illinois were each moved one week earlier to accommodate the Tar Heels series. The Fighting Illini will now host Kent State on Sept. 5, 2015 (previously announced as Sept. 12), and Western Illinois on Sept. 12, 2015.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An analyst for 95.7 The Fan and 1620 The Zone, he also writes for Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and Facebook