The University of Evansville's final season of basketball at Roberts Stadium became even more special today.
UE Director of Athletics John Stanley and Basketball Coach Marty Simmons announced this evening that the Purple Aces will take on coach Roy Williams' University of North Carolina Tar Heels on Wednesday, December 8 at Roberts. This will be the second game in a three-game series between Evansville and North Carolina. The first was a 91-73 North Carolina victory at Chapel Hill two years ago during the Tar Heels' march to the 2009 NCAA championship. The final game of the series is scheduled for the 2011-12 season at Chapel Hill. The December 8 game at Roberts Stadium is sponsored by Fifth Third Bank.
Season tickets are the only way to guarantee seats for the North Carolina game. Current season ticket holders will receive their renewal information in the mail in approximately two to three weeks. The UE athletic ticket office at Carson Center will open Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. to take new season ticket orders. Orders will also be taken by phone at (812) 488-ACES. Should tickets remain available following the season ticket renewal process, they will go on sale closer to the start of the season.
"No doubt this is a big game for our players, and especially for our fans," Simmons said. "When you talk about North Carolina and Roy Williams, you're talking about the elite level of college basketball. They have never played in Evansville, and may never again. This is a special opportunity for our fans, and for all college basketball fans in the Tri-State."
The series against North Carolina originated in part because UNC sometimes schedules games near the hometowns of its players. Junior forward Tyler Zeller is from Washington, Ind., and was one of 20 collegiate players named recently to the USA Men's Select Team. His squad is training this week against the 2010 USA Basketball Men's National Team in Las Vegas, Nevada. Zeller averaged 9.3 points and 4.6 rebounds in 27 games last season, missing 10 games with a foot injury. He returned to action in late February and averaged 8.9 points and 4.7 rebounds over the final 11 games of the season.
Williams guided North Carolina through its most successful five-year period in school history from 2005 through 2009, winning two NCAA championships, earning four NCAA Tournament No. 1 seeds, and winning 30 games or more four times. As a result, the Tar Heels rank number one among all schools in NCAA Tournament victories (102), NCAA Final Fours (18) and NCAA Tournament No. 1 seeds (13), and second in NCAA Tournament appearances (41). North Carolina took a tumble, by its standards, last season. The Tar Heels did not reach the NCAA Tournament, finishing with a 20-17 record and as runner-up to Dayton in the NIT. But Williams has brought in a group of recruits ranked by some scouting services as number one nationally. Harrison Barnes, a 6-8, 205-pound freshman forward from Ames, Iowa, was chosen as ESPN's national high school player of the year. Classmates Reggie Bullock and Kendall Marshall were also ranked among the nation's top 20 high school players.
The newcomers will be joining a North Carolina squad that includes returning starters Will Graves (9.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg) and Larry Drew II (8.5, 2.7) plus regulars John Henson (5.7, 4.4), Dexter Strickland (5.4, 1.5) and Zeller. Leading scorer Deon Thompson (13.7, 6.7) graduated and second leading scorer Ed Davis (13.4, 9.6) was taken in the first round of last month's NBA draft by the Toronto Raptors, becoming the fourth UNC player in the last two years to go in the first round of the draft.
This will be the third time that a Roy Williams-coached team has played Evansville. In addition to the contest at Chapel Hill in December, 2008, the Aces played Williams' University of Kansas team in the first round of the 1999 NCAA Tournament at New Orleans, where the Jayhawks pulled away in the second half to win 95-74.
This year's UE squad is hoping that last season's February surge, which included wins over Sweet 16 team Northern Iowa and MVC runnerup Wichita State, will provide momentum going into 2010-11. Simmons' squad won three of its last five MVC regular season games to finish 9-21 overall and 3-15 in the Valley. Four starters return, led by sophomore guard Colt Ryan, the 2010 MVC Freshman of the Year and CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Freshman of the Year. The 6'5" Ryan is the league's top returning scorer at 14.5. He scored a career-high 31 against Creighton and topped the 20-point mark six other times. Junior small forward Denver Holmes went from 2.2 points per game as a freshman to 10.7 as a sophomore and made the MVC ‘Most Improved’ team. Three veteran guards give the Aces plenty of backcourt experience to go along with Ryan. Senior Kavon Lacey (5.2 ppg, 3.1 apg), sophomore Ned Cox (7.7 ppg, 2.1 apg) and sophomore Troy Taylor (3.9 ppg, 3.1 apg) all averaged more than 20 minutes of playing time in 2009-10. Lacey and Taylor finished among the MVC’s top 10 in assists, and Cox was eighth best in 3-point accuracy.
The frontcourt is where Evansville is hoping to improve on a league-low 60.9 points per game in MVC games. Senior Clint Hopf (6.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg) came on strong late in the year, only to suffer a season-ending knee injury in the win over Northern Iowa. The 6'8" Hopf should be back at full strength in time for the start of the season. Senior Pieter van Tongeren, a 6'10" center and three-year veteran, is back for his final season after averaging 3.0 points and 2.2 rebounds as a junior. The Aces expect help from 6'8" Matt Peeler, who averaged 14 points and 11.5 rebounds last season at Otero Junior College. UE also signed a pair of 6'6" swing players in freshman Jordan Jahr from Austin, Texas and junior Kenny Harris from John A. Logan College.
This will likely be Evansville's final season at Roberts Stadium, built in 1956 and renovated in 1990. An 11,000-seat downtown arena is under construction and should be ready for the 2011-12 season.
