What you need to know about ‘GameDay’ at Smith Center

By R.L. Bynum

ESPN’s “College GameDay” comes to the Smith Center for the ninth time ahead of Carolina’s 6 p.m. Saturday home game against No. 9 Duke.

It’s the 14th time that the show has come to the Triangle for a UNC-Duke game, the most of any matchup, and the 21st time that Carolina has been involved in the show.

The Tar Heels are 11–9 in GameDay games and 8–5 against Duke. This will be only the fourth Carolina has been involved with the show as an unranked team. The Heels lost the first three, against No. 4 Duke in 2010, No. 18 N.C. State in 2013 and No. 7 Duke in 2020.

This is the second on-site show since the end of the 2019–20 season after the show aired ahead of Kentucky’s 80–62 win at Kansas last Saturday. Because of the pandemic, every show last season and the first two this season were done from ESPN’s studios in Bristol, Conn.

Fourteen years ago this week, UNC coach Hubert Davis was on the show’s crew at Cameron Indoor Stadium before a Carolina-Duke game and will no doubt be a guest on Saturday’s show.

Like that year, Rece Davis still is the host and former Duke player Jay Bilas is on the crew. The other two members of the crew now are former Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg and former Notre Dame player LaPhonso Ellis.

The show airs on ESPN from 11 a.m. until noon Saturday, and fans are welcome to come to the Smith Center for the show at no charge. The doors open at 9:30 a.m. and the general public should use Entrance D to enter the arena, with students using Entrance C. General-admission seating will be in sections 104 through 114, the south side of the arena where the benches are located.

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Free public parking is available in the non-reserved sections of the Manning (middle and bottom tiers) and Bowles lots. Disability parking is available in the Williamson Lot off of Skipper Bowles Drive. The parking lots must be cleared by 1 p.m.

The Carolina Basketball Museum will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

GameDay broadcasts involving UNC

March 4, 2006, in Durham — No. 13 UNC 83, No. 1 Duke 76
Jan. 20, 2007, in Chapel Hill — No. 4 UNC 77, Georgia Tech 61
Feb. 17, 2007, in Chestnut Hill, Mass. — No. 4 UNC 77, No. 21 Boston College 72
March 8, 2008, in Durham — No. 1 UNC 76, No. 5 Duke 68
Jan. 17, 2009, in Chapel Hill — No. 6 UNC 82, Miami 65
March 6, 2010, in Durham — No. 4 Duke 82, UNC 50
Jan. 14, 2012, in Tallahassee, Fla. — Florida State 90, No. 3 UNC 57
March 3, 2012, in Durham — No. 6 UNC 88, No. 3 Duke 70
Jan. 26, 2013, in Raleigh — No. 18 N.C. State 91, UNC 83
March 9, 2013, in Chapel Hill — No. 3 Duke 69, UNC 53
March 7, 2015, in Chapel Hill — No. 4 Duke 84, No. 15 UNC 77
Feb. 6, 2016, in South Bend, Ind. — Notre Dame 80, No. 2 UNC 76
Feb. 27, 2016, in Charlottesville, Va. — No. 3 Virginia 79, No. 7 UNC 74
March 5, 2016, in Durham — No. 8 UNC 76, No. 17 Duke 72
March 4, 2017, in Chapel Hill — No. 5 UNC 90, No. 17 Duke 83
Feb. 18, 2018, in Chapel Hill — No. 21 UNC 82, No. 9 Duke 78
March 3, 2018, in Durham – No. 5 Duke 74, No. 10 UNC 64
Feb. 20, 2019, in Durham — No. 8 UNC 88, No. 1 Duke 72
March 9, 2019, in Chapel Hill — No. 3 UNC 79, No. 4 Duke 70
Feb. 8, 2020, in Chapel Hill — No. 7 Duke 98, UNC 96, OT
Saturday in Chapel Hill — No. 9 Duke at UNC






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