By R.L. Bynum
There were groans throughout the Carolina fanbase when everyone realized that the men’s basketball game and the football game on Black Friday would overlap.
Fans at home will no doubt use a two-television setup, but it’s frustrating for fans who are at Kenan Stadium to see the No. 18 Tar Heels face N.C. State, knowing that they are missing the top-ranked men’s basketball team’s game.
The Tar Heel Sports Network (THSN) will broadcast both Friday, despite the conflict — the football game at 3:30 p.m. (ABC) and the basketball game at 5:30 p.m. (ESPN).
All of the radio coverage of both Friday games will stream on the GoHeels (available on Google Play or the App Store) and Varsity Network (available on Google Play or the App Store) apps as well as at goheels.com.
The full THSN network of radio stations will air Friday’s football game. For Tar Heels fans at the football game and others in the Triangle who want to listen, the men’s basketball game Friday will air on WWPL/WPLW FM 96.9 and FM 102.5 (Pulse FM), a station not normally on the THSN. The signal for 96.9 will be better east of the Triangle and the 102.5 signal will be better in the Triangle.
Jones Angell missing men’s basketball games on Thanksgiving week because he is calling a football game has become routine.
“It’s pretty much every year,” Angell, in his 11th school year as the Voice of the Tar Heels, said of the Thanksgiving week conflicts. “The way the schedules overlap, it’s been very, very difficult for me to make the Thanksgiving tournaments. Part of the other issue is they’re so far away. It’s not something where I can kind of bounce in between and be able to get them both.”
The regular THSN crew will split up.
Dave Nathan, who usually is the host for men’s basketball and football broadcasts, will be on the play-by-play call for all three men’s basketball games. Kyle Straub, who does play-by-play for numerous ESPN3 telecasts of UNC games in several sports, will be the host for the football broadcast.
Angell will be host for the men’s basketball broadcast on Sunday from a studio in Chapel Hill, with Nathan likely doubling up as the host for Friday’s basketball broadcast.
The color analysts won’t change, with Eric Montross on the men’s basketball broadcast and Brian Simmons on the football broadcast. Adam Lucas will be in Portland and part of the radio broadcasts.
Since the team will go directly from Portland after Sunday’s game to Bloomington, Ind, for the Nov. 30 ACC-Big Ten Challenge game against Indiana, Angell considered joining the men’s team for Sunday’s game. That changed when the football team made the ACC championship game, and an additional episode of “Mack Brown Live” was added for Monday night.
Matt Krause, the radio play-by-play voice of UNC women’s basketball, usually works as a spotter on the THSN broadcasts of home football games but will be in Portland to call the No. 8 Tar Heels’ games.
The women beat No. 18 Oregon on Thursday (ESPN) and meet No. 5 Iowa State at 7:30 on Sunday night (ESPN2) in the championship game. The radio broadcast of those games will air on the stations that usually air women’s games.
Duke’s men’s and women’s teams play in separate Phil Knight Legacy tournaments in Portland.
Duke’s No. 8-ranked men’s team beat Oregon State on Thursday. That field includes No. 6 Gonzaga, No. 24 Purdue, Florida, Xavier, West Virginia and Portland State.
Duke’s unranked women’s team plays No. 3 UConn at 6 p.m. (ESPN2 or ESPNU) Friday. That field includes No. 9 Iowa and Oregon State.
Photo via @GoHeels
tarheeltribune.com 
