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North Carolina

UNC, Michigan St. in scheduling talks

By Greg Barnes, Inside Carolina

Jun 14, 2012

Chapel Hill, N.C. — North Carolina and Michigan State officials are in preliminary talks to schedule a basketball series between the elite programs.

UNC senior associate athletic director Larry Gallo confirmed the initial talks to Inside Carolina in May, but stressed that nothing has been finalized. More Info     More UNC Stories

Michigan State officials declined to comment on the development when contacted earlier this week.

“You don’t have to ask me or anybody -- I think you know the relationship that Coach [Roy] Williams and Coach [Tom] Izzo have,” Gallo said. “It’s a pretty tight bond. We have been talking about it, but nothing has come to fruition yet.”

Aside from the ballyhooed Delvon Roe dust-up stemming from a passage in Williams’s autobiography, “Hard Work: A Life On and Off the Court,” the 10th-year UNC head coach and Izzo have lobbed praise in each other’s direction for years.

North Carolina and Michigan State have played in various high-profile games in recent years. UNC is 6-0 against MSU since Williams returned to Chapel Hill for the 2003-04 season.

The Tar Heels are 3-0 against the Spartans in the NCAA Tournament since 2005, including their 89-72 victory in the 2009 title game. North Carolina also won a pair of ACC/Big Ten Challenge contests in ’08 and ‘09, as well as the inaugural Quicken Loans Carrier Classic event last November aboard the USS Carl Vinson in San Diego.

One thing is for certain, though – don’t look for this potential matchup to appear on UNC’s forthcoming schedule (late August) for next season.

“No, it’s not going to happen in 2012-13,” Gallo said. “We’ve been talking about the future, but we haven’t solidified or decided anything yet.”