CHAPEL HILL, N.C. _ North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams said he thought he had a good idea.
After the coasts of North Carolina and South Carolina were hit by Hurricane Florence, Williams said he wanted to help.
So Williams said he reached out to South Carolina basketball coach Frank Martin to see if he would be interested in having a preseason charity game with the two teams.
All the money, Williams said, would go to relief efforts and families who were displaced.
"When you see the scenes of people's stuff out on the streets, you want to do something," Williams said, his voice stern. "And that's sadly what we saw. We saw so many situations, people losing everything they have."
Charlotte Hornets majority owner Michael Jordan, who played at UNC from 1981 to 1984, agreed to allow the two teams to play at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, according to the Post Courier, which was the first to report the news.
Schools are allowed to have two preseason games per season, including scrimmages. UNC holds one preseason game each year against an in-state team as a way to help that program financially. That game this season will be against Mt. Olive on Nov. 2. The Tar Heels also hold one secret scrimmage.
Two weeks ago, UNC contacted the NCAA because it wanted to apply for a waiver to play a third game, the one against South Carolina, but the NCAA said the waiver wouldn't be accepted, Steve Kirschner, a UNC basketball spokesperson, said. The NCAA's Committee on Basketball Oversight decided in June that waivers would not be accepted for a third preseason game.
Williams said he was stunned that the NCAA would not allow the game. The schools had the option to alter one of its two preseason games, but declined. Kirschner said UNC had already established its preseason games.
"Guys if you can convince me how that was going to help North Carolina's basketball team or South Carolina's basketball team over somebody else, then I'll listen to it," Williams said. "But that was not the intent." Clemson and UNC-Wilmington are among schools hosting a hurricane relief game. UNC will host Mt. Olive on Nov. 2 at the Dean Smith Center. "I still don't understand why we didn't get it," Williams said.
