North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams has “high confidence” that Saturday’s rivalry game with NC State will be played as scheduled, despite forecasts predicting a significant accumulation of snow. UNC and ACC officials are keeping a close eye on the weather to determine how it might affect the game at the Smith Center. Because it’s still too early to know when, where and how much frozen precipitation might fall, a final decision on whether or not the game will be played probably won’t come until sometime Saturday morning or early afternoon. Williams said at a press conference Friday that he’s going on the assumption that the game will go on as scheduled. “I’m going to go out there (to practice) today and say we’re preparing to play at eight o’clock tomorrow night,” Williams said. “If something changes, we’ll let you know. If not, let’s play at eight o’clock.” Officially, UNC is taking more of a wait-and-see approach. On Thursday, the school’s athletic department issued the following statement regarding Saturday’s game: “Atlantic Coast Conference game management policy states the primary factor that would prevent a game from being played at its scheduled time is the ability of the two teams, game officials and event management staff to safely get to and from the site of competition.”University of North Carolina officials will be in communication with the ACC and NC State and will publicize any updates as information becomes available. Stay tuned to GoHeels.com and @UNC_Basketball (Twitter) for the latest information.” UNC was forced to postpone a game against Duke in 2014 because of a massive winter storm that prevented the Blue Devils’ team bus from getting to the Smith Center. Tar Heel officials came under fire on that occasion for waiting too long before deciding to postpone the game, causing many fans that had already left for it to get stranded on snow-covered roads. Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried said Thursday that he and his team are expecting the game to be played as scheduled. There is a possibility the Wolfpack might spend Friday night in Chapel Hill to make getting to the Smith Center a little less problematic in the event of sloppy conditions.”We’re going to do our best to be there, no matter what,” Gottfried said. “I don’t think we’ll have any kind of situation where we can’t get there. We’ll be there at eight o’clock Saturday night, ready to play.”
