It's a little late in the season to be playing a makeup game, but North Carolina and UCLA will get a chance to finally make good on a game that was originally scheduled to take place on Dec. 18 in Las Vegas.
The Tar Heels and Bruins, two of the most storied programs in college basketball history, have only met in the NCAA tournament on two previous occasions ahead of Friday's Sweet 16 matchup in Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center.
The Bruins had a COVID-19 outbreak the week before they were going to play Carolina in the CBS Classic in December. UNC ended up playing Kentucky and had one of its worst performances of the season in a 98-69 loss.
No. 4 seed UCLA will face a much different version of the No. 8 seed Tar Heels (26-9) than it would have played back then.
"To beat Baylor, who's top five, they beat Duke at Duke... beat Marquette," UCLA coach Mick Cronin said. "You can't be playing better than Carolina is playing. They're shooting the lights out."
In 1968, the Bruins beat the Tar Heels in the national title game behind 34 points and 16 rebounds from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was then still known as Lew Alcindor. In 1989, the Heels had five players score in double figures — including 12 points from current assistant coach Jeff Lebo — to beat UCLA in the second round.
Here's a look at the matchup, which is scheduled for a 9:30 p.m. tipoff and will be broadcast on CBS:
Eye on an ankle
UCLA's 6-foot-7 forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. sprained his right ankle and missed the final seven minutes of Saturday's 72-56 win over St. Mary's. His status for Friday's game is uncertain, which could be a big blow for the Bruins.
Jaquez, who has started 33 games, is second on the team in scoring at 14.0 points and assists at 2.2 per game. He leads the Bruins with 5.7 rebounds per game.
It's not the first time this season Jaquez has had to battle through an injury. A left ankle injury kept him out against Oregon State on Jan. 15. He's started the remaining 33 games this season for the Bruins, even when he hasn't been fully healthy.
He took an elbow from teammate Myles Johnson in the face that was so hard it drew blood in their win over UNLV. He was limited to just seven minutes on Jan. 29 against Stanford when he re-aggravated his ankle injury. And he played just seven minutes at Colorado on Jan. 22 when he fell and his head smacked the floor.
"We got until Friday to play and trust me, if he can walk, he'll play," Cronin said. "I know him. He'll probably — most guys that have what he has would have sat the rest of the season out... He's had so many sprained ankles, I don't know how much he can sprain it anymore."
Jaquez isn't just one of the Bruins toughest players, he's arguably been playing the best at the end of the season. Over the past seven games, he's averaged 21 points including a season-high 30 points in their win at Washington and 27 in a home win over USC.
Which players should UNC focus on?
Johnny Juzang, a Kentucky transfer, is the Bruins' leading scorer at 15.7 points per game. His emergence helped power UCLA to its Final Four run last season.
His scoring has declined the past six games since returning from an ankle injury that limited him to just 11 minutes in UCLA's loss at Oregon on Feb. 24. It kept him out two games and in his returned he's averaged just 10.5 points per game.
Should Jaquez be unable to play — or be playing injured — Juzang will again be the key figure for UCLA's offense.
Point guard Tyger Campbell is just 5-foot-11, but made himself into more of a scoring threat this season. Campbell focused on being more of a distributor last season, but improved his 3-point shooting to 41 percent — which was fourth in the Pac-12 — after shooting 25 percent last season.
Campbell also led the league with an assist-turnover ratio of 3.2 as he's had just 41 turnovers in 32 games this season.
Who's Carolina's best bet for a big game?
Brady Manek has scored 20 or more points in five of his past six games. That includes the 26 points in 27 minutes he had against Baylor before being ejected. There's no reason to believe that streak won't continue against the Bruins.
Jaquez was most likely the matchup on Manek, and if UCLA goes without him, the job will likely fall to 6-foot-8 freshman Preston Watson or the Bruins' best defender, 6-foot-5 guard Jaylen Clark.
Manek is notoriously his own biggest critic. He felt he put the Heels in a tough spot missing the final 15 minutes against Baylor. And that ejection may have him focused on redeeming himself against UCLA.
Common ground
Carolina and UCLA shared one common opponent this season, although it is difficult to gleam much from their wins over Marquette.
The Heels destroyed the Golden Eagles in the NCAA tournament's first round 95-63. It was the largest margin of victory in an 8-9 seed game in tournament history. Manek scored 28 points and Caleb Love added 23. UNC had 29 assists on 34 made baskets.
The Bruins jumped out to a 33-10 lead in the first half and won at Marquette 67-56 on Dec. 11 in just their ninth game of the season. Jaquez led UCLA with 24 points and 12 rebounds.
