The Arizona men’s basketball team will be seeing a whole lot of North Carolina in the near future as the two programs have agreed to play each other for the next four years, starting with tomorrow’s game in Chapel Hill, N.C at 11 a.m. on CBS.

The Tar Heels (11-5) will travel to Tucson next season, after which Arizona (13-3, 6-3 Pacific 10 Conference) will once again play at the Dean E. Smith Center in 2008 before North Carolina finishes the series back in Tucson in 2009.

“It gives us a measuring stick for our program, and the exposure that we get out East is important,” Arizona head coach Lute Olson said.

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams and Olson have been friends for a long time and have scheduled each other before, the last time being in 2003 when Williams coached at Kansas.

“This time, we decided we wanted to play and Lute didn’t cheat me,” Williams said. “Last time when we are at Kansas, we had a coin flip in a gymnasium in Vegas and I didn’t realize until after that the guy who was flipping the coin was one of his former players, and I think he felt guilty so this time we played the first game in Chapel Hill.”

Williams expressed a lot of admiration for Olson and said the amount of years in the series did not matter one bit to him.

“He’s one of my best friends in coaching,” Williams said. “He’s one of the guys that I respect immensely. He’s a Hall of Fame coach, but he’s an even bigger Hall of Fame person.”

Dreaming of Hassan

Arizona’s leading scorer, senior guard Hassan Adams, has been keeping Williams up at night, especially because the Tar Heels are relatively undersized.

“I don’t know who’s going to guard Hassan,” Williams said. “I watched the tape last night and had nightmares over it.”

Senior forward David Noel is an unlikely candidate to defend Adams on this particular team because his muscle will be needed more in the post against junior forward Ivan Radenovic and freshman forward Marcus Williams. However, Noel said he was impressed by what he has seen of Adams and the rest of the Arizona guards.

“They present a great challenge, especially now that Hassan is moving to the two spot, Noel said. “He’s definitely a force to be reckoned with even when he was at the three. They have great guards in (junior point guard Mustafa) Shakur and (freshman point guard J.P. Prince). They’re definitely doing some big things.”

The Carolina coach said he has enjoyed watching Adams’ game since seeing him play in high school.

“Hassan, he and Jason Kidd are the two kids who I’ve recruited extremely hard that I used the word to describe them, ‘vicious,’ and there is a very positive connotation to it,” Williams said.

“He’s a load, he takes the ball to the basket, he jumps out of the gym, he goes to the backboards, and he doesn’t take no for an answer. He’s an exceptional player.”

Changes in the Carolina lineup

Two games ago, against Florida State, Williams inserted junior point guard Wes Miller into the starting lineup in place of freshman guard Marcus Ginyard. Now, Williams hinted that the starting lineup is not set for Saturday’s game with the possibility of another change coming.

Freshman forward Danny Green has impressed of late, scoring 27 points in the last two games off the bench. Starting forward Reyshawn Terry, a junior, meanwhile has combined for 10 turnovers in the last two games while scoring an identical amount of points.

Freshman Sensation

The only freshman in North Carolina’s illustrious history to win as many Atlantic Coast Conference Freshman of the Week awards as freshman forward and Tar Heels leading scorer Tyler Hansbrough is Sam Perkins. Both players have won it six times, with Hansbrough still having half of the ACC season to take the lead.

The Poplar Bluff, Miss. native has averaged 18.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game this year.

“He’s definitely coming along the way we expected him to, and he’s definitely exceeded a lot of expectations,” Noel said.

Similar Recruiting Paths

Although Williams coached at Kansas and is now in Chapel Hill, he has always had ties to California, recruiting the likes of Paul Pierce and Drew Gooden as well as nabbing class of 2006 recruits Alex Stephenson and Deon Thompson for North Carolina. Williams’ recruiting trails have often crossed with Olson’s, who has also pilfered the state.

“When we’re recruiting against Arizona, I know it’s done the right way, and I think (Olson) feels the same way,” Williams said.

Both coaches were in the running for players such as Adams and Chase Budinger, an Arizona 2006 recruit, as well as former Oregon prep Aaron Miles, who attended Kansas.

“You learn a lot of things about someone when you recruit against them, and everything I learned about Lute Olson was positive,” Williams said.

Living up to the hype

Noel said he understands the history involved with the two programs and believes his team feels the significance.

“This is definitely something that’s big and something that we’ve been looking forward to all season to get a chance to play a great team like Arizona,” Noel said. “It’s going to be a fun game and hopefully we can make it everything that everybody wants it to be.”