June 18, 2003

CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina men's basketball team will play Illinois on Dec. 2 in the Greensboro Coliseum in the fifth annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge, it was announced on Wednesday. The Tar Heels and Fighting Illini faced each other in the event last season, with the Fighting Illini winning, 92-65, in Champaign, Ill.

Match-ups have been determined with the event, which once again features several top college basketball programs playing for conference supremacy and the Commissioner's Cup.

ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to televise the nine-game Challenge Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, December 1 - 3, from eight different college campuses and one neutral site. It will mark the second consecutive year that every game will be televised nationally in a three-day schedule (ESPN Regional Television televised one game each of the first three years).

2003 ACC/Big Ten Schedule
Monday, Dec. 1
7 p.m. -- Northwestern at Florida State, ESPN2

Tuesday, Dec. 2
7 p.m. -- Indiana at Wake Forest, ESPN
7:30 p.m. -- N.C. State at Michigan, ESPN2
9 p.m. -- Illinois vs. North Carolina, ESPN (Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, N.C.)
9:30 p.m. -- Wisconsin at Maryland, ESPN2

Wednesday, Dec. 3
7 p.m. -- Georgia Tech at Ohio State, ESPN
7:30 p.m. -- Clemson at Purdue, ESPN2
9 p.m. -- Duke at Michigan State, ESPN
9:30 p.m. -- Minnesota at Virginia, ESPN2

(all times Eastern)