UNI-North Carolina To Play College Basketball Series; First Game In Cedar Falls

One of the blue bloods of college basketball is coming to the Cedar Valley. The UNI Panthers will be hosting the North Carolina Tar Heels in Cedar Falls on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015.

The trip to UNI will be a homecoming for Marcus Paige, the Tar Heels' All-American point guard. Paige is from Marion, which is about an hour drive from the UNI campus.

Paige was named Mr. Basketball in Iowa his senior season at Linn-Mar High School.

Thursday's announcement follows months of speculation that the Panthers were working on a possible agreement to play the Tar Heels in Cedar Falls. The two schools began discussions soon after North Carolina head coach Roy Williams expressed interest in playing a game near Paige's hometown.

This year's game will be the first in a three-year series. UNI will play the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill, N.C., in 2016 and 2017.