Playing late night in a game that started at 11 p.m. Eastern time, the North Carolina Tar Heels weren’t seen by as many people nationally as usual. In fact, because of a technical snafu and a long football game, a lot of people missed the entire first half.

ESPNU was showing a Florida Atlantic-Florida International game that ran long. There was a 35-minute power delay and a slew of injuries and touchdowns, making for a slow game. Announcers put Tar Heel and Long Beach State fans at ease by announcing that ESPNU in those markets would switch away from the football game to the basketball game in time for the tip off.

Unfortunately, those with DirecTV did not get the switch, only Time Warner Cable customers did. That means that not only did most of the country miss the entire first half of the game but anyone in North Carolina with satellite service rather than cable also missed the first half.

Tech savvy people with a good enough Internet connection could watch the first half on the computer on ESPN3. Of course anyone recording the game off TV for viewing later or posterity was out of luck, unless they had cable.

The announcers did not clarify that you had to have cable to see the entire game. In fact, there seems to have been a disconnect between ESPN and satellite officials. You’d think they’d have it worked out before the season and, if not, they’d have a hotline contact to fix such things immediately.

North Carolina led just 33-32 at the half but wound up winning 78-63.