Opportunity knocks today for Hawaii. But who among the Rainbow Warriors is going to open the door?

UH has a rare chance to play host to one of the true blue bloods of college basketball. Fifth-ranked North Carolina is in town, making good on a 2015 pledge to play a game at the Stan Sheriff Center on the way to the Maui Jim Maui Invitational next week.

“Knowing we were going to host a top team, one of the most historic teams in college basketball in your own gym, that’s something that you’ll never forget,” UH guard Brocke Stepteau said. “A great opportunity for us. I’ve been excited about this for a couple years now.”

A sellout is in play. There were fewer than 1,000 tickets available as of Thursday night, according to athletic director David Matlin.

The Tar Heels, the national runner-up in April, were favored by 25 points as of Thursday. They demolished preseason Big West favorite Long Beach State 93-67 in Chapel Hill on Tuesday, then caught a charter flight to Honolulu and arrived late Wednesday night.

“This is one of the premier programs in the country year in, year out,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “National championship level every year. National championship runner-up last year. Nothing’s changed. They’ve obviously performed very well early.”

UNC (3-0) returned six of its top eight scorers and has yet to score fewer than 90 points this season, winning by an average margin of 28.7 points. UH (2-1) is still finding its legs coming off the Rainbow Classic — play has been a tad wobbly with its brand-new lineup — and might take a full 40 minutes to score 90 points in an empty gym.

The moment Carolina fell 77-74 to Villanova in the heart-stopping title game, it lost point guard Marcus Paige and big man Brice Johnson. UNC, with point guard Joel Berry II (21.3 points per game) and forward Justin Jackson (17.0) its top returnees, was picked to finish second behind arch rival Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Carolina coach Roy Williams, a Maui regular, is making his first appearance at the Sheriff since his No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks were stunned by UH in the 1997 Rainbow Classic.

“We’ve got a chance to have a good team,” Williams said in a Thursday phone interview. “The biggest question is, can Joel Berry and Justin Jackson deliver with the other teams’ defenses aimed at them?”

UH, young and overmatched on paper in every facet of the game, will do its best to make them work. Ball control (16 turnovers per game) has been the biggest issue for the ’Bows thus far.

Senior Noah Allen (16.3 ppg) played UNC twice with UCLA, “getting smacked” late in both games after competitive first halves.

“We just have to handle their pressure,” Allen said. “When you play teams like that, they kind of want to get out in front early. Handling that initial first punch, and just not being intimidated. Because at the end of the day, it’s just basketball.”

Carolina has compiled quite the resume in Hawaii, though in recent years it’s been on the Valley Isle. The Heels are 30-5 in the Aloha State, including 15-2 on Oahu. Over the years, they’ve played at the Blaisdell Arena, Bloch Arena, Klum Gym and once in the Sheriff right after it opened in 1994. That 88-76 loss to Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace was the first sellout in the history of what was then the Special Events Arena. It was the programs’ last meeting.

“I love the place,” Williams said of the state. “Been here with my family on vacation a few times. It’s my favorite place in the world to go. I’m the head coach, so I get to have some influence on who we play.”

Williams has more NCAA Tournament wins in the past 13 years (since he went from Kansas to UNC) than any other Division I coach. The Heels have made at least one Final Four in each of the past eight decades.

But Carolina’s athletic department has been dogged by reports of academic fraud over the span of decades. There is an open NCAA case on the matter and unresolved punishment for UNC.

UH, meanwhile, felt the NCAA’s wrath (a 2016-17 postseason ban and reduction of scholarships) for what was determined to be moderate violations, Level II and III, which took place a few years ago.

Asked about the harsh punishment levied at Manoa, Williams said, “That’d be one of those things that’d be hard for me to make any statement about it. Because I can’t tell you one thing that happened.”

He knows well, though, what happened on that Dec. 30 night back in 1997. UH, led by the Dynamic Duo of Alika Smith and Anthony Carter, upset the No. 2 Jayhawks, 76-65.

“I remember they beat us. That’s what I remember,” said Williams, noting big man Raef LaFrentz broke a hand at Punahou just after the Jayhawks arrived. “It was a great game, they had a couple guards that were tough for us to handle. I got up the next morning and got to read about it on the front page of the paper. Not the front page of the sports section, but the front page of the paper.”

Williams said he’s followed UH’s fortunes regularly in the years since, including during their Big West championship season and run to the NCAA Tournament second round in March.

“They lost a lot of guys,” he said. “But they’ve got a better culture of winning right now, and you know, it’s still early in the season. You’d better be able to play regardless. I mean, nobody thought Arkansas State would go in and beat Georgetown today, but they did (78-72).”

A Hawaii upset of North Carolina today would turn even more heads than that.

North Carolina At Hawaii

Series: UNC leads 4-0.

When: 8 p.m. Today

Where: Stan Sheriff Center

NORTH CAROLINA (3-0)

Projected starting lineup:

When North Carolina has the ball

Berry (21.3 ppg) has assumed much of the leadership load vacated by NBA draftees Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson, but any number of players can fill it up in the Tar Heels’ well-balanced system. Under Roy Williams, UNC is 177-3 when it shoots 50 percent or better from the field.

HAWAII RAINBOW WARRIORS (2-1)

Projected starting lineup:

When Hawaii has the ball

The starting five has shouldered nearly all of the scoring burden (84 percent) so far. Only freshman center Ido Flaisher (8.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg) has supplied any consistency off the bench. Sophomore guard Brocke Stepteau may have earned more responsibility coming off two solid appearances.