Wednesdayâ€™s matchup between rivals North Carolina and North Carolina State will be the first regular season college basketball game to be televised in China.

The game, which will be televised in ACC markets by Raycom, will also be broadcast in Shanghai to its 16 million residents.

â€œItâ€™s quite an honor to be first in anything, but it truly is unique for our game to be the first regular season NCAA basketball game to be televised in China,â€ UNC coach Roy Williams said. â€œI know that the NBA has a large following in China because of (Houston Rockets center) Yao Ming, but this is a great opportunity to showcase our two schools before such a large audience.â€

The game tips off at 9 p.m. ET, which will be 10 a.m. Thursday in Shanghai. The Chinese feed will use Raycomâ€™s video production but will have its own Chinese-speaking broadcasting crew.

"Basketball has definitely has a worldwide following for years, but there is nothing like the excitement of a Tobacco Road matchup," N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe said. "I think it's great that the first game to be broadcast there is between two schools with such a rich basketball tradition as N.C. State and UNC."