USS Carl Vinson Ready For Veterans Day Basketball

The NCAA men's college basketball season begins on Friday with a game between Michigan State and North Carolina that probably wouldn't be particularly noteworthy ... except that it's being played on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson, the aircraft carrier that buried Osama bin Laden at sea in May.

According to a report in the Chicago Tribune:

The game will be played on a temporary basketball court installed on the ship's main deck along with seating for 7,000 spectators. The rest of the world can watch on ESPN.

An aircraft carrier was chosen as a site for the Veterans Day game "as a way to show appreciation for active duty service members and military veterans," according to a news release from the Navy.

The teams are already onboard, and SI.com's college basketball analyst Seth Davis has tweeted a remarkable picture of an ondeck shootaround: