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Barry Jacobs' ACC All-Defensive team article Carolina Makes Tourney, Despite ACC RecordHeels are in Oklahoma's bracketby Barry Jacobs Out, yet in: Presenting another wrinkle caused by ACC expansion. North Carolina’s Tar Heels got invited to the NCAA baseball tournament thanks largely to a 36-20 record during the regular season, one of the nation’s better schedules, a late-season rally, and a recent tradition of prospering at the game’s highest level. The Tar Heels are making their ninth straight NCAA appearance but must travel to face the University of Oklahoma, top-seed in their four-team regional, on its home turf. The Heels are included for the 12th time in 13 seasons despite the fact the ACC saw fit to exclude them from its recently concluded league baseball tournament. The 2010 title was won by Florida State, its fifth since joining the league in 1992. Or was it 1993? Head coach Mike Martin wasn’t sure how long it had been. “I guess we got in in ’93,” he said after an early victory at NewBridge Bank Park in Greensboro. As Martin spoke he looked to his immediate left for reassurance from winning pitcher John Gast, who shrugged. Later, Gast noted, “I was four years old at the time.” Even if the years blended together, Martin was convinced this was a vintage ACC season deserving of vintage NCAA representation. “I would like to see nine teams get in, I really would,” the veteran coach said, “because this is the toughest it’s been since ’92 when we got in.” As it was, the ACC placed eight teams in the NCAAs, tying the SEC and Pac-10 for the largest contingent. The league previously had not had more than seven squads in a single NCAA tournament. Boston College, which edged Carolina for the final spot in the ACC tournament field, did not get a bid after sliding to a 30-27 record. “I know our record is not all that racy,” acknowledged BC coach Mik Aoki. More like a non-starter. At least the Eagles got to play for the ACC championship, a competitive privilege that eluded Duke, Maryland, UNC and Wake Forest. Whether or not it’s realistic to invite everyone to play for the title, which basketball manages, there’s something weird about a format in which teams continue to play while already eliminated. Must be especially fun to watch if you’re a player from the one-third of the league sitting at home. Tournament play may have been the difference in N.C. State getting an NCAA invitation. The Wolfpack, hot down the stretch, played well in Greensboro too, and will face Coastal Carolina in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Four Pack players made all-tournament; first baseman Harold Riggins was the MVP. There was an odd symmetry in coach Elliott Avent’s club using Greensboro as a catapult to play in South Carolina. It was just about this time in 2009 that Greensboro and Durham stepped forward to bail out the ACC after the league inelegantly ran afoul of an NAACP boycott of the Palmetto State. The venerable civil rights organization has gotten significant buy-in from the NCAA and others on not scheduling major events in South Carolina while the Confederate flag flies on the grounds of the state capitol building. (The flag was first raised to protest the advent of federal initiatives to force integration in the wake of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.) Believing they had magically sidestepped social justice concerns, ACC leaders accepted a bid to play three upcoming baseball tournaments in South Carolina. The move was soon rescinded in embarrassed haste. The spiffy, ad-festooned home of the Greensboro Grasshoppers, already slated to host in 2010, got the call for 2012, with Durham filling the breach in 2011 and 2013. (Coastal Carolina is hosting at Myrtle Beach by virtue of achievement, not prior agreement, so the boycott does not apply to its NCAA baseball regional.) The ACC drew handsomely in Greensboro, attracting 6,274 fans for the finals, an event record, on a warm, sunny afternoon. But, demonstrating a blindspot that lingers, the league missed a great chance to show its sensitivity to the concerns that motivate the NAACP. Despite the 50th anniversary of the seminal sit-in at the downtown Woolworth’s in Greensboro, and the opening of a commemorative museum, the conference did nothing to celebrate its headquarters city’s historic role in popularizing a key nonviolent tactic of the civil rights movement. That said, there’s no doubt the ACC has come far from its roots as a segregated league. Unfortunately, it also recently strayed from several of its more laudable founding tenets, including equal access to championship competition. “North Carolina is playing very, very well at the end,” N.C. State’s Avent said before the NCAA baseball selections were announced. “But if they get in over a team that was in the tournament, then all the coaches are going to look at this tournament and say, ‘Why have a tournament?’ I can tell you that.” Or, at least, why not try to give everyone an equal chance at redemption? 5/31/10 Heels' Luck Turning?Justin Knox will bring inside depth for UNCBy Eddy Landreth Roy Williams may have suffered through his toughest year as a head coach in 2010, but his skill as the nation’s top recruiter remains unquestioned. David and Travis Wear undercut Williams and the coaching staff by deciding to transfer after the spring semester ended and they had already told Williams they were returning. The chances of finding a quality player at that point to fill at least one of the two suddenly open spots are normally slim to none. But fortunately for Williams, and thanks to his ability to sell players on Carolina and Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels appear to have not just a replacement forward, but an experienced senior who can come in and contribute as soon as he can learn Williams’ system. If all goes according to the latest plans, former Alabama player Justin Knox will enroll in August, enter graduate school at Carolina after earning a degree from Alabama in a little more than three years. He may then start to learn to play Williams’ style. The young man is listed at 6 foot 9, 240 pounds. If he is actually anywhere near that size, he will be a valuable new part of the Carolina roster. With the loss of Deon Thompson to graduation, Ed Davis to the National Basketball Association and the Wear twins to UCLA, Williams suddenly found himself down from six big men to two in John Henson and Tyler Zeller. Granted, if Henson and Zeller can remain healthy for an entire season, they are two special inside players. But the Tar Heels’ misfortunate with injuries the last three year has been ridiculous. Zeller alone suffered a broken wrist his freshman year and a broken foot last season, which combined have shortened the quality of his experience to less than a full season. Henson began the year on the perimeter, which still appears to be a monumental waste of precious time after we later saw what he could do when he moved closer to the basket. The good news is the young man learned a tremendous amount about what it means to be a collegiate basketball player during his freshman year, including the work ethic he is going to have to develop and invest if he wants to become the player he almost assuredly would like to be. There is little doubt Henson has the talent. He certainly has the length. Harrison Barnes is on his way, but even at 6-8 Barnes is more of a outside-to-inside player more than a banger. The same goes for 6-8 Reggie Bullock. Both will be able to help immensely by rebounding from the weak side on offense and helping to rebound on defense by boxing out, but neither will have the experience or shear size Knox can bring after three years of banging in the Southeastern Conference. Nonetheless, in all likelihood Knox will need until January to get the feel of playing Williams’ fast-pace style and against the quality of competition Carolina faces. But there can be no underestimating Knox' value, given the void the Wear twins left in their departure. Many fans have said they believe it is for the best the twins left, but those fans do not have to stand on the sideline and search for a replacement if Henson or Zeller are injured or get into foul trouble. They also do not have to try to substitute without going small when Henson and Zeller tire from running the court. And Carolina is almost assuredly going to run better than it did last year. (If the Tar Heels do not, Williams’ head might explode...) The biggest improvement for UNC should come on defense, but with a more physical, alert defense comes to the greater probability of fouls. Williams has always been highly superstitious, so just maybe landing Knox is the omen that the coach’s luck has turned back to the uncanny direction it had run for the other part of his Hall of Fame career. 5/21/10 Do-Or-Die Time for Diamond HeelsUNC baseball on Verge of Missing the post-seasonBy Eddy Landreth Thursday at 6 p.m., North Carolina will being playing for its postseason life after making four consecutive trips to the College World Series. The baseball Tar Heels are on the verge of doing the same thing the basketball Tar Heels did this year, and fall shockingly short of their recent accomplishments. Carolina needs to sweep Virginia Tech in the final conference series of the regular season to more than likely even have a chance at playing in the ACC Tournament. Games are scheduled at Boshamer Stadium for Thursday at 6 p.m., Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. Only eight of the league’s 12 teams are invited to the annual conference tournament, and after a subpar season in the league UNC is one game behind N.C. State in the race for the final spot. The Wolfpack is 12-15 in the conference, 33-20 overall. Carolina is 11-16 in the ACC, 33-20 overall. The difference is the Wolfpack managed to win one game in Tallahassee last weekend, while No. 1-ranked Virginia swept Carolina in Charlottesville. For the last three seasons, the Tar Heels have hosted an NCAA opening-round regional and then a super regional on their way to the World Series. This season it will be hard to imagine Carolina making the NCAA Tournament if it is not among the field of eight for the conference tournament. The problem for this year’s team is not a complicated one. Aside from ace junior pitcher Matt Harvey, who has had the kind of season that could propel him into the first round of the Major League Baseball draft, UNC’s pitching has not met the standards set since 2006. After leading the nation in earned run average and strikeouts at times during the last four years, this pitching staff is middle of the road in the ACC. Carolina has a team ERA of 4.24, which is not bad in the world of aluminum bats. But it also does not compare to teams that had sub-3.0 ERAs at times in recent years. UNC does lead the league in strikeouts again, which is no small accomplishment. K’s are a great eraser of hits and errors, but the weakness has come with the bullpen. It has blown more games this year than any Carolina pen in years. The Tar Heels have nine saves in 53 games compared to Virginia’s league-leading 19. UNC’s bullpen excelled in recent years. In addition, outside of Harvey, the starters have been inconsistent. The ACC is a jewel in NCAA baseball. Multiple teams have made the College World Series in recent years, despite the knock that the conference has not won the national title. Nonetheless, when one conference can fill an entire side of the eight-team bracket in Omaha and is capable of doing it again, that is no easy road to travel during the regular season. But there is also no doubt this Carolina team cannot ride the same bus as the recent squads. For one, the Tar Heels have a power drain after scoring runs in clumps the last few years. UNC is 11th in home runs and this is at Boshamer Stadium, not the U.S. Olympic Training Facility in which it played for a season. Boshamer is a hitter’s park in which power hitters can pop balls out in an instant. The biggest issue came when Major League Baseball gutted the 2008 recruiting class. If just one of the top-notch pitchers who signed but left for the pros had come to Chapel Hill out of that class, UNC might have a winning record in the league at this point. Two stud starters are enough to build a top-15 collegiate baseball team around. UNC’s fielding percentage of .969 is only good for eighth in the league. When the pitching staff is walking a fine line, the last thing a team needs are errors. Carolina is 11th in assists and tied for fifth in errors. The margin for error in all these statistics is razor thin because this league is so strong, but life in ACC baseball is what it is. And right now, Carolina needs to sweep the Hokies and hope for a little help for from Duke, of all teams. The Blue Devils end the season at N.C. State, and two wins by the Devils would do the trick if Carolina can sweep Virginia Tech. If not, this could be just another disappointment in a truly blue 2010 for Carolina’s winter and spring headliners.
Eddy Landreth has been covering ACC sports since 1987. 5/13/10 How Will Heels Solve Inside Depth Problem?Carolina really needs NY forward JackBy Eddy Landreth The Wear twins, David and Travis, apparently wore out their affection for North Carolina basketball and Chapel Hill. The two 6-foot-9 forwards, who showed more promise than many credited them, have decided to transfer to another school. They are probably headed back to the Left Coast. Maybe it is time Roy Williams cut down on his recruiting territory to the Midwest back to the East Coast unless the player is a top-10 or prospect of the caliber of Marvin Williams, who came from Washington State to help UNC win the 2005 national championship. It’s hard to go wrong signing a top-10 player, because they are far less likely to get homesick and fret about playing time, because if they are a true elite prospect then they are going to play. Who knows for sure why the Wear twins left, but we do know this much. Their timing was horrible, given that they had told Coach Roy Williams they were returning when he still had time to recruit some big men who went elsewhere. The coaching staff was genuinely angry about being told the kids were returning a few weeks earlier, only to have their dad call and say they were leaving when he did. In the long run, this turn of events may be a blessing. UNC is recruiting 6-8 Kadeem Jack out of New York. Williams would be well-served to rejuvenate the old New York-to-Chapel Hill connection that served Frank McGuire and Dean Smith so well. The kids in the city can play ball. They’re tough. And the top ones have elite skills. Probably the biggest knock on them this day and age is that so many are tied with street agents, who are often looking to arrange under-the-table deals. Jack is apparently different. He’s a good student, according to all reports. He was going to show enough intelligence to attend a prep school strictly to enhance his playing skills and get a better offer than Connecticut or UCLA. That is certainly setting one's sights high, and it only leaves a few programs (read: Carolina, Duke and Kentucky) as real possibilities when one looks above and beyond UConn and the Bruins. Rumors say Jack is a Carolina fan and that is the offer he was hoping for all along. Williams can only hope this is true. Jack is thin. He’s listed generously at 210 pounds, but he’s athletic with a reach that extends well beyond 6-8. Most important, the people who have seen him play say he is quick and has good hands. He is one of those rare kids who did not look to commit early and is a late bloomer. Taking commitments from sophomores is a dangerous business. Some peak and never get better. Then there are the guys such as Jack, who shows every indication he is only starting to realize his talent. Some say he would eventually help UNC, but given the background of playing with a New York City AAU team and on a city school team, the toughness he may bring could help him make an immediate impact. Coach Williams is still the best recruiter in the country, and he needs to work his magic with this kid to ensure some depth along the front line next year and maybe even an even deeper rotation, if the kid can play from the get-go. But just as important, there is a bonus pick, so to speak, in this deal. The twins leave behind two scholarships, so if Jack takes one, Williams will be free to go get an inside power player with the remaining scholarship for next year. He needs one, too. The big men on this UNC team are too soft right now. Carolina needs a 6-9 kid with a long reach who weights a legit 240, 250 or 260 pounds with good hands and a strong motor. First off, however, Williams needs to sign Mr. Jack. This is not just a warm body. This is a kid who might make a positive contribution soon after the season begins. If he does, that would be what we call in sports, a twin killing. Eddy Landreth has been covering ACC sports since 1987. 5/8/10 With UNC and Duke, What Goes Around Comes AroundHeels, Devils will battle for more titles in the futureBy Eddy Landreth The cyclical nature of collegiate sports is baffling at times. Consider Florida winning back-to-back titles in men’s basketball earlier in the last decade and then struggling to even make the tournament most years since. An even better example is what happened at Carolina. During the calendar year of 2009, UNC won national championships in women’s soccer, field hockey, men’s basketball and returned to the College World Series for a fourth consecutive season. The football team went to a second consecutive bowl and had back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since Mack Brown coached the Tar Heels. Men’s soccer and other UNC programs excelled at the highest levels as well. Now flip to 2010. Men’s basketball suffered through the worst season in Roy Williams’ career. The women’s team was not really a whole lot better, and baseball might be lucky to make the NCAA Tournament. Of course, nothing was close to being as devastating as having the men’s basketball team barely manage to make the National Invitation Tournament while Duke shocked everyone by winning the national championship in men’s basketball. The Blue Devils deserve all the credit in the world for what they accomplished, but let’s be real. Spring water has more collective strength than college basketball these days. Between 1991 and now, there have been at least five other Duke teams that would have whipped this one with ease. The 1999 Duke team fell one game short of winning the national title, but it would have beaten this year's championship team by 20 points. The previous year, we marveled at how Carolina dominated the tournament as no team had since the 1981 Indiana team that beat UNC in the championship game. But as good as the 2009 Carolina team was, maybe we have to take a second look at the field it crushed and wonder if all the young teams and early exits to the pros have weakened the collegiate game to such a pathetic state that it is hard to recognize true greatness anymore. The encouraging factor for Carolina and Duke is that if they can manage to keep enough talented players to stay in the program as a core group for three years while fitting in one great one-and-done guy, there are many more national titles to be had in the future for the two best programs in college basketball. And let’s make no mistake about it. The center of college basketball is the same as it was in the 1990s and throughout the past decade – right here in the Triangle. Since 2001, Carolina and Duke have won four of 10 titles. The ACC has won five with the Maryland championship. Since 1997, at least one ACC team has played in the Final Four 12 times, with Duke and Carolina each going a combined 10 times. Maryland captured the other two spots. The ACC may not have the strength of depth it had in the early 1990s when four teams regularly went to the round of 16, but the strength at the top is obviously equal to what the SEC has been to football. As much as Carolina fans may hate seeing Duke achieve what it did this year, the Blue Devils’ success is great for the rivalry and the ultimate success of both programs. These two teams have driven each other to greater heights since the late 1980s, and the string has only been broken for a year or two here and there. No other schools can claim the consistency of quality that Duke and Carolina produce on a regular basis, and as long as Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski stay at the head of those two programs, it’s going to continue. If Carolina haters think this year was a sign that Williams is slipping, exhibit A to support this being poppycock is the rebound Duke made after slipping behind UNC while it won the title in 2005 and ’09 and went to a third Final Four in 2008 and the round of eight in 2007. These two great programs are only going back to the Final Four again and again, even when they surprise us in doing so when we least expect it. The lesson, of course, is that we should always expect it. Eddy Landreth has been covering the ACC since 1987. 5/5/10 Leaves Are On The TreesNBA Draft, Version 2010, will have its Effect on the ACCby Barry Jacobs The leaves are on the trees. Spring football has run its course. Heads have rolled in college basketball offices from Massachusetts to Oregon, Iowa to Illinois, South Carolina to New York. Must be time for the annual running of the young bulls, basketball version. Time to slip the bonds of NCAA rules and regulations. Time to end the need to attend class that fills most American lives almost from the age we learn to read until we’re old enough to legally take a drink, and often well beyond. In other words, it’s time for players to declare for the NBA draft. “There’s a lot of guys, they’re tired of going to school,” said an NBA scout, who asked to remain anonymous. “They don’t want to go in the first place. They just want to go someplace and make money and play basketball.” Six 2010 ACC players already have given up college eligibility to cast their lot with the pros – Florida State’s Solomon Alabi, Georgia Tech’s Derrick Favors and Gani Lawal, UNC’s Ed Davis, Virginia’s Sylvan Landesberg and Wake Forest’s Al-Farouq Aminu. Of that group, Favors and Aminu are expected to go highest in the June draft. Two more ACC undergrads, Virginia Tech guard Malcolm Delaney and N.C. State forward Tracy Smith, have one foot in, one out of the pros, having put their names forward without committing to an agent and thus foreclosing their NCAA options. Smith’s mother and Sidney Lowe, his coach, insist the under-sized post player will return to Raleigh for his senior season, although that begs the question why he submitted his name in the first place. Meanwhile the 6-3 Delaney and 6-6 Landesburg, gifted shooting guards, share a common problem, according to the veteran scout. “There are literally every year 50 of them to look at,” he said. “There are so many guys like them.” Only Favors among the early jumpers is leaving after one year in college. His quick departure was expected. Then again, from Duke’s Chris Burgess in the late 1990s to North Carolina’s John Henson in 2010, many players touted as potentially one-and-done find they have a lot to do to improve their bodies, their games, or both to garner immediate NBA interest. No one is particularly fond of the one-and-done rule. Some think it unfair restraint of player prerogatives; others want players to stay longer to assure heightened educational opportunity, not to mention greater college squad stability. New NCAA president Mark Emmert told USA Today he wants to revisit the existing rule, in effect since 2005, by which the NBA bars players who are not 19 and at least a year out of high school. “I think it creates difficult problems inside universities when we’re trying to promote an emphasis on (players being) students as well as athletes,” Emmert told writer Steve Wieberg. “It certainly creates a challenge for individual programs.” Translation: It can be hard to maintain the appearance of academic integrity when a player knows he’s leaving after completing a single semester of classes. NBA commissioner David Stern has spoken in favor of extending the waiting period another year, essentially mandating half of a college career, a change the NBA Players Association has previously opposed. The collective bargaining agreement that governs these understandings expires at the conclusion of next season. If a two-year rule was in place today, only Favors would have been affected. Three of this year’s early departees are sophomores – Aminu, Davis and Landesberg. Last season, Wake’s James Johnson and Jeff Teague left as sophs. The early talent exodus probably hastened Dino Gaudio’s forced exit from Wake earlier this spring – he had three first-rounders on last year’s squad, and one this season, and went a combined 1-3 in postseason tournaments. Maryland coach Gary Williams has had relatively few players leave early; the last to jump and be drafted was sophomore Chris Wilcox in 2002 following the Terrapins’ NCAA title. Perhaps that makes it easier for Williams to view jumpers with generosity: He advocates players be allowed to return to college, scholarship intact, even after a year in the pros. Too often, he said, the lure of the NBA clouds judgment. “I think a player should have a right to make a mistake,” he argued in mid-April at a forum at UNC’s College Sport Research Institute. “We all make mistakes at a younger age.” College rules prevent players from missing classes to attend NBA workouts, less a problem in the recent past when the period between declaration of intent and the drop-dead date for withdrawal from the draft lasted about five weeks. But that extended period of uncertainty each spring irked college coaches. They didn’t know who was staying and who going until it was too late to effectively recruit replacements. Their concerns were addressed by a severe shortening of the tryout period, which now lasts about two weeks, ending on May 8. This adjustment to the tryout period came after a proposal made by the ACC. Reducing players’ chance to show their wares may discourage taking the NBA plunge. Likewise, decision-makers in NBA front offices may shy from choosing borderline prospects if they can’t see them first-hand in tailored workouts, despite months and sometimes years of evaluation by talent scouts. Still, the current arrangement is better than it used to be – back when Bob McAdoo left UNC early in April 1972, he announced and was drafted within the same week. 5/3/10 What The Tar Heels NeedOff-season Work will make or break 2010-11 UNC Basketball TeamBy Eddy Landreth The kids from the 2010 North Carolina basketball team said that it took them most of the season to figure out what it means to be a Tar Heel. This truth seemed self-evident during UNC’s run in the postseason NIT. Uniforms that had not seen the floor other than the symbolic dive on the court during warm-ups started getting dirty. All of the Tar Heels' problems did not evaporate suddenly, but there was obvious progress. But between now and October, the real strength of any lessons learned will manifest themselves in the way these players work during the off-season. If they play pickup games leisurely and do not put in some serious gym time and heavy sweating, Carolina will not bounce back as quickly as its fans and the coaching staff hopes. The burden of improving is squarely on the shoulders of the players, who must show some real maturity this summer. Let’s start with guard Dexter Strickland. It would be hard to deny Strickland’s athletic gifts. He is a streak of lightning at times, but he can also short circuit when he gets out of control. He has one of the more competitive natures on the team, but sources close to the Tar Heels say that he was just woefully immature as a young man. That is certainly no crime. Who among us was not immature as a college freshman? Few people I’ve known. But most of Strickland’s classmates at UNC can afford to be immature. They are not attending UNC on a scholarship to play basketball and doing so with dreams of playing hoops for a big paycheck someday swirling in their heads. This is why immaturity is a luxury none of these young men on the team can afford, if they hope to realize their dreams. John Henson is one of the most personable kids in the program. He always seems to have a smile, and he’s a joy to interview and discuss whatever topic is open at the moment. Nonetheless, he is going to have to become a little more Tyler Hansbrough-like in his approach to training if he wants to be the player his potential would appear to forecast. This summer Henson needs to be relentless in the weight room for starters. This is obvious. Lifting weights is far from his only need, however. He might want to shoot a few hundred free throws each day, considering he is going to get to the line more as he plays more aggressively on offense. As a freshman, Henson was a horrendous free-throw shooter. He will need to refine his shot around the basket as well. Henson would benefit greatly from watching tapes of Brandan Wright. The two are so similar in shape and overall size that there is no reason Henson could not learn from the offensive moves Wright had in his one season at Chapel Hill. Another player who needs a big push this summer is Tyler Zeller. He must get stronger and learn to keep the ball above his head. It’s really hard to say how much Zeller’s progress has been hindered by the injuries in his first two seasons, but he needs to fast forward his learning curve and his progress this summer to become the player he can be. Then there is Larry Drew. Sources close to the team said Drew was ready to transfer but he did not find any takers. Now that he is going to stay, he should become a better student of the game under Coach Roy Williams and work on handling the ball without turning it over and making smart passes and taking intelligent shots all the time. There is obviously plenty of room for everyone returning for this team to improve. How much each one improves between now and October will tell just what they really learned about what it means to be a Carolina basketball player. 4/25/10 Watch Next Season's DraftBy Eddy LandrethWant to know why Carolina won eight games and no more during the 2009 football season: Look at this week’s National Football League draft. The only Tar Heels within spitting distance of the first round was big run-stopping tackle Cam Thomas. Aleric Mullins, who a well-respected Carolina assistant once described as one of the most talented prospects he had seen coming out of high school at defensive tackle, was ranked near the bottom of the list of potential defensive line prospects. E.J. Wilson, a defensive end at UNC, was the last name on the list of defensive linemen ranked on NFL.com. Offensive tackle Kyle Jolley will be lucky to make a team. If you want to know why Carolina could have far and away the best season since going 11-1 in 1997 and possibly have a top-10 finish in 2010, just project ahead to next April’s NFL draft. The first few rounds of the 2011 draft could be liberally populated with Tar Heels. If all of this sounds like poppycock or a Chinese riddle, it really isn’t. This minuscule senior class is not as talented as last season's kids entering the draft, but it was by no means the reason Carolina did not win more football games. In reality, those four guys are one of the big reasons UNC managed to win eight games during a year in which the roster was decimated by injuries, starting with the loss of practically every starter on the offensive line by the first couple of games into the season. The true reason for the projected success this fall is that the best recruits for Butch Davis and his staff had this year were the seniors who decided to return. Barring injury, they should all improve their draft status with the hard work and maturity of approach they are taking to the process this off-season. The NFL draft began on Thursday night at 7:30 and ran through Saturday. These juniors' leadership is having an effect on the younger players. “Watching guys like Zack Brown grow, seeing him make the right reads and actually do his job was fulfilling to me,” senior defensive tackle Marvin Austin said. “Last year at this time he was just playing around and not really taking it as seriously as he should have. Now I think guys really get it. Guys know the only way we’re going to be the team we want to be is through depth. We’re only as good as the number-three defensive tackle. Everybody is going to have to play. “I think we have a chance to do some really good things,” Austin said. “Our goal is to be the best defense each and every Saturday.” If they had decided to leave early, Austin, wide receiver Greg Little, safety Deunta Williams, cornerback Kendric Burney, linebackers Bruce Carter and Quan Sturdivant would be earning nice paychecks this fall. The school could have pointed to them as products of an improving system, but the program, the 2010 season and the kids would not have benefitted as they should by returning. Of course, they will all have to watch rising junior defensive Robert Quinn go before any of them in the draft next spring. If he has the kind of year expected and can remain healthy, he will be a top-five pick. He might even go No. 1 overall. There will be others to emerge as well this fall. This team has increased its level of enthusiasm and commitment to getting the details correct and enjoying football practice. “Basketball has been prolific here for years, but football is trying to shape up,” Austin said. “We’re going out there competing every day. Everybody around here is geeked about football season.” Davis and his staff have infused a barren program with a load of talent since taking control in November of 2006. And the ability to overcome all the adversity UNC faced this past season and still win enough games to play in a bowl is just another genuine stepping stone to improvement. Now the seniors plan to build on their experience of the last four and five years to lead this team mixed with young and old to its best season in well more than a decade. “I feel old,” rising senior running back Shaun Draughn said. “We were just laughing and saying, ‘We’re old, man. We’ve been here for going on five years.’ But it feels good to be at the point when we know what we’re doing and we can coach the other guys up and take over the team and not have to put it all on the coaches.” Eddy Landreth has been covering ACC sports since 1987. 4/15/10 For UNC Football, Times Are ChangingFan turnout, play on field could point to big things aheadBy Eddy Landreth Close to 30,000 people attended UNC's spring football scrimmage last Saturday, which is more than came to some of the games at Kenan Stadium in 1999. On top of that, ESPN televised the scrimmage nationally. All of this is a long way from the decade of drought Carolina suffered after Mack Brown left for Texas. The kids who have signed to play for UNC deserve a huge share of the credit. They work all 12 months in order to become the best they can be for 12 regular-season games. Without a doubt, however, Butch Davis and the staff he has hired at Carolina get a tremendous share of the credit for changing the culture among the players and the fans. Those 30,000 fans are only about 28,000 more than had ever attended a spring game since the Tar Heels started playing football in the 1800s. “This is a credit to Coach Davis,” rising senior safety Deunta Williams said. “The guy just really gets it -- whatever it is, whatever magic wand that he’s whirling around, good things happen." Williams said that players learn quicker what is expected of them now than they did in the past. “It’s a different attitude,” Williams said. “Guys come in with a more businesslike attitude. It’s a good thing. We grow up a lot faster, and we understand that we’ve got to take advantage of everything that’s been thrown at us.” Two prime examples are cornerback Mywan Jackson and quarterback Bryn Renner. Jackson played mostly on special teams as a freshman last season. Renner sat out as a redshirt. On Saturday, Renner appeared to possibly have more potential than any quarterback ever at Carolina, while Jackson did his Dre’ Bly imitation by intercepting two passes, forcing a fumble and tying linebacker Zack Brown for the lead in tackles on his team (six). “It was a good day for me today,” said Jackson, a 5-foot-11, 175-pound Floridian. “I had my mind set that I needed to pick off two passes and put my name on the board. That happened today.” Having so many people come out and watch a scrimmage meant a great deal to the players. They have seen that kind of response for basketball, such as when fans packed the Smith Center for two alumni games this past season. Now they have witnessed a similar response from the fans with regards to football. The showing is affirmation of Carolina fans’ desire to win and win big in football. “It was awesome,” Jackson said. “There were so many people out here. I didn’t want to let anybody down. National TV was a big thing.” Renner, whose dad played at Virginia Tech and later in the National Football League, loves to perform. He showed it in the first drive, firing the ball with an authority that neither T.J. Yates nor Braden Hanson can do no matter how hard they try. He led his team on a touchdown drive to open the game. “I love for people to come watch me play,” Renner said. “It’s a chance to prove my skills that God gave me. That is what I try to do every time. I try to have a lot of energy and make sure everyone knows what they’re going to do and just have fun playing football.” Renner is not shy. “He’s a competitor,” senior cornerback Kendric Burney said. “I like to talk a lot of trash, but that kid right there, he talks it right back.” Renner laughed when he heard Burney’s assessment. Then he confessed. “I would probably give myself the best trash talker on the team award,” Renner said. “I just like to compete. We both talk trash to one another. It’s a lot of fun.” Of course, Renner is an example of the old cliché, it is not bragging if you can back it up. He is not the finished product, but if he can stay healthy, the finished product promises to be something truly special. In the meantime, he is just one person on the most talented roster since 1997, when the Tar Heels went 11-1 and had three first-team All-Americans. “We have kids on the second team [defense] that would probably play significant time anywhere else in the country,” Burney said. “This spring, we not only developed a bond, but they developed confidence they can play with anybody on the field with them. They showed today that whether it is our first-team defense or we’re mixed up, our defense is our defense.” Eddy Landreth has been covering the ACC since 1987. 4/8/10 Fans: Represent!Tar Heels need a good showing at Spring Game Saturdayby Eddy Landreth Butch Davis and his staff landed the top group of recruits in the Atlantic Coast Conference when they talked the meat of the defensive roster into returning rather than heading off to the National Football League with a year of eligibility remaining. The UNC offense should be vastly improved with much more depth and talent along an offensive line that was decimated by injuries a year ago, and a year’s maturity among a gifted group of wide receivers. And Davis has put the program in the spotlight by bringing ESPN to Kenan Stadium on Saturday to televise the annual spring game, providing the kind of exposure Carolina needs after 10 years of mediocrity between the end of Mack Brown’s tenure and the hiring of Davis as coach. The game will be played from 3 to 5 p.m. Now the time has arrived for Carolina fans to do their part. Davis wants and needs as many seats as possible filled on Saturday so fans and recruits around the country will not see an empty stadium and continue to think little of the UNC program. The weather is supposed to be beautiful. Basketball has ended. And this is the perfect chance for the fans to give an assist to a bunch of kids who spend 12 months a year working to play 12 regular-season games. Fans so often complain about college athletes leaving early for professional paychecks (as if they would not do the same thing, given the opportunity), but these guys stayed. Kendric Burney, Deunta Williams, Marvin Austin, (wide receiver) Greg Little and others may not have all gone in the first round, but most of the kids eligible to leave would probably have made a roster and gotten started on their professional careers. Instead, linebackers Quan Sturdivant, Bruce Carter and all the others have come back in hopes of propelling Carolina to an elite status as seniors. The least that all the fans who say they want a winning football program can do is show up at the game on Saturday, enjoy the afternoon and watched some truly talented young men excel at what they do. Come see Dwight Jones. After a couple of mediocre season, sources close to the program say Jones has become a different person and player at wide receiver. He could become a true game-breaker this fall with his size (6 feet 5) and excellent speed. See redshirt freshman quarterback Bryn Renner and make your own judgment on how much talent this young signal-caller has. Pay attention to freshman high-school All-American offensive tackle James Hurst, as he tries to block All-America candidate Robert Quinn at defensive end. Johnny White, a highly recruited running back out of high school in Asheville, has returned to the backfield and supposedly has become the runner so many people expected him to be when he signed. This will be an opportunity to watch him get his chance. And if you’re thinking this is going to be a dull affair as the last couple have been because of being so limited, forget it. With the television cameras beaming this game around the country, the last thing Davis is going to want is for his team to look dull. Saturday is about making a showing before the nation, and getting some additional attention as the coaching staff tries to gain more oral commitments from recruits at Carolina’s summer camp. The other reason to come is simply, why not? Why not come to Kenan Stadium on a beautiful spring day that isn’t supposed to be too hot or too cold and full of sunshine? Why not support the program and play a part in UNC taking the next step to returning to being a viable football power? A big crowd on Saturday would do a lot more than just show recruits something positive. It would infuse the kids on the field with a true sense of excitement as they move into summer workouts and then summer camp, in anticipation for the opening game against LSU at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. We all want to feel appreciated, and these kids are no different. Athletes at Carolina have to attend class and be real students. They lift weights, run and undergo countless hours in the film room preparing their minds for what they will encounter on Saturdays. Why not reward them in the simplest way by coming to the spring game and cheering? There really is no reason for a stadium full of Tar Heel fans not to come on Saturday, support the team and enjoy a great afternoon under a Carolina blue sky. 4/5/10 A Season In ReviewFinal game summed up Carolina's yearBy Eddy Landreth The 100th season of Carolina basketball has concluded, and it turned out to be one of the strangest of the modern era. The man with the best winning percentage among all active coaches, a coach with two national titles and six Final Four appearances, had the worst season of his career by his own admission. Yet he and his players salvaged some self-respect at the end and generated important momentum and valuable lessons heading into a critical off-season. Dayton defeated North Carolina 79-68 for the National Invitation Tournament championship at Madison Square Garden. “That game reflected our entire season,” Williams said a day after the loss. “We didn’t play hard enough at first, then we did, and then we could not play well enough at the end.” One year after winning the national championship for the second time in five seasons and playing in their third Final Four during that span (and fourth round-of-eight game), Carolina not only did not make the NCAA Tournament field, the Tar Heels barely squeezed into the NIT with a 16-16 record after the ACC Tournament. “It's been an unusual year for North Carolina basketball and been an unusual year for … Roy Williams,” Williams said. “I've lived a charmed life in the past, and this has been a little tougher.” The good news is this team obviously learned some lessons -- and showed it in the NIT. The Tar Heels won hard-fought, close games on the road, making huge plays with the game on the line to earn their way to New York and then to the final. “I know this run was extremely important to me because it gave Marcus [Ginyard] and Deon [Thompson] a better feel,” Williams said “It showed our kids the sense of urgency necessary to be successful. I love this run because it showed the effort and resolve and positive things that happen, and I think that was extremely important to me. “So, from that viewpoint, I'm going to appreciate what we learned from it.” Carolina entered this tournament perilously close to suffering Williams’ first losing season as a collegiate head coach. Instead the Tar Heels won 20 games and lost 17. Thompson gave Williams credit for refusing to let this team quit on the season. “It starts with the coach,” Thompson said, “just the fact that … things didn't go our way this season and every day he continued to show up with the attitude that we are going to work. “He gave us no other options but to continue to work, and so it started right there. And it just continued to trickle down and guys continued to work, and we just went on a little run here.” The future begins now with some individual decisions. Ed Davis must decide whether he is turning pro or returning for another season. Larry Drew, no matter what his statement to the media, will make the decision to transfer or return. And there could be others who leave, although no one in particular is rumored to be considering it. After that, the next step is that every scholarship player on this team who does return must get stronger, become more savvy about the game, improve his ball-handling, scoring ability and understanding of the need for boxing out and valuing the ball. They all should get in the best shape of the lives, too. The incoming freshmen -- Harrison Barnes, Kendall Marshall and Reggie Bullock – need to hit the weight room as soon as they get on campus this summer. They should also play as much pickup ball as possible and bond with their teammates. The 2010 team took far too long to gel as a unit and begin to play for one another. Most of all, anyone who is returning has to set his mind to putting in whatever effort is required to become a better basketball player, a listener and a better teammate. If the Tar Heels do that, they could be in the real Final Four next season, not the one for teams that fail to make the NCAA Tournament. “My dreams and goals are not to play in the NIT, and that's not any disrespect intended,” Williams said. “I hope people don't take it that way. It's not what my dreams and goals are.” Eddy Landreth has been covering UNC basketball since 1987. 4/1/10 Along the US 15-501 Corridor, Hoops Outlook Is ImprovedTar Heels, Duke still in hunt for titlesBy Barry Jacobs While it may be going too far to say all is well again along the U.S. 15-501 men’s basketball axis, it’s not a stretch to note the outlook has improved considerably for the ACC’s two flagship programs. As the first week of April dawns, only two of 12 ACC teams, men or women, are left standing. And, whatever ultimately occurs, several important statements have been made with their survival. For one, North Carolina’s long winter of disconnect has passed. True, the errant free throws, wildly inaccurate shots, heedless passes, shaky dribbling, and general air of disorganization that beset Roy Williams’ seventh Tar Heel squad have not entirely faded. The margin of error remains tiny, even against physically overmatched opponents – the Tar Heels’ four NIT wins have come by an average margin of four points. That includes a one-point overtime escape against Rhode Island that advanced UNC to the NIT finals for the first time since 1971. Coming away with the school’s second NIT title, duplicating the achievement of the ’71 team, would yield several notable, if minor, historical marks. Most significantly, the Heels would become the first team ever to follow an NCAA championship with an NIT crown. A dubious distinction, to be sure, but a distinction nonetheless. Moreover, UNC would tie Virginia for the most NIT titles by an ACC school, with two each. (The Cavaliers won in 1980 and 1992.) What was regained, however, is every bit as important as what has been or might be achieved. Carolina is playing with confidence, a quality notably lacking for most of the 2010 calendar year. Each postseason victory, each narrow escape, each rally builds a belief that coaching, camaraderie, and execution will yield success. On a team dominated by underclassmen, this is an invaluable way to end the season. Meanwhile, over in Durham the sense of renewal is less acute but no less intense. From 1986 through 2004, a period of 19 seasons, Duke got to the Final Four 10 times. That included a run of seven visits in nine years and five in a row from 1988 through 1992. Three visits resulted in NCAA titles (1991, 1992, 2001), the only championships in Duke history. But the overall impression of near-permanent status at the top of college basketball eroded considerably in recent years. The lowest point came in 2007, when a Duke squad devoid of seniors lost in the first rounds of both the ACC and NCAA tournaments. That ’07 experience capped the freshman year of the current group of scholarship seniors – Jon Scheyer, Lance Thomas, and Brian Zoubek. While the bloom came off the royal blue rose, North Carolina made three visits to the Final Four between 2005 and 2009 and won a pair of national championships. “It didn’t make it easier,” Scheyer said of UNC’s success as Duke struggled. “It was bad either way, let’s just say that.” Since 2007, the Devils’ trajectory has followed a similar path to redemption to that taken by the Heels from 2006 to 2009, a steady climb that ended in ultimate victory. In 2008 Duke took a step back up the ladder, reaching the NCAA second round before being overwhelmed by West Virginia. Last season Mike Krzyzewski’s club climbed another rung, going out in the Sweet 16. The victory total rose each year too, from 22 in 2007 to 28 to 30, to 33 and counting his season. “We caught some bad breaks, and I think we’ve grown,” said Scheyer, voted a third team All-American this week, “going further each of our four years and winning more games as we went along. I think it says a lot for our group. But we really want to finish it off.” The immediate challenge is to avoid a sense of completion or complacency merely by reaching the Final Four. Veterans’ assertions notwithstanding, that pitfall is common, as evidenced by UNC’s performance in the ’08 semifinals against Kansas. Whether the current Duke squad manages to bring back a title from Indianapolis, it already has reasserted the program’s place in the game’s front rank. Krzyzewski now has taken 11 teams to the Final Four, the same number in 30 years as Dean Smith managed in 36 seasons at Chapel Hill. Since 1982, the neighbors have won seven NCAA championships. Perhaps most impressive, between them the Tar Heels and Blue Devils have now produced 22 Final Four teams in the same period Krzyzewski has been at Duke, by far more entrants than any entire league. Except, of course, the ACC, which counts Duke and UNC among its members. “That’s remarkable, that’s crazy,” Duke junior Nolan Smith said with a laugh. “That’s the math, 22 out of 30, that’s pretty good. That’s the reason a player comes to this area to go to school, to be surrounded by champions, to be surrounded by such great schools, such great coaches. You’re battling every year to go to the Final Four. That’s pretty cool.” Very cool, in fact, explaining why basketball remains king in the Triangle and why Duke-North Carolina remains college sports’ greatest rivalry. 3/31/10 Heels Are In The FinalsCarolina could join elite crowd by winning NIT crownBy Frank Heath The Tar Heels are in the finals! On Tuesday night, North Carolina punched its ticket into the championship game of the National Invitation Tournament by fighting past the Rhode Island Rams, 68-67 in overtime, in a game that has already been described many times as "ugly". And ugly it was, as the teams combined for 33 turnovers and made just a shade better than 36% of their total shots. What gave Carolina this win was a combination of the Tar Heels' hard work on the backboards, along with their newfound knack for counter-punching against opponents' runs and making key plays in crunch time. UNC held a 53-39 rebounding advantage and had three double-figure rebounders ( Deon Thompson with 13, John Henson with 11 and Marcus Ginyard, 10). And when the Heels faced a 59-54 deficit on the scoreboard with 1:47 remaining, following a made free throw by the Rams' Ben Eades, Carolina point guard Larry Drew II calmly and confidently stepped up to score five points in 35 seconds, knotting the score and sending the game to overtime. Will Graves (14 points) then kicked off the overtime by burying a three-pointer, and Tyler Zeller later completed a three-point play off a good pass from Drew; the boost those two plays gave Carolina proved to be just enough to lift the Heels to a one point win. So, the Tar Heels will take their ugly win and set sights on Thursday's championship game opponent Dayton, which topped Ole Miss on Tuesday night in another ugly semifinal. In post-season tournament play, most will tell you that a win is a win; neither of these finalists would have preferred to have played well and lost. And make no doubt about it, Carolina should want to win Thursday's game game and the 2010 NIT title. Yes, it is still just the NIT, but a bit of history should convince the Tar Heels of the significance of finishing the season strong, now that they've made it this far. A quick look at the last three NIT championship games ( 2007, 08, 09) shows that among the participants in those finals were a trio of schools -- Baylor, Ohio State, and West Virginia -- which made impressive runs in this season's NCAA Tournament. And West Virginia, the 2007 NIT winner, is of course still alive in the NCAA Final Four. Coincidence? Perhaps, but looking further back, there have been some interesting correlations between NIT winners and finalists, and those teams' future successes in the Bigger Dance. In 1985, the Indiana Hoosiers reached the NIT Final, losing to UCLA, and the next season the Hoosiers won the NCAA Tournament. And in 1979 the Hoosiers won the NIT championship, then they won the NCAA Tournament in 1981. Virginia captured the NIT in 1980, then reached the NCAA Final Four in 1981. Kentucky won the NIT in 1976, then took the bigger title in 1978; and of course there's Carolina, which reached the NCAA Final Four in 1972 after winning the NIT title in 1971. So it may not feel like a big deal to be playing in New York City on a Thursday night in early April, when the real action begins in Indianapolis on Saturday; but the impact of how these Tar Heels finish up their current NIT run could very well spill over into next season and beyond. And even if it does not, it has been visible that the team has finally, over the past four games, been having fun. Which in and of itself should be something to hang one's hat on. 3/26/10 Heels Headed To New York, On A RollNIT run should help for next year, tooBy Eddy Landreth If the swiftness of Carolina’s demise in basketball seemed shocking to much of the nation, imagine how fickle fans around the country will think the Tar Heels, if they are able to build on their success in the National Invitation Tournament next season and return to the top of the national rankings and maybe even the NCAA Final Four next year. UNC has made substantial progress in the NIT, defeating Alabama Birmingham 60-55 on Tuesday to earn a trip to Madison Square Garden in New York City for the semifinals. What’s amazing is it how easy it is to envision Carolina rocketing back into the top 10 next season, given the players who should be returning and the talent scheduled to arrive in Chapel Hill this summer with Harrison Barnes, Kendall Marshall and Reggie Bullock. This team is within one game of winning 20 again (19-16) in a season in which no one could be sure they would even have a winning record at the end. Who knows, they may hoist another trophy at the end of a postseason tournament, too, just as they did a year ago when they won the national championship. Sure, it’s the NIT, but the lasting effect this tournament almost surely has to have on the returning players could be enough to propel them to truly great heights again. John Henson is still as raw as a freshly carved steak, but he’s progressing at lightning speed in this postseason. Coach Roy Williams may have had to fulfill a promise by playing Henson at small forward for much of the year, but the necessity of moving the long youngster closer to the basket due to injuries has fast-forwarded Henson’s improvement by 10. He had 14 points against the Blazers and continued to make a critical difference in the way UNC is playing. “They have struggled, but they are young,” Blazers’ coach Mike Davis said. “They are a really young basketball team. This team right here for North Carolina, it wouldn't surprise me if they were playing for a national championship next year. They have some really good guys coming in, and these guys will be a year older -- Henson and those guys are talented.” Guard Dexter Strickland is another freshman who is making some progress, although his shot selection can still be questionable at times. Strickland has enormous potential because of his amazing speed. He is exactly what the Tar Heels need at the point, if Strickland can learn to play under control and make better judgments on the run. Larry Drew II has made a string of big plays to help UNC earn this trip to New York, but his future seems to be in some doubt as he is rumored to have already decided to transfer after the season. If the sophomore chooses to return to the West Coast, it would be a shame because he has plenty of skills to contribute next season. His contribution just may not be at point guard. He could easily slide to two guard and probably play more comfortably. Another summer of working on his jump shot could make him an excellent player to run the floor and spot up along the three-point line for Strickland or Marshall to kick the ball to in the Tar Heels’ running game. “My confidence is right where it should be going into the last couple games of the season,” said Drew, who finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists against UAB. “I'm just trying to go out there and showcase it by making the right plays, the smart plays.” The question is, who is he hoping to showcase it for? The best part of this run, however, isn’t about next season, which is what Williams keeps reminding us. It’s about watching Deon Thompson and Marcus Ginyard play some of their best basketball and evolve into true leaders before the season ends. With all each has contributed to UNC basketball, it would have been a shame had their final season finished without turning this program back into the right direction. “Our team has played awfully hard,” Williams said. “I’ve been so proud of them the last couple of games. We’re thinking about the next game, not next year.” 3/23/10 Finally, Some Things To Cheer About For UNCHeels have shown tangible improvement in NITBy Frank Heath It has been a rough season for the North Carolina men's basketball team, but regardless of the outcome of Tuesday night's NIT quarterfinal matchup between Carolina and UAB, kudos should be in order for the Tar Heels on their rebirth and the development of their play in this post-season tournament. It would have been easy for these Tar Heels to lay down and just let this forgettable season end, but instead they have played with grit and urgency for most of both of their NIT games, and the results have been quantifiably improvements over Carolina's regular season efforts. Sure, it has only been two games, but in those two games Carolina has averaged 78 points -- up from a dismal ACC average of 66.3 points -- and shot 48.7% from the floor, improved from, gulp, 39.6% during ACC play. The Tar Heels have also had just 11 turnovers in each of their NIT games, after averaging more than 15 miscues per game during the regular season. UNC's free throw percentage has improved as well, rising from a regular season mark of 65.9% to a more respectable 69.4%. Carolina has also shown a resiliency in bouncing back after runs by these these opponents, following up what could have been knockout stretches by both W&M and Mississippi St. with strong momentum-shifting counter-punches. And perhaps most importantly for UNC's post-season survival to this point, the Tar Heels have been at their best in tight end-of game situations against both NIT opponents, a welcome departure from their tendency to fade in regular season games this year. Carolina ended with an 11-0 run against William & Mary, and the Tar Heels out-scored Mississippi State 8-3 in the final 1:16. And while this IS "only" the NIT, the Tar Heels' two opponents were not half-bad teams. W&M defeated both Maryland and Wake Forest this year, and MIssissippi State took Kentucky to overtime in the SEC Tournament final. So, let's celebrate the good that has come this basketball season, albeit a bit late, for North Carolina, as the Tar Heels endeavor to reach the NIT semifinals for the first time since the early 1970s. This past week Carolina has been looking and playing more like a team, both on offense and defense, than it has at any point this season. That could bode well for next year, but also for the next 10 days. 3/17/10 Something AfootHeels still alive for St Pat'sBy Frank Heath There was something afoot Tuesday night that seemed to almost turn the entire 2009- 10 season on its ear. Maybe it was the raucous and exciting atmosphere in Carmichael Auditorium, where UNC had not played a basketball game since 1986. Or, it could have been the 1957 throwback jerseys the Tar Heels wore -- or the fact that Carolina was playing its first game against out of conference competition in two and a half months. Or maybe, it was the inspired play of seniors Deon Thompson and Marcus Ginyard, both of whom for the first time lately looked as though they were really determined not to allow their team to lose; or maybe, as coach Roy Williams might tell you, Tuesday night's NIT opening round victory over William And Mary simply marked the culmination of a lot of hard work, a long time coming. Whatever the source, the North Carolina Tar Heels finally located "it" -- and perhaps also salvaged something out of a largely forgettable season -- during the course of Tuesday's 80-72 win over the Tribe. Pick a problem area for this team in 2010, and on Tuesday night the Tar Heels, to at least a degree, addressed it. Scoring? Carolina scored 80 points for the first time in this calendar year, making nearly half of its shots (49.1%) for the first time since the NC State game in Raleigh. Free throw shooting? The Tar Heels converted clutch free throws down the stretch, including six in a row -- four huge ones by freshman Dexter Strickland -- that brought UNC back from a 72-69 deficit to a 75-72 lead. Defense? The Tar Heels made defensive plays and stops, clamping tight on the Tribe's pesky three-point shooters and cutters as the game ticked down to its final minutes. They played D so well, in fact, that Tribe went scoreless over the final five minutes. UNC seven-footer Tyler Zeller twice made steals at the top of the key which led directly to transition baskets, and Deon Thompson did the same thing once. Ginyard grabbed a career-high five steals. Turnovers? The Tar Heels limited their own turnovers, committing only 11 for the game, after averaging more than 15 during the regular season -- even while playing at a more up-tempo pace than at many times this year. Emotion? The Heels played with obvious passion and grit in this game, after, some say, not exhibiting a lot of those qualities with consistency over the course of the season's previous 32 games. Transition offense? Heels scored in transition, racking up double-digit fast break points for one of only a handful of times this entire season. Rebounding? The Tar Heels out-boarded William and Mary, 35-31 and grabbed key rebounds down the stretch. Three-point shooting? Larry Drew made 2 of 4 from long range, Ginyard was 2-of-5 and seemed as confident as he has ever been with his shot, and Leslie McDonald knocked in a huge three when Carolina had gone down 59-55. Last but not least, Carolina responded to an opponent's scoring run by punching back, outscoring W&M 25-13 after the Tribe had taken a 59-55 lead with a 14-4 second half push. It all added up to a satisfying, smile-producing victory, after a season that left Tar Heel players and fans wanting more of both. And the reward? on Saturday Carolina plays a Mississippi State team that many observers say should be in the NCAA Tournament. If the Tar Heels can somehow bottle the magic that was in the air Tuesday night at Carmichael, maybe they will be able to go down to Starkville and do something really special. After a year of starts followed by disappointing stops, the smart money still says UNC will not put together a second straight inspired performance and get it together to knock off the Bulldogs. But at least it's St Patrick's day and the Tar Heels are still playing basketball -- and that's one thing to be happy about. For Carolina, Finally A Game Worth RememberingTar Heels looked like their old selves out thereBy Eddy Landreth The North Carolina basketball team so many devoted fans know and love has been missing in action since the calendar turned to 2010. Starting with a stunning overtime loss at the College of Charleston, the team wearing UNC’s uniforms has been inconsistent at best, and thoroughly horrible at worst. But the kids MIA re-emerged in an 80-72 victory against William & Mary on Tuesday at Carmichael Auditorium. North Carolina advanced to play at top-seeded Mississippi State at 11 a.m. EDT on Saturday in the next round. Carmichael has been the place of a many magic moments, and it was once again on Tuesday. Players who had been bending at the waist for loose balls dove on the floor against the Tribe. UNC played defense when it counted. For the most part, the Tar Heels played intelligently, took the right shots and hit some free throws at a critical point of the game. All in all, it looked like Carolina again. “When you go out on the court and you’re playing for North Carolina, you have to have a sense of urgency,” Coach Roy Williams said. “You have to have a passion about what you’re doing. I don’t think we’ve had that as much this year -- as the kids want to, much less the fans or the coaches. They know that. That is the way we’re supposed to play. That is the way I’ve tried to coach my entire life. I haven’t done a good job of coaching that way with this team because the kids haven’t done it. It’s my responsibility to get them to play that way.” He did it on this night, and considering how the Tar Heels have now played in four of their last five games, it appears the players may finally be learning how to perform. “We have a big-time opportunity in front of us to finish this year better than we finished the regular season,” said fifth-year senior Marcus Ginyard, who performed with an enormous smile from warm-ups until the game ended. “We have a chance to give these younger guys momentum going into next season. Really, we just want to show ourselves we can play better than we have in the past.” Even though they did not beat Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament, the Tar Heels gave a similar effort on that day. They just could not hit the shots they managed to sink in the final moments of Tuesday’s victory. One reason for that is their defense improved against the Tribe, leading to the points needed to win the game. “I think the Georgia Tech game helped us a lot,” said Tyler Zeller, who had an outstanding night Tuesday with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting, five rebounds and two key steals that led to breakaway buckets. When Carolina needed it most, Zeller stole the ball while trying to deny his man beyond the top of the key, and then took it the length of the court for a basket. Deon Thompson, who led UNC with 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting, also made a similar steal for a breakaway basket. “It pumps us up and it’s kind of relieving for a guard having a big man steal the ball and head down the other way,” said point guard Larry Drew, who had six assists, two turnovers and nine points. Maybe the most important aspect of this game is just how much fun the Tar Heels had playing it. This team labored under enormous pressure the deeper into the season it went and the more the losses mounted. Playing in a packed Carmichael Auditorium that rocked with noise from an overwhelming home crowd helped to rejuvenate this team. “I really enjoyed playing in this place tonight and the atmosphere was great,” Thompson said. The Tar Heels played more aggressively and with far less fear than they have so often shown this season. “We came into this game looking at it as a fresh start for us,” Ginyard said. “We’re trying to get back to the place where we get better and better every day. We were doing the things that we’ve been talking about from day one. This is just the first step. We did a great job of getting after it, getting all the loose balls, playing together as a team. Those are the things we have to continue to build on.” Ginyard finished with a career-high five steals, while Dexter Strickland hit 5-of-6 critical free throws to help finish off the victory. 3/11/10 Williams, Team Still WorkingTar Heels get Last Chance this weekendBy Eddy Landreth Many of us would anticipate the end of this basketball season as if we were a marathon runner nearly dying from dehydration if we were in Roy William’s position, with a Carolina team that is coming off an 82-50 loss to Duke as the Tar Heels prepare to play in the first round of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro Thursday night. UNC, the defending national champion, is 16-15, 5-11 in the ACC and is undergoing the worst year, by far, in Williams’ career as a head coach, which dates back to 1989 at Kansas. Until now, the coach's biggest disappointments in basketball were when he thought he had a team that could win the national championship only to fall short in the NCAA Tournament. “I’m in unchartered waters,” Williams said of this dilemma. But that does not mean he is ready to concede even one game. UNC will play Georgia Tech (19-11, 7-9) at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the opening round of the tournament, and Williams is going to work his team with all the energy he would if the Tar Heels winning big as usual. “I made a 22 on a [golf] hole one time, but I wasn’t going to stop,” Williams said. “I was going to have a score. The only thing I can do is set an example and push them. Every once in a while I can say, ‘Guys, I know it’s not pleasant; I know it’s not good, but we have no chance if you give in.’ If you keep working you have a chance. If you give in, you have no chance.” The losing has been horribly frustrating for a coach with one of the best winning percentages of anyone in the history of college basketball. But the lack of progress may be his greatest point of anguish at this time. Williams is accustomed to teaching kids who want to improve, who want to win, who want to compete. He did not say these guys do not fit those categories, but they have certainly not shown it with their performances. The loss at Duke on Saturday was an unmitigated disaster. “If I’m screaming for a guy to get back for defensive balance, and I was saying that on October 15, that is long enough,” Williams said. “They need to change. They need to do it. If we said three [position], four [position] and five [position] go to the board every time on October 15, I don’t need to yell that anymore. You need to change. If as a kid you start to put your finger in the [electrical] socket and someone’s slaps your hand and says no, at some point you have to stop trying to put your finger in the socket. Momma and Daddy don’t need to say no anymore. You need to start dong it yourself. “Part of education is teaching, and part of it is learning. You can teach something but at some time … the behavior has to change and you have to do what you were taught. It’s frustrating. The blame is all of us. It’s not just the kids. But I am tired. I’m tired of saying the same thing over and over and over. If you can get into this university, you are fairly intelligent. At some point, you have to change. That is education. You have to change your behavior.” Williams said that it just does not make sense he would still be teaching the same lessons that he taught to start the season. “In practice one day two weeks ago,” Williams said, “I said if you’re the second guy down and a guy has a fast break layup, and you’re the second man down, you shouldn’t chase the man down. You should turn and box out the next guy down. In practice two weeks ago, we had that happen. Two days later it happened in the first half. I said, ‘Guys we just talked about this.’ It happened again in the second half. That’s enough. “[It’s a lack of] concentration and commitment,” Williams said. “You have to remember the things that cause you problems, and stay away from them. And you have to do the things that cause you to make [good plays].” So the UNC coach will return to practice and will take his team to Greensboro with the hopes that all the pleading, teaching, yelling and cajoling will finally take. “I get emotional,” Williams said. “I get sad. I get frustrated. I get ticked off. And I got back to work. That is the only way I know how to do something. I know that is not very descriptive. It’s not colorful, but that is the only way I believe. The staff has seen me about as low as I can be, but I’m going to go out there and practice like it’s October 15, and [the players] need to choose to come along with me.” Eddy Landreth has been covering ACC sports since 1987. 3/10/10 15TH ANNUAL FAN'S GUIDE COACHES' ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAMThe Fan's Guide to ACC Basketball established the league's first all-defensive team 15 seasons ago, and left the vote to the coaches. This remains the only all-conference squad chosen entirely by the ACC's 12 head coaches, who study players for a living.The coaches vote for five defenders whom they consider the league's best regardless of position. They also are granted anonymity and given the option to cast votes for their own players, a privilege that five of the coaches did not exercise in 2010. Most coaches were relatively quick to suggest five players who stood out as defenders, but there was no unanimous selection. Florida State center Solomon Alabi led all players with 11 votes, falling just shy of becoming the eighth unanimous pick in the 15 years the Fan’s Guide all-defensive team was chosen. Last season FSU’s Toney Douglas did garner votes from every coach. Alabi’s teammate, forward Chris Singleton, was the second-leading vote-getter with 9, marking the second straight season that Florida State boasted the top defenders in the estimation of ACC coaches. Singleton and Duke’s Lance Thomas, who finished third with 7 votes, are the only newcomers on the all-defensive unit. Thomas’ inclusion marks the 14th straight year in which at least one Blue Devil made the all-defensive team. The slender senior is the emotional heart of Duke’s defense. Finishing fourth with 6 votes was Wake Forest senior L.D. (Larry Demetrius) Williams. Like Alabi, he played prep ball for Kevin Sutton at Florida’s Montverde Academy near Orlando. Williams and Clemson’s Trevor Booker, the fifth-place finisher, are repeat members from last season’s squad. 2010 FAN'S GUIDE ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM Vote Totals Listed Beside Players (12 Votes Possible)
Others Receiving Votes:
Solomon Alabi is the second FSU player to finish atop the all-defensive voting, after Douglas, and only the third repeater on the squad from the Tallahassee school. The other was Tim Pickett, a junior college transfer chosen in 2003 and 2004. All three played for Leonard Hamilton. Through the end of the regular season, Hamilton’s 2010 team is the ACC’s best since 1997 in both scoring defense (60.2 points allowed per game) and field goal percentage defense (.372). It’s the second straight season FSU led in both categories. Florida State also led this year in blocked shots (6.2 average). Alabi proved a daunting component of Hamilton’s defense, finishing the regular season as the league’s premier shotblocker, with 70 in 30 games and 2.3 blocks per outing. He also paced the ACC in blocked shots in 2009 with 73. Alabi is the only Florida State player to lead the conference in blocks since the school joined the ACC in 1992. Based on last year’s selection, Alabi also remains the sole freshman ranked among the conference’s top defenders since Georgia Tech’s Chris Bosh in 2003. Oddly, while the graceful big man got the most votes this year, several coaches took issue with what they characterized as his lack of aggressiveness. The sole head coach who didn’t tab the 7-1 sophomore for the squad said, “Alabi doesn’t do enough. He doesn’t really intimidate you.” More common was the assertion that the nimble Nigerian was a “presence” in the lane, as one coach put it. “Alabi anchors them inside,” said another. Chris Singleton exceeded Alabi in drawing raves from coaches for his all-around defensive skills, even if he didn’t match his teammate in the voting. “He’s long, and he plays passing lanes better than anybody in the league,” said a coach who called Singleton the ACC’s best individual defender. “I’d draft him right away.” Singleton leads the ACC in steals with 69 (2.3 average), is tied for fifth in rejections (45) and stands eighth in defensive rebounds (152, 5.1). “Singleton is the most diverse,” another coach said of the 6-9 sophomore. “He can guard the perimeter and he can block shots.” Alabi and Singleton are the fifth pair of teammates to finish first and second on the same Fan’s Guide all-defensive unit. The others were Alabi and Douglas in 2009 and a trio of Dukie players: Shane Battier and Chris Carrawell in both 1999 and 2000, and Shelden Williams and Chris Duhon in 2004. Duke’s Thomas is the 20th Blue Devil chosen in the 15 years coaches have picked a Fan’s Guide all-defensive unit. That’s more than the combined totals of the next closest schools, Maryland (10) and either Clemson, Florida State, or Wake Forest (8 each). Trevor Booker’s selection, with votes from 5 coaches, marks the fifth straight year at least one player was honored from Oliver Purnell’s program. Only Duke has a longer ongoing streak, and not even the Blue Devils had as many picks the past five seasons as Clemson (7). By contrast, a single Tiger made the first 10 Fan’s Guide all-defensive teams. Booker finished the 2010 regular season tied for seventh in the ACC in blocks (44) and third in defensive rebounds (168, 5.6 per game). He ranks 13th in modern ACC history with 248 blocks, and counting. (The stat was first reported in 1977.) One coach noted the senior had “won some games for” the Tigers. Another called Booker “very disruptive at the defensive end,” adding, “He blocks shots, he steals the ball. He’s active.” But a third head coach who voted instead for Clemson’s Jerai Grant said, “Booker takes some time off. I don’t think he’s a great defensive player.” Multiple Selections (Since 1996):
Ten years have now passed since a Virginia Cavalier made the squad. Miami has yet to have a selection in six seasons as an ACC member, a period in which no Georgia Tech player was chosen, either. N.C. State has not had a pick in four years under head coach Sidney Lowe. Alabi’s selection marks the 12th time the ACC’s premier shotblocker made the Fan’s Guide all-defensive team. The three leaders who were not selected were Georgia Tech’s Alvin Jones in 2000 and Maryland’s Lonny Baxter in 2002 and Ekene Ibekwe in 2007. The conference’s steal leader has been selected 11 times, including Singleton. This is the eighth time in 15 years the ACC leaders in both blocks and steals made the coaches’ all-defensive squad, after 1996, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2008 and 2009. PREVIOUS
FAN'S GUIDE ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAMS: (12 Votes Possible Since 2006, 11 Votes In 2005, 9 Votes From 1996-2004) 2009 All-Defensive Team 2008
All-Defensive Team Toney Douglas, FSU 12* Marcus Ginyard, NC 9 Solomon Alabi, FSU 10 James Gist, M 8 Trevor Booker, C 8 Cliff
Hammonds, C 6 Gerald Henderson, D 7 Tyrelle Blair, BC 5 L.D. Williams, WF 5 Toney
Douglas, FSU 5 * Unanimous James
Mays, C 5 2007 All-Defensive Team 2006
All-Defensive Team Jamon Gordon, VT 11 Shelden
Williams, D 12* DeMarcus Nelson, D 9 Jamon Gordon, VT 11 James Mays, C 7 Vernon
Hamilton, C 8 Vernon Hamilton, C 5 David
Noel, NC 6 D.J. Strawberry, M 5 Cedric
Simmons, NCS 4 2005 All-Defensive Team 2004
All-Defensive Team Jackie Manuel, NC
10 Sheldon
Williams, D 8 Shelden Williams, D
10 Chris Duhon, D
7 Jamon Gordon, VT 6 Jamaal
Levy, WF
6 Chris McCray, M 5 Tim
Puckett, FSU 5 Jamaal Levy, WF 4 Isma’il Muhammad, GT 4 2003 All-Defensive Team 2002
All-Defensive Team Josh Howard, WF 7 Juan
Dixon, M 8 Dahntay Jones, D
7 Anthony
Grundy, NCS 8 Steve Blake, M 5 Dahntay Jones, D
8 Chris Bosh, GT 5 Chris
Duhon, D 6 Tim Pickett, GSU 5 Josh
Howard, WF 4 2001 All-Defensive Team 2000
All-Defensive Team Shane Battier, D 9* Shane
Battier, D 9* Alvin Jones, GT 8 Chris
Carrawell, D 9* Brendan Haywood, NC 6 Juan
Dixon, M 7 Nate James, D 5 Adam
Hall, V 4 Juan Dixon, M 5 Anthony
Grundy, NCS 3 1999 All-Defensive Team 1998 All-Defensive
Team Shane Battier, D 8 Ishua Benjamin,NCS 7 Chris Carrawell, D 8 Steve
Wojciechowski, D 7 Terrell Baker, FSU 6 Shane
Battier, D 6 Alvin Jones, GT 4 Vince
Carter, NC 4 Terrell Stokes, M 4 Alvin
Jones, GT 4 1997 All-Defensive Team 1996
All-Defensive Team Tim Duncan, WF 9* Tim
Duncan, WF 9* Steve Wojciechowski, D 6 Johnny
Rhodes, M 7 Ishua Benjamin, NCS 5 Stephon Marbury, GT 7 Greg Buckner, C 5 Chris
Alexander, V 4 Harold Deane, V 4 Matt
Harpring, GT 4 Selections By School Since
1996: 10
09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96
BC (1) x
x 1 x x NOT IN THE ACC
C (8)
1 1 2 2 1 x x x x x x x x 1 x
D (20)
1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 x FS (8) 2 2 1 x x x 1 1 x x x 1 x x x GT (7) x
x x x x x 1 1 x 1 x 1 1 x 2 M (10) x
x 1 1 1 1 x 1 1 1 1 1 x x 1 Mi (0)
x x x x x x NOT
IN THE ACC NC (5) x
x 1 x 1 1 x x x 1 x x 1 x x NS (5) x x x x 1 x x x 1 x 1 x 1 1 x V (3)
x
x x x x x x x x x 1 x x 1 1 VT (3) x x x 1 1 1 NOT
IN THE ACC WF (8) 1
1 x x x 1 1 1 1 x x x x 1 1 Barry Jacobs can be reached at 919-880-5270 or at barryj@earthlink.net. 3/3/10 That's More Like It!Ginyard, Thompson exit Smith Center in style
By Eddy Landreth 3/1/10 Expansion Is All The Rage These DaysWill NCAA Tournament, power conferences get larger?
By Barry Jacobs 2/24/10 Tar Heels Scrambling for a WinFSU hopes to extend Carolina's misery
by Eddy Landreth 2/19/10 In Never-ending Cross-Triangle Battle, Devils Gain an Edge
by Barry Jacobs 2/18/10 Where From Here?By Eddy Landreth
What can one say, after the pathetic exhibition of basketball by North Carolina on Tuesday night in Georgia Tech's 68-51 victory against the Tar Heels? 2/14/10 Heels Handle Pack, End SkidDrew, freshmen give UNC a liftNorth Carolina defeated NC State Saturday at the Smith Center, 74-61, snapping a 4-game loss streak at home as well as an overall four-game losing streak. The Tar Heels were led by point guard Larry Drew II, who had 15 points and seven assists and fueled a 12-2 UNC run in the game's late stages that pushed a 6-point lead out to 16, at 68-52 with 1:48 remaining. Deon Thompson added 12 points for UNC and Dexter Strickland had 11, while Tracy Smith led State with 20 points on 6-11 shooting. Carolina shot just 41. 7% from the floor, but the Wolfpack shot only 41.1%, and the Tar Heels out-rebounded State 41-27, even without injured top rebounder Ed Davis. Frosh John Henson, who started for UNC in Davis' place at the four spot, had eight rebounds, as did Will Graves; Deon Thompson and Marcus Ginyard grabbed seven boards each. State led early by five, at 11-6, as the Tar Heels had four turnovers and missed 7-of-10 shots over the game's first eight minutes. But Carolina tied it up at 11-all on a steal and dunk by Ginyard and a 3-pointer from Drew. Later in the half, the Tar Heels pulled ahead 33-24 on the strength of a 14-4 run sparked by 4 points each from Thompson and Strickland. State closed to within 33-31 at the half, after a three point play by Smith and a three from Javier Gonzalez. But the Tar Heels scored the first two baskets of the second half and never trailed again in the game. A key to the Heels' maintaining their lead was that Carolina only had 10 turnovers in the game, and just one miscue in the last 13 minutes. Strong play from several players, but especially by Drew and Henson, who finished with nine points, three steals and three blocks to go with his eight boards, ensured that UNC would not lose a fifth straight. Carolina improved to 14-11, 3-7 in the ACC, with a trip to Georgia Tech next up on Tuesday night. Saturday's game was played in front of an estimated 250 former Carolina lettermen, coaches, and managers in town for a weekend-long celebration of UNC's 100th year of basketball. 2/11/10 Blue Devils Top UNC in Hard-Fought Contest, 64-54Heels drop 4th straight, fall closer to ACC cellarAt the Smith Center Wednesday night, in the first of these bitter rivals' two annual meetings, the North Carolina Tar Heels kept up with No. 7 Duke for 33 minutes , but then Carolina went cold and could only watch with frustration as Duke finished the game with a 25-11 run to pull out a gritty 64-54 victory. The Tar Heels tumbled to 13-11, 2-7 in the ACC, while the league-leading Blue Devils improved to 20-4 and 8-2. It was UNC's fourth straight loss, and their seventh defeat in eight game. This game was a hard fought, defensive struggle, with the Devils shooting just 31.% from the floor and Carolina not much better at 34.5%. At one point, Duke had made only 3-of-34 two-point shot attempts -- the only thing that kept the Blue Devils going offensively for much of the game was the three point shot, where they made 9-18 attempts. But in the end Duke had one more weapon than the Tar Heels on this night -- offensive rebounding. The Devils grabbed 19 offensive boards, leading to 21 second chance points. John Scheyer was the game's leading scorer with 24 points and Kyle Singler added 19 for Duke. The pair combined to make 9 of 14 three point attempts. Carolina was led by Will Graves, with 13 points, while Larry Drew added 11 and Deon Thompson scored 10. Ed Davis scored just four points, but he had six blocked shots. John Henson had four blocks, six points and seven rebounds in perhaps his best game for UNC. Graves and Ginyard led Carolina with eight rebounds each, but the Tar Heels were out-rebounded overall, 44-40. For Duke, freshman forward Mason Plumlee gave the Devils a lift inside with nine rebounds -- six of them offensive -- and seven points. Singler had nine boards also, three offensive. Both teams shot poorly from the foul line as well -- Duke was 11-18, 61.1%, and Carolina made just 9-of-16, for a 56.3% conversion rate. Four of the Tar Heels' misses came during a crucial stretch of the second half when Duke was recovering from a 43-39 deficit. Davis missed a pair after being fouled underneath with the score tied at 43-all, then both Davis and Henson missed the front ends of one and ones, leaving six possible points out on the court at a time when the Tar Heels went 3:34 without scoring. The Blue Devils went ahead for good on a reverse dunk follow by Plumlee with 7:03 remaining, that made it 47-45. Carolina will try to finally snap its losing streak on Saturday at 4 PM against N.C. State at the Smith Center. After that the Heels are on the road against Georgia Tech on Tuesday night. 2/10/10 Duke Will Present Toughest Test in League Play for UNCHeels in search of consistency, accountabilityBy Eddy Landreth
The Carolina-Duke basketball game is usually a time for celebration as the nation's top rivalry captures the country's attention once again. 2/8/10 Struggling Heels Take Another Bad LossDuring the second half of Sunday's 92-71 loss at Maryland, North Carolina finally looked like a team that has learned to believe that getting beaten is not that bad.In Carolina's most recent half of basketball, the Tar Heels shot just 34.3% (12-of-35) and watched as Maryland made 59% of its field goal attempts (19-of-32), scoring on numerous fast break opportunities and wide open looks underneath, in front of a frenzied, student dominated crowd on a snowy Sunday. It was Carolina's third straight loss -- the Heels sixth loss in seven games -- and it was perhaps the worst beating UNC has absorbed since losing by forty points on the same court back in 2003. Maryland, which improved to 16-6, and 6-2 in the ACC, has now won 4 of 5 against UNC and appears headed for the NCAA Tournament and potentially an ACC Championship. For the Terrapins, senior guard Greivis Vasquez was dominant with 26 points and 11 assists, and fellow senior Eric Hayes added 16 points, on 4-5 shooting from behind the arc. Maryland started out the game by hitting seven of its first nine three-point attempts, and sprinted to a 32-16 lead in the first 11 minutes. To its credit, UNC came back -- two times -- from double digit holes, once in each half, cutting the Maryland lead to four or three points. But when Maryland pushed its advantage out for a third time with a 25-7 run midway through the second half, the Tar Heels had no comeback, and seemingly no fight or resolve, left in them. The resulting 21-point loss, coupled with Carollna's other recent struggles, has even the most steadfast Tar Heel fans doubting whether this team will ever pull things together. Senior Marcus Ginyard led UNC with 17 points -- his first double figures scoring total in ACC play -- and Deon Thompson added 16. Ed Davis also pitched in with a double double of 10 points and 16 rebounds. Normally this combination of stats for these three players might bring smiles to the faces of Tar Heel fans. But point guard Larry Drew was 0-6 from the floor, 0-2 from the line, with four turnovers to five assists in one of his worst games; and the UNC defense allowed Maryland to shoot 51.5% for the game ( 52.2% from behind the 3-point line), while the Tar Heels managed just 37.7% from the floor and 66.6% at the foul line. Maryland and North Carolina, by game's end, looked like two teams headed in completely different directions. Caroliina, 13-10 overall and 2-6 in the ACC, plays against league leader Duke on Wednesday night at the Smith Center. A loss would be UNC's fourth consecutive defeat, as well as its fourth straight home loss. 2/5/10 The Heels Drop Another on the RoadAt Virginia Tech Thursday night, North Carolina did not win, but the Tar Heels at least played better than they have in several recent losses. The Hokies, now 17-4, scraped out a 74-70 victory, mainly due to a strong second half effort on the offensive glass, and a few too many turnovers by UNC.Malcolm Delaney led Tech with 21 points, while Ed Davis was the Tar Heels' high man with 15, and freshman John Henson added 14. Freshman David Wear was also in double figures for UNC, with 12 points. As it has in a number of games this season, Carolina trailed early by double digits at 18-6, but the Tar Heels rallied shortly thereafter to tie the game at 24-24, behind five points from Wear and four from Henson. Henson, playing more in the post than he has in earlier games, had two forceful dunks in the first half and finished with 14 point, in his best game yet as a Tar Heel. The score remained tight the rest of the half, and Carolina took a 2-point lead into the break ( 35-33) when Larry Drew II knocked in a jumper at the first half buzzer. Carolina's offensive rebounding, and Drew's ability to penetrate the defense and dish to big men Henson, Ed Davis and Deon Thompson were key elements in the Tar Heels' strong play over the final 10 minutes before halftime. Carolina twice extended its lead to four early in the second half, the last time at 39-35 following made jump shot by Marcus Ginyard. But Tech edged back ahead 40-39 with five straight points that included a three-point play by forward Jeff Allen. A few minutes later a 6-0 Hokie run-- on two three-pointers by Delaney, pushed the Va Tech lead out to seven points, at 54-47. Carolina pulled back within 54-52, but a 7-0 Tech run -- with Delaney on the bench with four fouls -- pushed the Hokies out to a 61-52 advantage with 9:44 remaining. Carolina rallied again to pull within two at 66-64 and again at 69-67, but the Hokies made five of six free throws down the stretch to seal the win. For the game Virginia Tech was 18-22 from the line, with Delaney making all seven of his attempts, while Carolina hit just 20-of-30 foul shots overall. The loss left UNC in an even deeper hole at 13-9 overall and 2-5 in the ACC, with a visit to Maryland upcoming this weekend followed by a meeting with Duke next Wednesday. 2/4/10 Signing Day ReportRecruiting is a funny thingBy Eddy Landreth Recruiting is an unusual phenomenon, particularly football recruiting. It has given us a whole new lingo, such as decommitment. Once upon a time, when a kid said that he was going to attend a school, only an arrest or grade issues were common stumbling blocks. Nowadays kids will tell five different schools at one point or another they intend to play there before finally signing the piece of paper called a binding letter-of-intent, which is the only thing that keeps the nonsense from continuing until the day they report for training camp. "I would say that there certainly is more uncertainty in recruiting these days," UNC coach Butch Davis said as he discussed his class. "I think it is a byproduct of having so much pressure on them so early. I can remember the days where you would just be formulating your recruiting list as an assistant coach in your particular area in the summer prior to the kid's senior year." North Carolina lost an outstanding running back who had committed to the Tar Heels and told the coaching staff repeatedly the week leading up to signing day that he was coming. He finally signed with Rutgers, the school he picked months before switching his mind and saying it would be Carolina. The Tar Heels did get a running back, however. He has the potential to be a darn good one, too. His name is Giovanni Bernard, a 5-foot-10, 205-pound athlete from Florida who originally said he was going to Notre Dame. When Coach Charlie Weis was fired at Notre Dame, Bernard opened his recruiting again and settled on the Tar Heels. Some observers of high-school football in the talent-rich state of Florida said that he might well be the best back coming out of there this season. Then there is defensive lineman Brandon Willis (6-3, 270), who switched from UNC to Tennessee, and then back at the last moment. He had planned to graduate early and enroll in January all along. In fact, he and his father were in the car headed to Knoxville when they learned Coach Lane Kiffin had skipped out on the Volunteers for Southern California. So Willis and his dad turned their car around and headed home to Duncan, S.C. Then they came to Chapel Hill and Willis enrolled at Carolina. "Probably the most bizarre story was the one that surrounded the recruitment of Brandon Willis," Davis said. "We have known about Brandon for a long time. He came to camp with us last summer. We had followed his career throughout his junior year of high school, and we were aware not only of him, but also the other players that were on his team. He is a brilliant, outstanding student with terrific work ethic. "When he came we said, 'That's the type of kid that you want on your football team.' There was a period of time where he was leaning this way, and then he was leaning that way. He then commits and then after that there are coaching changes and he is up in the air with what he wants to do. "He had actually committed to us at one time and then changed back. I think he is definitely one of the most relieved recruits at this time of our entire class. He will tell you that he is glad that it is over with and that he is glad that he is here. Since he has been here he has done a great job helping us recruit." UNC signed 21 players. All of them are not likely to qualify academically for next fall, so those guys could spend a semester or two in prep school. Most will arrive in Chapel Hill for summer school and begin to get acclimated to classes and workouts with the veterans. Five kids are already enrolled. In addition to Willis, there is D.J. Bunn of Smithfield, a defensive back, tight end Sean Fitzpatrick of Pittsford, N.Y., offensive lineman James Hurst of Plainfield, Ind., and offensive lineman T.J. Leifheit of Wilmington. One of the greatest areas of need for this class was along the offensive line, and Davis and his coaches landed some highly recruited kids. Hurst and Leifeit are ranked among the top tackles in the country. Hurst is 6-7, 305 pounds, and Leifheit is 6-7, 320 pounds. Nick Appel is a 6-6, 310-pounder from Virginia. He is still in high school and is expected on campus this summer, as is Russell Bodine, a 6-4, 290 center who is spending the year at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia. Not every kid came highly recruited. Carlos Gray, a 6-3, 290-pound defensive lineman from Alabama, received hardly any attention because few schools thought he would qualify academically. Then he surprised everyone and did. Carolina sent a couple of coaches to watch Gray play basketball and they came away slack-jawed after watching him run, jump and dunk with ease on the court. He is apparently still a raw football recruit, but with his tremendous athleticism he will have every chance to succeed when he learns how to play with the proper techniques. The surprise of the day came when wide receiver Sean Tapley of Florida signed with UNC after being orally committed to South Carolina for months. What can you say? That's just the way it is in recruiting these days.
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