This was one of the North Carolina Tarheels "what might have been" seasons if there ever was one. If John Henson didn't get hurt, they had an excellent chance to win the ACC tournament and if Kendall Marshall didn't break his wrist, they might have won the National Championship. What might have been...
North Carolina has had several seasons much like this. Teams with championship aspirations that were derailed by injuries. The 1977 season when Point Guard Phil Ford got hurt in the NCAA tournament and the 'Heels limped into the Finals against Marquette comes to mind. The 1984 season when Ricky Blanton of LSU took out Freshman point Guard Kenny Smith with a cheap shot resulting in another broken wrist is another classic example.
This season ended pretty much the same way. When Point Guard Kendall Marshall went down with a broken right wrist on a hard foul by a Creighton player, the Tarheels chances took a super sized hit and their season didn't last much longer. At North Carolina it all begins and ends with the Point Guard.
The Tarheels started out as the preseason #1 team. It quickly became apparent after the first few games that the Tarheels chemistry wasn't quite there but I was confident it would be there by the end of the season.
The Tarheels were playing their best basketball of the season when Kendall Marshall went down. Marshall himself was playing near perfect basketball. He had stepped up his offense, he was hitting three pointers, and he had already obliterated the ACC season assist record.
It is ironic that after one play he made against Creighton, Marshall was headed back down court and the camera focused on him. I saw him mouth the words "This is my game!" Unfortunately that would also be his last game of the season. What might have been....
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