The last time the Tulane basketball team was in Chapel Hill was early in the 1982-83 season when they faced an 0-2 Tarheel team. Sophomore Michael Jordan stole an inbounds pass and hit a 35 foot jump shot to send the game into overtime in a game that the Tarheels would eventually win 70-68 in triple overtime. This was the game that made Michael Jordan the legend he was to become. Any one of four or five players could have hit that jump shot against Georgetown. Michael Jordan willed the Tarheels to win that game versus Tulane that day in 1982 as he would do for many of his teams for the rest of his college and professional career.
The Tarheels did not have that problem versus Tulane last night in a 96-72 win. Brice Johnson imposed his will early and often in having his sixth double-double of the season with 25 points in 25 points of playing time and 10 rebounds. Marcus Paige had 16 points on 4 for 8 three pointers and 7 assists and Joel Berry II had 12 points and 9 assists in support of Johnson.
The most impressive statistic of the night was that the Tarheels had 30 assists on 36 field goals and it seemed like everyone was making the extra pass.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
The View From The Third Row
North Carolina Tarheels guard Marcus Paige got a great view of Texas game winning shot on Saturday because he had been knocked into about the third row when the shot took place. The long rebound had bounced out to the perimeter and Paige had attempted to box out for a potential rebound. #21 of Texas decided he needed that rebound position even more and slammed into the back of Paige.
I am biased because I am a Tarheel fan but the refs had no problem blowing their whistles the entire game (23 fouls on North Carolina, 22 on Texas) and yet they missed the most obvious call in the game. Roy Williams had this to say about the play (taken from insidecarolina.com "(Paige) is on the floor, and he didn't jump down there and roll around and start barking like a dog." The officiating is getting horrendous in every sport and the Tarheels were hosed in two different sports in two straight weekends.
I am biased because I am a Tarheel fan but the refs had no problem blowing their whistles the entire game (23 fouls on North Carolina, 22 on Texas) and yet they missed the most obvious call in the game. Roy Williams had this to say about the play (taken from insidecarolina.com "(Paige) is on the floor, and he didn't jump down there and roll around and start barking like a dog." The officiating is getting horrendous in every sport and the Tarheels were hosed in two different sports in two straight weekends.
Friday, December 11, 2015
Hosed In Chapel Hill
The North Carolina Tarheels football team got hosed during the ACC's championship weekend. They got hosed at the end of the game and I believed they even got hosed on a much greater extent on Sunday when the almighty CFP went to work picking out bowl game matchups. The Tarheels were left out of the so called "New Year's Six Bowls" in spite of pushing #1 Clemson to its limit in the ACC Championship game and it took a shady call to take away their final opportunity, and in spite of the fact they went undefeated in the ACC and had an eleven game winning streak during the season. The Tarheels drew a bowl matchup against Baylor in the Russell Athletic Bowl (seriously?) in what six weeks ago when it would have been a marquis matchup against two teams that average over 40 points a game.
The Tarheels deserved much better than what they got from the powers that be in college football and they can say what they want but it is about the money. College football is big business and that is how it is treated. North Carolina and Baylor got relegated to a lesser bowl because neither team has a huge road following and either one of them matching up against Alabama, Ohio State, or Michigan State would not be an attractive television matchup. I don not know what the CFP would have done if Iowa and North Carolina would have won.
The Tarheels deserved much better than what they got from the powers that be in college football and they can say what they want but it is about the money. College football is big business and that is how it is treated. North Carolina and Baylor got relegated to a lesser bowl because neither team has a huge road following and either one of them matching up against Alabama, Ohio State, or Michigan State would not be an attractive television matchup. I don not know what the CFP would have done if Iowa and North Carolina would have won.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Turn The Paige
With apologies to Bob Seger, the Tarheels seemed like they turned over a new page in their 2015-16 basketball season with the return of senior guard Marcus Paige. He missed the first six games of the season in a freak accident during practice and he has scored 33 points in the two games since his return, a win over #2 Maryland and a blowout win over Davidson.
Paige has mostly played point guard throughout his career with North Carolina but now he is able to play more shooting guard than anything because of he valuable experience Joel Berry II and Nate Britt gained at the point during Paige's absence. Berry II has shown the ability to run the Tarheel offensive machine and Britt may be turning into the best sixth man in the ACC. He scored 17 points in 16 minutes against Davidson and has also turned into one of the deadliest three point shooters on the team. He shoots with confidence and he can also slide over to the point.
Paige has mostly played point guard throughout his career with North Carolina but now he is able to play more shooting guard than anything because of he valuable experience Joel Berry II and Nate Britt gained at the point during Paige's absence. Berry II has shown the ability to run the Tarheel offensive machine and Britt may be turning into the best sixth man in the ACC. He scored 17 points in 16 minutes against Davidson and has also turned into one of the deadliest three point shooters on the team. He shoots with confidence and he can also slide over to the point.
Monday, December 7, 2015
A Conspiracy Theory
The College Football Playoff Committee and the Atlantic Coast Conference needed Clemson to beat North Carolina in the ACC Championship game. If Clemson won, there would be no tough decisions to me for the CFP, all of the dominos would fall into like they were supposed to, and all of the powers in college football would be happy and the power structure in college football would be preserved.
I fully believed going into the game that it would be an official's call that would help decide the game. I did believe that it would be an interference call or some other call that may have some debatable merit that would be the deciding factor. I had no idea that one of the simplest calls an official could make could have cost North Carolina the opportunity to tie the game.
An offsides call is pretty cut and dried. The defense either crosses the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped or a gunner on the kickoff team crosses the line of scrimmage before the ball is kicked.
North Carolina was behind Clemson 45-37 with a little over a minute to go. North Carolina lines up for the onside kick and any time you are trying an onsides kick, there is a little bit of luck involved if the kicking team is going to recover it. The ball was kicked, bounced off a Clemson player, and North Carolina recovered and here was the ultimate opportunity they had been playing for. A chance to tie the game and send it into over time. North Carolina may or may not have pulled that off but they would have had the opportunity to try and pull it off.
Out comes a yellow flag. "Offsides, #30 kicking team" is the call. The announcers, namely Kirk Herbstreit, all disagreed with the call. They showed the replay from every conceivable angle, they had it on the telestrator, lines were drawn, illustrations were made, and evidently that call is not reviewable. Those officials were not about to admit they had made a mistake on one of the most basic calls in football. I would be willing to bet the ACC will not review it either.
The sports website wralsportsfan.com said this about the end of the game "In a season filled with mind-numbing conference officiating moments, it's only appropriate the ACC Championship game ended with an egregiously bad call." I couldn't agree more.
I fully believed going into the game that it would be an official's call that would help decide the game. I did believe that it would be an interference call or some other call that may have some debatable merit that would be the deciding factor. I had no idea that one of the simplest calls an official could make could have cost North Carolina the opportunity to tie the game.
An offsides call is pretty cut and dried. The defense either crosses the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped or a gunner on the kickoff team crosses the line of scrimmage before the ball is kicked.
North Carolina was behind Clemson 45-37 with a little over a minute to go. North Carolina lines up for the onside kick and any time you are trying an onsides kick, there is a little bit of luck involved if the kicking team is going to recover it. The ball was kicked, bounced off a Clemson player, and North Carolina recovered and here was the ultimate opportunity they had been playing for. A chance to tie the game and send it into over time. North Carolina may or may not have pulled that off but they would have had the opportunity to try and pull it off.
Out comes a yellow flag. "Offsides, #30 kicking team" is the call. The announcers, namely Kirk Herbstreit, all disagreed with the call. They showed the replay from every conceivable angle, they had it on the telestrator, lines were drawn, illustrations were made, and evidently that call is not reviewable. Those officials were not about to admit they had made a mistake on one of the most basic calls in football. I would be willing to bet the ACC will not review it either.
The sports website wralsportsfan.com said this about the end of the game "In a season filled with mind-numbing conference officiating moments, it's only appropriate the ACC Championship game ended with an egregiously bad call." I couldn't agree more.
Friday, December 4, 2015
North Carolina Versus College Football
The time for the ACC Championship game has arrived and it will be #1 Clemson versus #8 North Carolina or at least those are the rankings as the college football playoffs are concerned. The members of the College Football Playoff Committee will be pulling hard for North Carolina to lose that game. If North Carolina wins that will put the members in a real dilemma.
The knock on North Carolina this season has been the weakness of their schedule. Clemson opened up with Wofford and Appalachian State. North Carolina opened up with North Carolina A & T and Delaware. Clemson played two ranked opponents in Notre Dame and Florida State. North Carolina played two ranked opponents in Pittsburgh and Duke. I will give it to Clemson that Notre Dame and Florida State were higher ranked but they played both at home. Those schedules may give Clemson a slight advantage in strength of schedule but not by much.
Clemson will probably be a double digit favorite in the ACC Championship game. Luckily for Tarheel fans, the game is played on the field and not on a tote board in Vegas or by the CFP committee members because the deck is definitely stacked in Clemson's favor. Here is hoping that North Carolina gets a chance to play an even game on the field during and after the game.
The knock on North Carolina this season has been the weakness of their schedule. Clemson opened up with Wofford and Appalachian State. North Carolina opened up with North Carolina A & T and Delaware. Clemson played two ranked opponents in Notre Dame and Florida State. North Carolina played two ranked opponents in Pittsburgh and Duke. I will give it to Clemson that Notre Dame and Florida State were higher ranked but they played both at home. Those schedules may give Clemson a slight advantage in strength of schedule but not by much.
Clemson will probably be a double digit favorite in the ACC Championship game. Luckily for Tarheel fans, the game is played on the field and not on a tote board in Vegas or by the CFP committee members because the deck is definitely stacked in Clemson's favor. Here is hoping that North Carolina gets a chance to play an even game on the field during and after the game.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Senior Leadership
The North Carolina Tarheels have prided themselves on having senior leadership on all of their basketball teams since the days of Dean Smith. The senior leaders are not necessarily stars or even starters but they are usually the ones that have been in the program for four years and have been there before.
The Tarheels went 5-1 while senior Marcus Paige was out, ironically losing to Northern Iowa which was supposed to be his "home" game. Paige scored 20 points in his return against Maryland but I believe he provided something more important than points and that was the senior leadership that is usually necessary for any Tarheel team to be successful over the long haul. Roy Williams described it as a "comfort zone" while Paige is out on the floor and he provided a calming influence to Brice Johnson's emotion. Paige has been there before and they were playing the #2 ranked Maryland team that would not go away when the Tarheels had them down by 11 points. Maryland went up by one point in the second half and there was Marcus Paige keeping everyone focused and together. That is the definition of senior leadership.
The Tarheels went 5-1 while senior Marcus Paige was out, ironically losing to Northern Iowa which was supposed to be his "home" game. Paige scored 20 points in his return against Maryland but I believe he provided something more important than points and that was the senior leadership that is usually necessary for any Tarheel team to be successful over the long haul. Roy Williams described it as a "comfort zone" while Paige is out on the floor and he provided a calming influence to Brice Johnson's emotion. Paige has been there before and they were playing the #2 ranked Maryland team that would not go away when the Tarheels had them down by 11 points. Maryland went up by one point in the second half and there was Marcus Paige keeping everyone focused and together. That is the definition of senior leadership.
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