Hell will freeze over Sunday night sports fans as Tar Heels will be pulling for Duke, of all teams, against Wake Forest. Wake and UNC are tied in first place with 2 losses while Duke holds third place with 4 conference losses. Should both UNC and Wake win their remaining games, Wake Forest would win the lopsided regular season because they won the only game between the two.

UNC needs help from somebody in beating Wake Forest. Here is the remaining Wake Forest conference schedule:

@Duke
UVA
GT
@NCSU

It sure looks like @Duke is the toughest remaining game for Wake Forest.

Duke lost to VT Thursday to put them on a two-game losing streak, the first in quite a while. Should Duke lose to Wake, they would enter their game with GT on a three game losing streak, and doubt will start setting in. Duke does have a decent 2-loss cushion between them and the three-way tie for fourth, however if Duke loses two of the Wake/@GT/Miami/@UNC schedule, it will truly be bedlam in the ACC as Duke would likely not finish in the top three of the conference for the first time in 10 years. (Carolina fans will have total permission to bring up their mighty 37? year streak that just ended in 2002).

What more can we say about how well this team plays against less-talented teams, especially at home. However for this team to REALLY turn the corner, they have to perform well away from home against good teams. This certainly did not happen at Wake Forest or Duke. Neither game was as close as the score indicated, and the team wearing blue was almost unrecognizable. In both games Jawad Williams and Rashad McCants all but disappeared while Raymond Felton tried too hard. UNC didn’t even play well at Clemson or Florida State. So they really can only be proud of their efforts at Va. Tech and UVA, two teams that really aren’t very good.

THE GAME AT DUKE

Duke had a lot to do with the Heels’ unraveling. The key to Duke winning was a two parter:

A> Shut down UNC’s fast break. Duke did this by releasing all 3 guards downcourt whenever Duke shot. Duke essentailly threw in the towel on offensive rebounding to get good defensive position. Once Sean May came down with the rebound, he looked upcourt and found nothing there.

B> Shut down Raymond Felton. Ewing picked up Felton at halfcourt with outstanding man-to-man defense and forced him to his weak left. This forced Felton to do one of two things: make and entry pass to the offense 15ft from where UNC usually makes this pass; or penetrate, disrupting the set play (with no entry pass). Since Felton has not made much of a living off of penetrating, it worked like a charm.

Therefore, Daniel Ewing’s defense on Felton was the real difference for Duke.

Don’t underestimate Duke. They are a good Shavlik Randolph away from being a true national
championship contender. If Randolph can abandon the thought of blocking shots, and leave it up to Sheldon, he won’t find himself in foul trouble, his confidence and playing time will rise, and defenses will have to play Sheldon Williams honestly. Shavlik should have taken some ballet classes in his mid-teen year because his footwork is haunting him just like it did in 9th grade..

LOOKING FORWARD

UNC has a big test again on Sunday, however Connecticut is not nearly as good as the were last year and they will be without their leading scorer, Rashad Anderson. If UNC can get out on the break, this one won’t be close.

THE ACC

A quick look at the standings shows 3 teams “tied” for first (Wake wins all tie-breakers, UNC is in third) and a 4-way tie for fourth with teams at 5-5. UNC needs somebody to beat Wake Forest and UNC needs to beat Duke to win the ACC regular season. Will UNC fans stoop to pulling for Duke on February 20? I certainly will. I want UNC on top. If Wake beats Duke, it is unlikely they will give up the #1 spot. (unless GT relearns how to play basketball! They get each of Wake and Duke once again)

Was the varsity NCSU team at the game last night? Because what we saw was a slow, poorly shooting team that lacked focus. OR maybe we just saw the most outstanding offensive performance by the Tar Heels since I started tracking the possession analysis in the ‘95-’96 season.

Actually we saw both. It seems like the days between games are adding up and the Heels are simply dying to get back out there. (That’s when you know you’re having fun!). While the game @UVA was as impressive a blowout the Heels have given in quite a while, I’d have to say that they played better last night. Constantly pushing tempo the Tar Heels made a living on layups against a NCSU team that looked like it was in second gear. This one was never a contest as one of the early scores was 12-2.

UNC indeed had its best offensive outing in at least a decade, scoring 1.27 points per possession and 12% Loss of Ball. The key to this was Rayond Felton’s outstanding game. His distribution of the ball is phenominal. The play of Rashad McCants didn’t go unnoticed, too. While he scored plenty of points, I was most impressed with his passing; which led to many easy baskets.

That’s what team ball is all about. As I stated in my previous post, the Heels still have some work to do on the road. That is where they can potentially separate themselves from the last 10 Carolina teams.

Keep plugging away Heels. Because we constantly hear commentators calling David Noel, Jawad Williams, and Marvin Williams by the wrong names, we know the national media actually hasn’t paid attention. Maybe they’ll figure it out when April rolls around.