So yes, Tar Heel fans, this is what it has come to: while we are suffering through a catastrophe disaster of a season, at least we can always relish the fact that we aren’t as bad as NC State. I wasn’t able to watch much of this game, as I couldn’t find a good feed of it online, but a bunch of recaps and other great links from the weekend follow.
On UNC Giving NC State the Business:
- Tar Heel Fan accurately notes that Carolina’s new motto for the season should be “Dominating Schools with ‘State’ in their Name”, alluding of course to the two notable OOC wins against Michigan State and Ohio State. At least we still have a matchup with Florida State left on the schedule.
- Carolina March says the new eight-man rotation worked nicely with everyone chipping in, though many of the same problems still were plainly visible (bad FT shooting, no half-court offense, turnovers) and unfortunately we don’t play the Wolfpack again.
- Yahoo’s The Dagger speculates that Ed Davis’ injury is actually good for UNC, as it could lure the big man back to Carolina next year and also give the up-and-comers a bit more much-needed playing time. I’m a bit on the fence about that rationalization: if scouts weren’t phased by some of Davis’ poor play this year, then I’m not sure a minor wrist injury would scare them out of projecting him as a top-10 pick, which means the best choice for Davis would probably be to leave. We’ll see if his stock falls at all before deciding whether or not the injury helped Carolina’s chances at keeping him.
- Down the road in Raleigh, the athletic department must be placing all their hopes in next year’s basketball team making up for recent woes because Lee Fowler actually gave Sidney Lowe a vote of confidence recently, clearly as a result of his soon-to-arrive class that features three top-40-ranked recruits and the possibility of adding McD’s All-American CJ Leslie. Next year will be make-or-break for the Wolfpack. Yeah, good luck with that.
- Also, State could probably improve marginally if players didn’t hurt themselves just running onto the floor. Yeesh.
A Few More Notes on Duke’s early-2000s Flashback Showdown with Maryland:
- Holy cow, who saw that coming from Zoubek? Apparently Bart did (see his post below) and the Devils took advantage of some nice interior mismatches, and played nice team D, as is expected by now. Holding Milhouse to 2 points was key - Greivis will get some numbers every game but when the Terps can’t find a secondary option, they struggle.
- I can’t decide which Zoubek nickname I find more hilarious: Treebeard, Kareem Abdul Zoubek, or Psycho Z. Can we get a vote on this?
- In another sign of how far the Maryland program has fallen since those same glory days I mentioned above, Juan Dixon recently tested positive for steroids. Yeah, he doesn’t play for the Terps anymore, but it’s never good to have the best player on a National Title team in the headlines for something negative.
Still Kicking Us While We’re Down, Vol. 54,876:
- I couldn’t manage to open this since I don’t have Windows Media Player, but Bart swears this is a pretty good James Taylor parody song about Carolina’s season. Click here to listen. (Actually it’s probably best in the end that I couldn’t hear it).
Anything else we miss this weekend? Hit us up at info@bluevsblue.com.
