Another tough piece of news for UNC yesterday, as freshman Reggie Bullock will officially miss the rest of the year after tearing the lateral miniscus in his left knee, which will need surgery. It’s a tough break for a kid who already had a couple of them this season (getting injured just as he was about to crack the starting lineup, and losing a grandmother he was very close to) and depletes Carolina’s perimiter rotation slightly, but as HeelsGeek and Tar Heel Fan both point out, it could slightly benefit UNC as Bullock hadn’t exactly been giving them quality minutes the past month:
It’s true that Reg does work out there. But here’s the one stat you need to know as it pertains to his injury: 6-37. That’s what Reggie Bullock is shooting in his last seven games. [That’s] 16 percent.
Basketball possessions are precious — that’s why Coach Smith, who counts among his other titles Godfather of Basketball Nerd-dom, started tracking points per possession more than 50 years ago. And you just can’t end 84 percent of those precious commodities with a missed shot. You just … can’t.
I’ll agree that physically it was nice to have a guy who could hold his own on defense and rebound well, but most of his minutes will likely go to Justin Watts, who can replace those traits without needing touches on the offensive end, and Leslie McDonald could stand to see more court time, as well, which is good news after seeing some nice flourishes from him lately. It’s not that Bullock is a bad player, but he’s clearly been laboring under a nagging injury for several weeks now and the decision to shut it down and wait for next season is definitely the best choice for his long-term future. That decision just happens to possibly benefit UNC as a team in the short-term, as well.
Other links from around the web you may have missed:
- Tar Heel Fan looks at the remaining scenarios in ACC play, as everyone knows going into tonight that the Heels control their own destiny.
- Carolina March looks at how UNC guys did at the NFL combine, including a revealing juxtaposition of quotes saying Robert Quinn was either awful, or incredible. The joys of the scouting process!
- Speaking of the combine, ESPN’s Bruce Feldman reports some scouts were saying UNC could have won the BCS with the amount of talent they had on last year’s team, pre-suspensions. Right.
- College Hoops Journal does an interesting stats comparison of top teams this year with previous years, and Duke’s matches include 2008 Memphis and 2010 Kansas, which is both good and bad news, seeing as those were incredibly talent-ridden teams… but failed to win it all.
- Tar Heel Fan’s beyond the box feature looks at the Heels’ performance against Maryland, one of the most balanced performance they’ve had this year.
- Duke releases a video of Kyrie Irving’s toe rehab, though it’s hard to get optimistic when you see the trainer really, really straining to avoid saying anything that might get fans’ hopes up for Irving to return this year. My guess is he’s probably still done for the season.
- Dean Smith celebrated his 80th birthday recently.
- The Onion pokes a little fun at the chain of Plumlees going to Duke.
- HeelsGeek does a nice breakdown of why it would really benefit UNC to nab a 3 seed in the NCAAs as opposed to a 4 seed or lower.
- Rashad McCants continues to bring shame upon his university by trying to start an acting career with a role that may or may not be a bisexual, cross-dressing mobster… or something. Regardless, this will probably not end well.
