Men's basketball fights for .500 season

North Carolina coach Roy Williams will have to cross yet another name off his active roster when his Tar Heels take on Florida State tonight.

David Wear’s hip injury sidelines the freshman indefinitely and leaves the Tar Heels — already decimated by injuries this season — with only three healthy post players.

Deon Thompson, John Henson and Tyler Zeller are all that’s left from the talented and deep front line North Carolina fielded at the start of the season, and the offense has suffered with the rotating door of players in and out of the lineup.

“Bottom line, the ball hasn’t gone in the basket as much as we want,” Williams said.

All told, seven Tar Heels have missed at least one game this season: Marcus Ginyard, Zeller, both of the Wear twins, Leslie McDonald, Will Graves and Ed Davis.

The remaining trio faces one of the toughest frontcourt challenges in the ACC.

The Seminoles (19-7, 7-5 ACC) have the best scoring defense in the ACC, allowing only 60.8 points per game.

Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton’s team is built around physical defense and long athletes like 7-foot-1 Solomon Alabi and 6-foot-9 small forward Chris Singleton.

Florida State leads the ACC in blocked shots with 6.6 per game. In conference games, FSU is second in the ACC in rebounding margin, with 2.9 more rebounds per game than its opponents.

Reinforcing the probability of a grind-it-out, post-oriented game is the fact that the Seminoles lack an outside scorer, unlike many of the ACC teams that have torched the Tar Heels.

No guard on Florida State’s team averages more than nine points per game in conference play. Much like the Tar Heels, FSU does its damage in the paint.

Alabi leads the offense with 12.3 points per game, and Singleton isn’t far behind with 11.5.

Florida State is ninth in the ACC in three-point shooting and 10th in three-point defense.

The Seminoles’ spotty outside defense might leave an opening for a UNC team that now must go smaller and more perimeter-oriented.

But the Tar Heels have given up big numbers to wing players of all calibers this season, and FSU will look to Derwin Kitchen and freshman Michael Snaer to get hot from the perimeter.

David Wear’s injury leaves both minutes and offensive production up for grabs to be distributed among Henson, McDonald, Ginyard and Graves, and the potential for a perimeter-oriented UNC squad at times.

Or Wear’s twin brother Travis might recover from his ankle injury in time to return for the game.

But either way, the Seminoles will remember last year’s showdown in Tallahassee, and Ty Lawson’s three-point runner at the buzzer which buried FSU’s upset bid still burns.

Just don’t look for Lawson, or FSU’s former high-scoring point guard Toney Douglas, on the court tonight — it’ll be an affair for the big fellas in the post.



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.