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(02/09/10 6:53am)
DURHAM — One frustration-filled possession doubled as the story of the game.After North Carolina seemed to have finally grabbed some momentum, No. 8 Duke grabbed three offensive rebounds and nailed a 3-pointer to squelch the last hopes the No. 18 Tar Heels had of getting back into the game.The deficit never again got as close as 11 and grew as large as 30 in Duke’s 79-51 win on Monday night.“(Duke) deserves all the credit for that,” Duke head coach Joanne McCallie said. “That’s players going and getting after it, and totally controlling the boards.”The offensive rebounding clinic was brought to an end by Duke senior Keturah Jackson — who was actually subbed in during a stoppage during the possession.That wasn’t the only three- rebound possession of the game. Three separate times the Blue Devils corralled three or more rebounds in a single possession. All three times ended with Duke scores. “Like we do with all the games, we’ll go back and watch the film 10 times and try to figure things out,” UNC head coach Sylvia Hatchell said. “Sometimes maybe instead of trying to figure things out so much, you gotta go out there and go to war.”The Tar Heels’ 28 rebounds mark a new season low for them, falling short of the previous low of 32 rebounds, which they tallied against Florida State two games ago.North Carolina was 3-3 going into the game in contests where the other team grabbed more rebounds, with the three losses coming to Michigan State, Florida State and Connecticut.“At halftime, rebounding was 17-16, and in the second half they outrebounded us 35-12, so I thought that was a big key to start the second half,” Hatchell said.Rebounding is paramount to the Tar Heels’ winning formula, and when they are unable to control the boards, the stress on the defense to force turnovers increases in order to create fast-break opportunities.The second half was the most lopsided, both on the boards and on the scoreboard. On Duke’s side, the Blue Devils grabbed 17 of their own misses, while UNC could only corral 10 defensive rebounds, despite the fact that the defense is traditionally in better rebounding position than the offense.“Rebounding is not all size — well, it is size,” Hatchell said. “But it’s not the size of your body, it’s the size of your heart. That’s pretty much what it’s all about. Sometimes it is physical size, but I’ve seen smaller players that are tremendous rebounders, and it’s probably more the size of the heart.”So when questioned after the game about what frustrated her most about a 28-point loss, Hatchell had little else to say but the obvious about her team’s 28 rebound performance.“Rebounding,” Hatchell said. “Wouldn’t you be, if you were the head coach?”Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(02/09/10 6:43am)
DURHAM — One frustration-filled possession doubled as the story of the game.After North Carolina seemed to have finally grabbed some momentum, No. 8 Duke grabbed three offensive rebounds and nailed a 3-pointer to squelch the last hopes the No. 18 Tar Heels had of getting back into the game.The deficit never again got as close as 11 and grew as large as 30 in Duke’s 79-51 win on Monday night.“(Duke) deserves all the credit for that,” Duke head coach Joanne McCallie said. “That’s players going and getting after it, and totally controlling the boards.”The offensive rebounding clinic was brought to an end by Duke senior Keturah Jackson — who was actually subbed in during a stoppage during the possession.That wasn’t the only three- rebound possession of the game. Three separate times the Blue Devils corralled three or more rebounds in a single possession. All three times ended with Duke scores. “Like we do with all the games, we’ll go back and watch the film 10 times and try to figure things out,” UNC head coach Sylvia Hatchell said. “Sometimes maybe instead of trying to figure things out so much, you gotta go out there and go to war.”The Tar Heels’ 28 rebounds mark a new season low for them, falling short of the previous low of 32 rebounds, which they tallied against Florida State two games ago.North Carolina was 3-3 going into the game in contests where the other team grabbed more rebounds, with the three losses coming to Michigan State, Florida State and Connecticut.“At halftime, rebounding was 17-16, and in the second half they outrebounded us 35-12, so I thought that was a big key to start the second half,” Hatchell said.Rebounding is paramount to the Tar Heels’ winning formula, and when they are unable to control the boards, the stress on the defense to force turnovers increases in order to create fast-break opportunities.The second half was the most lopsided, both on the boards and on the scoreboard. On Duke’s side, the Blue Devils grabbed 17 of their own misses, while UNC could only corral 10 defensive rebounds, despite the fact that the defense is traditionally in better rebounding position than the offense.“Rebounding is not all size — well, it is size,” Hatchell said. “But it’s not the size of your body, it’s the size of your heart. That’s pretty much what it’s all about. Sometimes it is physical size, but I’ve seen smaller players that are tremendous rebounders, and it’s probably more the size of the heart.”So when questioned after the game about what frustrated her most about a 28-point loss, Hatchell had little else to say but the obvious about her team’s 28 rebound performance.“Rebounding,” Hatchell said. “Wouldn’t you be, if you were the head coach?”Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(02/01/10 6:17am)
Will Graves tried. John Henson tried. Leslie McDonald tried. And finally, Marcus Ginyard tried.None of them could shut down Virginia’s Sylven Landesberg.The sophomore led Uva. in scoring for the 13th game this season, notching 29 points for the Cavaliers — eclipsing his previous season high of 23 set in games against N.C. State and Longwood.“He’s a good player,” UNC sophomore forward Ed Davis said. “I know last year we played him and he struggled against us, so I guess he was really pumped to play us this year.”Landesberg shot 7-for-25 in two games against UNC last year. Sunday night, he had converted seven field goals within the first 15 minutes.The Cavaliers could thank Landesberg in large part for their 35-30 halftime advantage, as he scored 16 of those points in the first half. When Virginia went on its 18-0 spurt at the start the second half, the game was effectively over.“Many people were here tonight and watching knew that he flat-out killed us,” Ginyard said. “He was about the most efficient player that we’ve seen all year.”Even though he scored 29 points, Landesberg did not dominate the ball or go one-on-one with his defender all that often. Most of the time, he would receive a pass, make a move and then score.“If you’re going to take 18 shots and make over half of them, you’re doing a great job,” point guard Larry Drew II said. “He definitely led his team out there tonight.”The Tar Heels tried to keep the ball out of Landesberg’s hands early, as Graves was very aggressive in denying the perimeter pass.Landesberg had the counter, however, beating Graves to the backdoor for his ninth and tenth points of the game.“We’ve got a lot of problems, but staying in front of the basketball has been one since day one with this team, and I really, really thought we would be a good defensive team,” UNC coach Roy Williams said.“Last game I thought we were good defensively. I thought we were good defensively against Michigan State, but we’re not really good defensively consistently.”Landesberg devastated UNC with layups. For the game he shot 3-for-9 on jump shots, but he was 8-for-9 on layups. The most impressive came against Henson, when Landesberg used the rim to shield off Henson’s long arms and still convert the reverse layup.“We knew coming into the game that he was a driver,” Drew said. “We tried our best to contain him, but he was getting to the rack pretty easy. That’s not the man defending him’s fault; that’s everybody else’s fault.”With his drives being so effective, Landesberg only bothered to take a single three-point field goal, which he missed.Each of the Tar Heel defenders made him work for his points, but often the help defense was a step slow to shut down the driving lanes. This left the on-ball defenders a step behind Landesberg, with the task of preventing him from scoring.More often than not, it didn’t work.“Sylven was terrific offensively,” Virginia head coach Tony Bennett said. “He was special.”On two separate occasions, a Tar Heel was called for a blocking foul trying to draw a charge on Landesberg while he shot — and converted — a layup.“One, we’re not staying in front of the ball, and two, we’re not getting help,” Ginyard said about their defensive struggles.Landesberg’s performance marks the sixth time an opposing guard has scored at least 19 points — in ACC play alone.“That’s exactly how I would describe it,” Ginyard said. “Another guy going off for big points.”Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(01/26/10 5:41am)
RALEIGH — Chay Shegog was little more than a bystander in Monday’s game against N.C. State.After picking up her fourth foul shortly after halftime with UNC down seven, she sat with a towel draped over her shoulders — even taking part in a “Tar … Heels” chant after a timeout.It seemed that North Carolina would be forced to go the rest of the way without any interior presence.Enter Waltiea Rolle.Rolle’s play, which could have previously been described as raw, was every bit as important as Italee Lucas’ scoring bonanza in UNC pulling out an 81-69 win in a raucous Reynolds Coliseum.In 16 second-half minutes, Rolle amassed 10 points, six rebounds, and seven blocks.“This freshman is going to be a great player,” North Carolina head coach Sylvia Hatchell said.“She played a really solid game and made some big foul shots for us down the stretch.”Lucas combined with Rolle to score 34 of UNC’s first 36 second- half points. Rolle was also a force on the boards, nabbing eight total rebounds, including six offensive boards.Her most impressive rebound came when she missed a shot at the foul line, but was able to hustle to the rebound and put back her own miss to bring UNC within five.She even made free throws. Rolle entered the game shooting 58 percent from the charity stripe, but she knocked in six of her eight second-half free throws. This sudden development was emblematic of her all-around play on Monday.“It was big,” Hatchell said. “She’s had some really good games this year. If you look at her stats and percentages, she’s on track to be one of the best we’ve ever had. She’s just going to get better.”On the defensive end, she was even more forceful. She used her 6-foot-6 frame and pterodactyl-like wingspan to block shots and wreak havoc on N.C. State’s offense. Rolle’s career high in blocks entering the game sat at four, but she obliterated that in just one half, finishing with seven.“She affected a lot of our shots defensively, and I don’t think we took great shots,” N.C. State head coach Kellie Harper said. “She was really flying into the boards consistently and did a pretty good job from the foul line when we were fouling her. She was a huge lift for them.”She had always been able to cause shooters problems with her length, but the real growth was in her ability to do it all while only fouling once.“She’s our safety back there,” Lucas said.It felt like every Wolfpack drive past a UNC defender ended with Rolle batting away a shot.“I was just the help,” Rolle said. “If they come driving into the lane, it’s mine. That’s just what I do.”Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(01/25/10 5:39am)
It took the North Carolina women’s basketball team seven minutes to turn a barnburner into a blowout Friday night.Down by a point with 7:08 left in the second half, North Carolina rattled off a 23-4 run to defeat Clemson 79-61.The key to the run was defense. The Tigers’ offense ground to a halt amidst a sea of turnovers and missed shots, which UNC was able to convert into points on the other end.“We kept switching it up,” UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said. “We did a little bit of zone, then we showed zone and went man, and then we trapped on the wing. “We threw a bunch of stuff out there down the stretch and I think all of (the players) did a better job of not letting them drive down to the paint.”Bolstered by two clutch threes from Italee Lucas and a usual late-game surge from Cetera DeGraffenreid, the Tar Heels (15-3, 3-1) pulled away. DeGraffenreid scored eight of her 12 points down the stretch.Lucas herself scored a game-high 20 to pace UNC off the bench.“We need to embrace the fact that we do need to step up in close games,” Lucas said. “We need to communicate the entire game, and also with the team.”The UNC run came in response to a big Clemson (9-11, 0-4) streak that erased a 10-point North Carolina advantage and staked the Tigers to a one point lead. From there, the wheels came off for Clemson.“They made a great push, but I really felt like we lost a little bit of composure,” Clemson coach Cristy McKinney said. “We made a couple of bad decisions, a couple of quick shots and turnovers, and they really exploited them.”McKinney’s squad effectively neutralized both of North Carolina’s calling cards — fast breaks and rebounding — and that’s why they were in a position to win with seven minutes remaining. The Tar Heels only scored 14 fast break points, and grabbed a single rebound more than the Tigers.“We were focused. I don’t think we lost intensity, just it’s composure that keeps you staying with your offense, staying with what’s been successful and not trying to get out of that,” McKinney said. “And I felt like we tried to get out of that near the end.”Clemson just could not make enough shots to keep up with the Tar Heels. For the game, Clemson shot 39 percent from the field, and 31 percent from the free throw line.At the other end, UNC had no trouble, shooting 57 percent in the second half and 53 percent for the game.That is a drastic turnaround from the previous three games — losses to Virginia Tech and Connecticut and a win against Maryland — in which the team shot 68-for-216, or 31 percent from the field.The team’s halfcourt offense was more fluid than it had been in three games, and that manifested itself in the highest number of assists, 13, since the January 6 game against Georgia Tech.“(Chay Shegog) was looking for the cutter — and we did hit that a couple times,” Hatchell said. “We’ve got to develop our offense from the inside-out when we don’t have a fast break, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(01/15/10 5:29am)
BLACKSBURG, VA – After the first half, the North Carolina’s women’s basketball team could have counted itself lucky to only be losing by four to Virginia Tech.
(12/13/09 11:57pm)
A well-placed stoppage in play can sometimes be the most important moment in a basketball game.
(12/12/09 7:55am)
When North Carolina's Brett King received a red card in the 70th minute of UNC's College Cup game against the No. 1 seeded Akron Zips, one got a sense that the sending off might have been the death knell of the UNC men's soccer team's season.
(12/12/09 12:54am)
Click on this link to go to the Daily Tar Heel's liveblog from Cary at the men's College Cup.http://www.coveritlive.com/index.php?option=com_altcaster&task=playaltcast&altcast_code=c146859ae1
(12/07/09 5:11am)
Kirk Urso felt good shooting from long range on Friday.The sophomore midfielder, who has been known to shoot immediately off corners and from well outside the box, bounced a shot off the crossbar from 40 yards out in the first half.But the next long shooting chance he got, he netted. Urso found the ball at his feet after a corner kick, courtesy of junior midfielder Michael Farfan, about 23 yards from goal.And as he’s done in the past, of course he shot it.“Whenever I get the chance to strike one from out there, I’m looking for it,” Urso said. “I’ve had a few goals this year (from distance), and that’s one of my strengths, so I try to hit them from there. I don’t think they expected me to shoot from there. They were probably expecting a cross from that angle.”The ball knuckled a little bit off of his foot and lasered past Drake keeper Jordan Kadlec to give the Tar Heels the first tally of the game. It would later become a 2-1 UNC victory.While the shot might have caught the goalie off-guard, his teammates have come to expect shots like that from Urso.“The first game this season, he scored from like 40 yards out, so it’s nothing new to us,” Alex Dixon said. “He does that in practice, so we’re just used to it.”Soon after that, Dixon followed up with a score of his own off a counterattack.The North Carolina defense, which has only given up multiple goals in a game twice all season, needed no extra cushion and locked down the Drake attack. “It was just a matter of getting a few more goals out of this to make it a little easier on ourselves,” UNC head coach Elmar Bolowich said. “I think overall we defended pretty well, and we attacked pretty well. Drake is a potent team that scored some goals this season.”The game was arguably the team’s best performance in the NCAA tournament. UNC squelched Drake’s powerful attack and created sundry chances of their own. North Carolina’s 16-6 shot advantage tells the whole story of its offensive proficiency in the game.“I thought for the most part of the game we controlled the tempo and did what we had to do,” Bolowich said. “We just couldn’t get the goals in the first half while we had the chances to do so.”The Tar Heels did give up a late goal to Drake. The Bulldogs pressed forward in an attempt to cobble together two goals to save their season.Tempers flared at points in the game. The two teams garnered five yellow cards on the match.“You don’t become a tough competitor like a lot of our guys and not have it boil over once in a while,” Drake coach Sean Holmes said. “Luckily, I thought the ref did a good job of controlling it at the end.”The unheralded hero of the game was Farfan, who launched Dixon’s counterattack by taking a cross directly off his head and set up Urso’s strike.While he did not get an assist for starting the counterattack, the play would not have happened without him.North Carolina now moves on to the College Cup in Cary next weekend. The first opponent for UNC is undefeated and untied Akron.“I think it’s great that finally we can make it in there, because twice in the same situation it was in Cary in 2005 and in Charlotte in 2000,” Bolowich said. “Both times we were in the quarterfinals and lost at home and never made it into a College Cup that was in North Carolina. Finally now we’ve broke the ice, and we’re in, and we’re delighted.”Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(11/30/09 5:36am)
Alex Dixon’s blazing speed served as the motor for the UNC attack in its third round contest Sunday against Indiana.In a game where the Tar Heel attack often seemed disconnected from the defense, the sophomore forward helped manufacture offense where there previously seemed to be none at times.“I thought we struggled today with finding our rhythm early,” coach Elmar Bolowich said. “Several players off here and there. We couldn’t quite connect.”Because Dixon likely possessed more speed than any single defender on the Indiana defense, the unit struggled to contain him.Most of North Carolina’s prime scoring opportunities — at least tangentially — came from Dixon outrunning his marker for the ball.“They’ve got some good players,” Indiana coach Mike Freitag said.“Dixon can speed, and Billy Schuler’s a heck of a player. Those balls played forward, maybe we didn’t deal with them as well as we should have, but UNC has some good forwards that you have to deal with.”Dixon marked the lone tally on the scoreboard with his speed. In the 28th minute, he chested down senior Jordan Graye’s long ball in between two defenders, eluded one with a fake shot, and then blasted the ball under the diving Indiana keeper, Luis Soffner, for the game’s only goal.The score was hardly the team’s only opportunity, however. The Tar Heels played numerous balls down the field to Dixon. The best example was a clearance during the second half in which Dixon chased down the ball just before the endline, passed to nearby midfielder Michael Farfan, who found sophomore Kirk Urso outside the box. Urso’s shot may have been punched out by the keeper, but it was still a quality opportunity, nonetheless.“(The long ball) adds a new dimension,” Dixon said. “If they are putting a lot of pressure on us, we can just release me, and I’ll run on to it. “We’ve been talking about it during the week, that they were having problems with speed in the back. We were just trying to use that as another means of attack.”The recent uptick in production, Dixon said he believes, can largely be attributed to his recovery from several small but nagging injuries.Dixon’s goal marked the seventh time he has found the back of the net this season. On a hot streak of late, Dixon scored a goal in each of UNC’s NCAA Tournament wins and five goals in his last six games.The rest of the Tar Heels have certainly taken notice.“It makes things a lot easier,” Graye said. “We know we can just hit it into space, and Alex will probably get to it very quickly.”With a healthy Dixon, his teammates continue to struggle at times with playing next to someone with such grass-scorching speed at forward.“A lot of times it gets us into trouble because sometimes we think he’s a lot faster than he really is,” Graye said. “We play it a little bit too far, and the defender gets to it a little bit before him. But other than that, we know when it’s 50-50, Alex is most likely to get to it.”Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(11/30/09 5:34am)
Three times in the fourth quarter, UNC needed a stop from its stout defense. Twice, that defense failed.Despite their previous successes against mobile quarterbacks, UNC’s defenders looked lost in the face of the Wolfpack offense. Russell Wilson & Co. did whatever they wanted against the Tar Heels to grab the lead early in the fourth quarter and then salted it away at the end.North Carolina, which entered the game fifth in the nation in scoring defense, failed to fluster Wilson. He consistently was able to deliver the ball to his receivers despite heavy pressure in his face. “The same Russell Wilson that was here two years ago,” Kendric Burney said. “The laid-back, calm, collected, knowing how to handle pressure. That will carry you a lot as a quarterback. He did all the right things, made all the right reads and threw the ball to all the right people.”The best example was Wilson’s strike to wideout Owen Spencer. Wilson took a huge hit from defensive end Quinton Coples, but still managed to loft a perfect ball over the UNC defense, hitting Spencer in stride as he skipped into the end zone to give the Wolfpack the lead.“On our all-out blitzes, we didn’t get there in time, and that left people on islands,” safety Deunta Williams said. “Those were pretty good receivers. They were fast, and they did a good job of making plays.”That throw capped off an eight-play, 90-yard march in which the Wolfpack gained less than five yards only twice in eight plays.“They executed on the things that they needed to execute on,” Burney said of the drive. “That’s as easy as I can say it. They pretty much executed us up and down the field.”After the Tar Heel defense forced a three-and-out on the next drive, it was called on once again after Casey Barth had his 38-yard field goal attempt blocked.Even though the ensuing drive ended on a failed fourth down conversion attempt, the drive did exactly what the N.C. State wanted it to do: It took away all three North Carolina timeouts as well as chewed up four minutes and 21 seconds of the game clock because UNC couldn’t make a single stop to get off the field.The backbreaking play came when the Wolfpack was staring down a third-and-11 on their own 49-yard-line. Even though the Tar Heels could feel fairly confident that Wilson was going to throw it, they still couldn’t stop a fade to Spencer for 25 yards.“You just can’t give up big plays,” coach Butch Davis said. “Big plays are the backbreakers, because it buoys their confidence, and keeps the momentum going in the other direction. Certainly, some of the big plays they got today was attributable to their ability to throw the ball nicely.”Wilson was at his best in the fourth quarter. His 98 passing yards in the period marked the most productive quarter of the game.“Every week you got to game-plan for a great player,” Williams said. “A great player still goes out there and makes great plays, and that’s what (Wilson) did today.”Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(11/24/09 5:48am)
Every time North Carolina felt safe, it heard a familiar, almost chiding response from the PA announcer.“Three points, Grayson Flittner.”Dexter Strickland left the man open with the ball.“Three points, Grayson Flittner.”Marcus Ginyard couldn’t prevent the pass out of the double team.“Three points, Grayson Flittner.”Flittner single-handedly kept Gardner-Webb in the game, going 9-for-16 from long distance. But no matter how well Flittner shot, he simply could not overcome the Bulldogs’ size deficiencies in the post as UNC claimed victory, 93-72. “It was one of those things where he started hitting, and it was just like, ‘Gosh this is going to be a long night,’” Tyler Zeller said.Flittner shot enough threes for both teams, and he made enough to keep Gardner-Webb within striking distance. His nine threes tied the Smith Center record for three-pointers made in a single game by an opposing player. In the first half, Flittner carried the Bulldogs. The 6-foot guard entered the game with five three-pointers on the season, but he connected on six in the first half. The Tar Heels had trouble guarding him, as Ginyard, John Henson and Will Graves all took turns on him, mostly unsuccessfully.“It was amazing,” Graves said. “I’d have rather it been on our team, making shots like that, but we have to get a hand up or something.”The Tar Heels attempted only four three-pointers themselves and failed to make a three until reserve Thomas Thornton drained one with 23 seconds remaining in the contest.“I don’t go in there and tell them (not to shoot any threes in the game), but if their four-man is 6-foot-3,” head coach Roy Williams said, his voice trailing off. “I don’t believe in taking what people give you. I want to get what I want, and if we have a size advantage inside then we should do that.”The Tar Heels finished the game with a 50-32 rebounding advantage, and those extra rebounds often came off easy tip-ins. Ed Davis and Deon Thompson led the way on the glass with 13 and 10 rebounds, respectively.UNC rolled the Bulldogs inside the paint, holding a 58 to 12 advantage.“We were just more focused,” Graves said. “When we bring the intensity, we can always outrebound somebody like that.”After a 12-point run capped by Davis’ two handed dunk brought the score to 35-17, the Tar Heel advantage never sank below 12 or above 21 for the remainder of the contest.The Tar Heels’ free-throw woes continued, as the squad combined to finish 18-for-33 behind the stripe, shooting worse at the line (54.5 percent) than they did on field goal attempts (56.1 percent).Thompson, who scored his 1,000th point on a fast-break dunk, tallied 22 points and 10 rebounds. The 1,000th point gives UNC 63 one-thousand point scorers — the most in NCAA history.“I’m probably behind Tyler (Hansbrough), that’s what I do know,” Thompson said. “But it is cool to be a part of Carolina history.”Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(11/24/09 1:32am)
North Carolina is leading 53-38 at the end of the half, benefitting from 14 Gardner-Webb turnovers. The Tar Heels shot 54.8 percent in the first half, making 23 of 42 shots.
(11/20/09 5:51am)
North Carolina begins its quest to repeat its surprising run to the NCAA Tournament final last season at Fetzer Field on Sunday.
(11/20/09 5:39am)
With the last home game in Kenan Stadium behind them, the UNC football team hopes to finish off the season in its current form.After struggling in losses against Georgia Tech and Virginia, the Tar Heels have responded with five straight strong efforts and emerged with four victories. Against those last five opponents, which included three of the top four passing offenses in the ACC in Duke, Florida State, and Miami, the Tar Heels yielded just 284.8 yards per game.While the defense has done a phenomenal job of keeping the game close, what separates the late season stretch from early season is UNC’s ability to put points on the board.UNC has scored more than 20 points in four of the five games. It scored 19 against Duke.The Tar Heels now must turn their attention to Boston College. The Eagles (7-3, 4-2 in the ACC) have extra motivation, as they are only a Clemson loss away from being in the driver’s seat for a bid in the ACC Championship.“It is a unique place to play, Chestnut Hill,” Davis said. “It’s loud, so it should be quite a challenge for our football team.”The key matchup of the game figures to be Boston College’s offensive line against the defensive line of UNC. The Eagles’ line is a smashmouth unit which ranks in the ACC’s top four in both sacks allowed and rushing offense. UNC’s defensive line will be a stiff challenge, as it ranks first in rush defense in the conference and second in sacks.“We talked about this as a team, and we talked about this in a press conference four or five weeks ago — what a huge challenge the second half of the season is going to be,” Davis said. “We knew it was going to be a meat grinder.”Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(11/13/09 6:06pm)
Like a good dog or a psychotic ex-girlfriend, the annual Louie Awards are back! And you thought something minor like no longer working on SportSaturday would stop me. That’s gotta be a joke.First off, I’d like to give the Kanye West I’ma Let You Finish Award to North Carolina, for crashing what was supposed to be Virginia Tech’s parade. The Hokies were in first place in the ACC Coastal Division (with a resounding win over Georgia Tech) until North Carolina stumbled into Blacksburg and somehow emerged with a victory. Now — like Taylor Swift at the VMAs — Virginia Tech has to pick up the pieces and deliver the rest of their speech knowing the most interesting part is over.The John Bunting Award goes to Al Groh and the Virginia Cavaliers. For the second straight year, Groh did enough for the team to save his job, but not quite enough to avoid the season being a disappointment for UVa.’s fans.The Brett Favre Most Dishonorable Career Move Possible Award goes to Florida State. The Seminoles decided that they deserve 10-win seasons, and thus, Bobby Bowden must go. Bowden is only the coach who brought the Seminoles into national prominence! And that’s before you get into the logic of promoting Jimbo Fisher just because they gave him a dumb clause in his contract that awards him 5 million if he’s not the head coach after this season. The Kate Bosworth Most Over-hyped and Simultaneously Underwhelming Star Award goes to Russell Wilson. During media day, Wilson seemed like a lock to carry the Wolfpack at least back to ACC mediocrity, but that still hasn’t happened. While N.C. State does rank in the top half of all offensive stats, I want more from my breakout superstar quarterbacks than a 1-4 conference record.The Eric Crouch Award for Undeserved Credit goes to Clemson. They are a thoroughly average team, who happened to win just enough games to put themselves in prime position to win the division. I can’t believe it.The Most Dignified Fight with Cancer Award goes to Mark Herzlich. Between his touching ESPN Gameday feature and his ubiquitous presence around College Hill, he has been an inspiration for all. Get better, Mark. Contact Louie Horvath at horvath.louie@gmail.com.
(11/11/09 5:11am)
Women's Basketball
(10/21/09 3:34am)
The freshmen baseball players might be too scared to shower with the returning players this fall, but for Mike Fox, this year’s fall World Series was all about them.“We know what our veterans can do. We’ve watched them for a year, two years, sometimes three,” Fox said. “It’s the young guys, obviously, who get most of the looks in the fall. We just want to see guys with a little confidence who want to compete.”Of the new faces, no one shined as brightly in the six-game series as Jesse Wierzbicki. Granted, he’s a junior college transfer, but he announced his intention to grab the starting catcher’s job by going 7-13, with two doubles and three RBIs.“He and Jacob (Stallings) are our two catchers; you have to have two catchers during the course of 60 to 65 games,” Fox said.Fox went on to say that Wierzbicki would more than likely be the designated hitter or first baseman on days when he wasn’t behind the plate.Of the freshmen, Tommy Coyle stood out, going 9 for 21 in the series while playing second base for the blue team.“They’re a bunch of great kids,” senior Mike Cavasinni said. “They’re coming out and growing in new ways to help Carolina baseball. A lot of them are shy when they’re coming in. They wouldn’t even get in the showers with us.”As for the pitchers, Jimmy Messer and Colin Bates saved the two best starts of the fall World Series for last. The pair combined for 12 innings and three earned runs between them.“All of our young pitchers have showed us that they’re capable,” Fox said. “They’ve all got to work to improve, they need to keep the ball out of the middle of the plate.”For the most part, except for two-run homers by Tarron Robinson and Seth Baldwin, both sides were able to keep the ball out of the middle of the plate Tuesday, as the two teams managed only 12 hits in nine innings.Robinson also hit a game-changing home run on Saturday to give the white team the win in game one of the second series.“We were able to bring some pitchers out of the bullpen in certain situations, which is the only time we get to do that,” Fox said. “In that regard, we got Chris Munnelly in the game late, we got our lefties in to face some lefty hitters, which is something they’ll have to do in the spring.”While this was the team’s 20th intrasquad scrimmage, only the last six have had the scoreboard on, complete with PA sound and a real line score.The fall World Series was made up of two best-of-three series. The white team (which changed into navy shirts on Tuesday) took the first series 2-1.The white team wasted little time, winning the first two games of the next series before the last game ended in a tie on Tuesday.“My team won four games in a row,” Cavasinni said. “They battled hard, they played well, and they didn’t give up, certainly. It’s a good thing to end the fall on a good note. You end with a tie, so that no one is mad.”Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(10/20/09 12:33am)
In case you forgot, let me bring you up to speed on a few things.No, North Carolina doesn’t have anyone who is likely to break UNC’s all-time scoring record.No, the Tar Heels don’t have a virtually unstoppable point guard to run the attack. But that’s the excitement.Instead of expecting to win every game — by 20 — this year’s team may drop a game to an underwhelming opponent or two. When the Tar Heels of yesteryear lost, it was almost embarrassing to their fans. “They have all this talent, and they still lost to Greivis Vasquez?”This year, expectations are off. The fans haven’t even bought all their 2009 national championship gear yet. They’re still basking in last year’s championship win — especially when you factor in all the talent that was lost out of that championship team.I know what you are thinking right now: ‘Did Louie just steal a column off the 2006 basketball preview and rerun it under his name?’No. I didn’t. I don’t even know if the 2006 preview had a column in it.At any rate, on this, the 100th edition of men’s basketball, that’s not even the team who most closely correlates to this year’s squad. After 2005, Tar Heel fans were staring down a season of unknown freshmen mixed with David Noel, Quentin Thomas, Wes Miller and Reyshawn Terry.While this opened the door for Tyler Hansbrough to get a great start on Phil Ford’s career scoring record, it wasn’t great for ol’ Roy’s chances of contending for the NCAA championship.It sounds simple, but returning players are the currency of coaches. They pass along the lessons of seasons past to the freshmen, and provide another perspective for the freshmen to listen to.If I had to compare this year’s team to a previous UNC team, it wouldn’t be that 2006 team. It would be the 1993-1994 team.While they lost the heart and soul of the national championship team in George Lynch, they still had quite a few contributors to their national championship squad, along with a ridiculously strong freshman class.They returned Derrick Phelps, Donald Williams, and Eric Montross, among many others.But you’ve probably heard of those freshmen: Rasheed Wallace, Jeff McInnis, and Jerry Stackhouse.For reference, that talented 1994 team swept Duke, won the ACC tournament and secured a No. 1 seed before falling in the second round of the NCAA tournament.What does that all mean for UNC’s 2009-10 edition?Between Marcus Ginyard, Tyler Zeller, and Ed Davis, there is a reasonably solid contingent of returners, and when those are paired with the highly touted freshmen, they should have the talent to beat anyone.But with the inconsistency to potentially lose to anyone and everyone.That is called “talent without the expectations.” And that, ladies and gentlemen, is as fun as it gets.Contact Louie Horvath at slhorvat@email.unc.edu