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Off the cuff: It's amusing that Maryland coach Mark Turgeon made a big deal about John Henson dunking with one second left on the clock. He said, "I didn't like the dunk... It was between me and Coach (Williams). I didn’t like it. Coach knows that. There’s no need for it. But we are going to be good soon. It comes around.” This from a guy who got ejected, not just given a technical but got thrown out of the Terrapins last game. This from a guy who was seen cussing and appearing on camera to take the Lord's name in vain during this game. This from the coach of the team that had Greivis Vasquez hot doggin', trash talkin' and running up the score on Carolina two years ago in a 92-71 victory by the Terps over the Heels. I know this is his first year as Maryland's coach but before he starts yackin' about things coming back around to bite you, maybe he should learn a little about the recent Maryland-UNC rivalry. Henson was on the floor when Vasquez was celebrating in the Tar Heels faces with several minutes left on the clock two seasons ago. He heard the Maryland fans mock the Heels with the chant, "N.I.T., N.I.T., N.I.T." What goes around comes around indeed. Even Terrell "The Ball Hog" Stoglin got in on it by saying, "I felt it was a bad play, personally." Stoglin takes a third of his team's shots and in this game took more than twice as many shots as anyone else on the team. He took 21 shots, including missing eight of nine threes. After a while, maybe you should give the three a rest, especially in a close game. No other Terrapin shot the ball more than eight times. I feel that is bad, personally. For his part, instead of reminding the media about Vasquez and the N.I.T. chants or taking shots at his former assistant at Kansas, Coach Roy Williams took the high road. "It's not a big deal - they're kids," Williams said. "I probably would have liked it better if John hadn't gone in and dunked it. The guy (Alex Len) was trying to block his shot. If they were standing out at the center line I would have really been disappointed at John. That's because of my feelings for Turge that I didn't want it to end like that." If you go back and look at the play, Maryland was pressing full court down by seven points with 12 seconds left. If they hadn't done that, the dunk never would have happened. Then, if Maryland's Pe'shon Howard had done anything at all besides wave at Henson as he went by, there would have been no dunk. Why press full court and then allow someone to go right by you for a dunk. Makes no sense. I don't like running the score up on somebody but winning by nine rather than seven isn't running up the score. What Maryland did to Carolina two years ago was running up the score. In addition, I'm not a fan of games ending with teams dribbling the ball real high or holding the ball for 10 seconds while players wallk off the court and shake hands and the clock is still running. I'd rather see teams play until the final buzzer. I bet Maryland will next time and that's ok with me. As for Maryland fans booing the dunk at the end of the game, they yelled "F--- Carolina" the entire game, including one guy during the national anthem, who yelled "F--- UNC." And they thought it was inappropriate to dunk at the end of the game? ---------------------- North Carolina's victory over Wake Forest was the 600th conference win for the Tar Heels program. That's more than any other team. Fortunately most of those have been prettier efforts than this one where UNC shot 31 percent and Wake shot 29 percent. Carolina seemed to have the game in hand at halftime but mysteriously went nearly nine minutes between buckets at the start of the second half. Luckily for the Heels, their defense was good and the Deacons' shooting eye was poor. Maybe it has something to do with those ugly, dizzying tie-dye shirts the Wake Forest students wear. Interestingly, neither team turned the ball over much. In fact, Carolina turned the ball over just six times and Wake failed to score any of those six times. Speaking of six, Kendall Marshall, who averages about 10 assists a game, had only six in this one but he lit it up offensively with a season-high 14 points. He hit an open three early in the game and hit another as the Heels were pulling away in the second half. He also was part of the play of the game when John Henson got a rebound quickly, moved it out to Marshall who immediately went upcourt to Reggie Bullock who scored and was fouled. It was all quick and the ball never touched the ground. It also gave the Heels their largest lead of the game up to that point at 28-19. Despite an ugly game, that was pretty. ----------------------
Carolina Football: Golden anniversary of a redeeming 50-0 victory over Duke. Carolina Football: Excerpts from an article on the history of the Carolina-Duke rivalry. Henson Barnes, nation's top high school player, signs letter of intent
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Editor's Note: HeelPrints chronicled the UNC basketball, baseball and football seasons for 2008 and 2009. Since the vast majority of comments I get about the site relate to basketball and since this isn't a paying job for me, I decided to limit my coverage and analysis to basketball. Baseball and football will remain archived and if I have comments or opinions I want to make on those or any other sports at UNC, I will make them here on the front page and then archive them in the corresponding sports section. Thanks for all the positive comments I have received about the site. Should I get sponsorship in the future, I will reconsider adding baseball and football again. Ironically, my favorite sports to watch in person are baseball and football. But my first connections to UNC came from watching Dean Smith's basketball teams on TV or listening to them on the radio in the days before all the games were televised. It should come as no surprise that people pay more attention to the basketball coverage. Thanks for your interest in this site. |
