Carolina on Right Track

Last night, North Carolina impressed, even in a loss. This Carolina team seems a lot like the ’03 Carolina team, when May, McCants, Felton and most notably, Noel were freshmen. That team had moments of brilliance in the first half of the season, before Sean May went down for the year. It’s not right to compare those two teams, but this is a very talented bunch that just has to be more disciplined.

For example, even though Illinois had two more turnovers than UNC, the Tar Heels’ giveaways were costly, as usually some kind of world-beating pass was trying to be made with someone open on the perimeter. Bobby Frasor, Marcus Ginyard and the rest of the newbies will learn in time.

Also, in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge, something doesn’t seem to be right with Wake Forest still. With no Chris Paul, this team should not be winning the same way as last year. Currently, the way they are going to win most of their games is by Justin Gray hitting his shots and make his free throws. He did both last night. And with freshman Harvey Hale running the point, and making freshman type plays at times, the Deacons just look erratic.

Oh my Purdue, how bad have you fallen?

I knew Houston would make some noise out of conference.

The first bad loss of the Andy Kennedy era at Cincinnati happened last night…to a very mediocre Dayton team.

For Indiana to beat Duke tonight, the combination of Marco Killingsworth and Sean Kline has to shut down Shelden Williams. Frankly, the Hoosiers should even allow JJ Redick to get 25-35 points. If Williams is consistently getting the ball like he did against Memphis in his 30-point night, the Hoosiers will not even come within 10 points of winning.

The next best game on the schedule also comes from the lovable made-for-TV extravaganza, and that game would be NC State and Iowa.

The striking thing about both teams is their depth. NC State has eight players averaging at least 10 minutes a game, while Iowa has nine guys who are at double-digits in minutes.
Each team is incredibly balanced offensively and superb defensively as well. This may be a 58-54 game, but it will be good to watch to two teams that have played great so far.