All posts by Cliff Barnes

Duke, Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

Improbably, Tar Heels whip Duke for ACC regular season title

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Before the season only one basketball writer picked North Carolina to win the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season and he tried to renege saying it was a mistake. Improbably, the Tar Heels whipped defending national champion Duke in Chapel Hill 81-67 to win the ACC regular season title.

The two teams came into the game with 13-2 marks and Carolina had blown a 16-point lead in the first matchup between the two teams. The game was important enough that UNC coach Roy Williams seriously considered not starting all his seniors, a school tradition. In the end, he started the three walk-on seniors along with transfer senior Justin Knox, a first for all four.

The walk-ons left the game after a minute and a half with a 3-0 Carolina lead. The Carolina fans were in a frenzy with the modest start that set the tone for the game.

The game was close and went back and forth through the first 10 minutes of the game. Kendall Marshall hit a three midway through the first half to give Carolina a 23-21 lead and remarkably the Heels never trailed again.

UNC worked the lead up to 14 late in the half after an 11-2 run with the last five straight points coming from Leslie McDonald.

Carolina led 51-39 at the break but Duke came out hot in the second half and Carolina turned the ball over a couple of times and missed a couple of open shots. After two minutes, the Blue Devils had cut the margin to five at 51-46.

A Harrison Barnes steal and layup, followed by a pair of free throws pushed the margin up to nine and then five minutes in he drilled a three to push the lead back up to 12 at 60-48.

Curry’s sixth three pointer of the game pulled the Devils to within six at 64-58 but it never got closer. A Barnes dunk follow of his own miss got the margin back up to 12 with less than eight minutes to play. The lead stayed between 9 and 15 points the rest of the way.

For more on the game, please click here.

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

Despite heroics, Barnes no longer a top 5 NBA pick

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Basketball insiders who had thought UNC freshman Harrison Barnes would stay in college only one season now believe he perhaps should stay in Chapel Hill a little longer.

“He’s not an explosive, wow-you-with-athleticism type of young man. He’s a very good, very fundamentally sound player who’ll be a piece of an NBA team’s puzzle,” said Fran Fraschilla, former college coach who works as an analyst for ESPN. “He’s not Michael Jordan.”

Fraschilla, who says Barnes would be a Top 15 pick in the NBA draft instead of a No. 1 or Top 5 pick, said he believes Barnes should stay at least one more year. For his part, it appears Barnes will consider going pro after this season.

“I have to consider that when the time comes,” Barnes said. “Obviously, I didn’t anticipate struggling. But you’ve got to just roll with the punches. … Whichever way I decide to go, I’ll be prepared.”

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

UNC’s Bullock out for the season

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The knee injury that has plagued UNC freshman forward Reggie Bullock has ended his season. UNC announced this afternoon that Bullock has a torn lateral meniscus and will have season-ending arthroscopic surgery.

This will be the second surgery the Kinston native has had on that left knee. Bullock, while in a slump lately, is the sixth leading scorer on the team with six points a game.

Duke, UNC

Duke women wrap up top seed with win over UNC

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The Duke women’s basketball team has clinched the top seeding in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and they did it against one of their favorite teams to beat, North Carolina. The Blue Devils, behind seniors Jasmine Thomas (17 points) and Karima Christmas (14 points), beat UNC 66-58 today in Durham.

The Blue Devils (26-3, 12-2) got out to a big lead and withstood a comeback by the Tar Heels (22-7, 8-6). Going into the game, Duke was the No. 9 team in the nation while Carolina was No. 13.

Italee Lucas scored 15 points and Chay Shegog added 14 for the Heels who enter the conference tourney in Greensboro later this week as the No. 6 seed. (22-7, 8-6), the No. 6 seed for the league tournament later this week in Greensboro.

Featured stories, UNC

Heels tie Duke by putting away Maryland

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North Carolina never trailed as the Tar Heels banged inside and hit from outside to defeat Maryland 87-76 and tie Duke for the ACC lead with just two regular-season games to go.

Tyler Zeller did the offensive damage inside with 25 points while Harrison Barnes and Leslie McDonald did the damage outside with 21 and 15 points.

Barnes drained three threes in the first four minutes and Carolina got out to a quick 13-5 lead. But Maryland fought back to tie it at 13-all and it stayed close until the last five minutes of the first half.

Carolina went on a late 12-4 run to take a 43-31 halftime lead that stood up through the second half. That run was highlighted by a McDonald three from straight away, an old-fashioned three-point play by Zeller and a Barnes reverse lay in.

The Tar Heels now stand at 22-6 and 12-2 in the ACC, even with Duke after the Devils lost at Virginia Tech Saturday. The Heels go to Florida State Wednesday night before finishing the regular season at home against the Blue Devils.

When asked about possibly playing Duke for the ACC regular season title, UNC coach Roy Williams said, “We better be thinking in terms of Florida State.”

For more on the Maryland game, please click here.

Featured stories, UNC

Heels hang on in low-scoring affair against BC

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I like low-scoring games, I promise. But I found myself surfing the Internet during the first half of North Carolina’s 48-46 victory at home over Boston College. (It was just 21-20 at the half.) BC certainly controlled the tempo and made for a ho-hum game for much of the time.

“We could have played a nice offense like we usually do and we would have lost by a lot,” said Boston College coach Steve Donahue.

Carolina looked really good offensively for five minutes in the second half but that was it. During that stretch, UNC outscored BC 15-3 and appeared to have the game in hand at 41-26. A long pass from Kendall Marshall to a streaking Tyler Zeller started the run which included a Harrison Barnes three and a pair of spinning, driving layups by Marshall and Barnes.

But then the Heels lost the ball on five straight possessions and BC, unlike the Heels, were able to hit some threes which got them back in it.

The Tar Heels did hold BC to just 27 percent shooting and outrebounded the Eagles 44-30.

Carolina’s defense is carrying the Heels right now but it’s just a matter of time before they lose one they oughta win unless they get their offensive woes figured out.

For more on the Boston College game, please click here.

Duke, Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

Williams more comfortable with this UNC team

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North Carolina might be coming off a big win over Florida State and UNC may have found a solid point guard but now the Tar Heels have a week where they play at Duke and at Clemson, two teams that beat them by a combined 51 points on their home floors last year.

The Heels, who play at Cameron Indoor Stadium Wednesday night, were embarrassed 82-50 at Duke last year. While the Tar Heels weren’t playing with their full complement of players a year ago, they just weren’t very good. Carolina was 16-15 and 5-11 in the ACC after that game.

This time the Tar Heels are 17-5 and 7-1 in the ACC as the teams meet in Durham. Coach Roy Williams, during his weekly media teleconference today, said he was “scared to death” but feels more comfortable with the team he is taking over to Duke this year, especially considering the way they are playing.

He said it would be a “monumental task” to beat the Blue Devils but he is confident that his team will try extremely hard and will play together.

Some have marveled at how quickly the Tar Heels seem to have gotten over the loss of point guard Larry Drew II. Freshman Kendall Marshall, who had won the starting job from Drew four games earlier, had 16 assists in Carolina’s impressive 89-69 win over Florida State.

“Kids get over things so much easier and quicker,” Williams said adding that coaches have a harder time with adversity. “But it was a tough 48 hours for all of us.”

Earlier Dexter Strickland seemed to indicate that Drew along with the Wear twins and Will Graves – four players no longer on the team – were not “all in” when he came to being a part of the Carolina team.

For his part, Williams said that the team practiced really well the two days after learning that Drew had left the team. He said that team chemistry is built throughout the course of the entire season and that adversity, within reason, tends to bring a team together.

“I love coaching the guys we have left,” Williams said.

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

UNC’s Marshall now making opponents sick

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Kendall Marshall said he threw up at halftime of North Carolina’s 89-69 win over Florida State. If his first game without Larry Drew II sharing time is any indication, he’s going to be making a lot of opponents and their fans throw up.

Marshall dished out 16 assists, two shy of the all-time Carolina record held by Raymond Felton and breaking the record for a game against an ACC opponent.

He made some spectacular passes including a nifty driving underhand job to Tyler Zeller who dunked it and a long upcourt fastbreak assist to John Henson who dunked it.

Carolina might want to get a bodyguard for Marshall, who saw his minutes go from about 20 a game to 36 against Florida State. Without Drew, he’ll have to stay healthy for the Heels to have a chance at an ACC title and a long run in the NCAA tournament.

UNC coach Roy Williams said he’d like to get Marshall’s minutes down a bit but backup Dexter Strickland, a shooting guard, hasn’t had time to get up to speed at the point.

Williams said Marshall not only is smart but he has a good feel for the game and has good court vision. He can also score when he needs to. He drained a pair of threes against the Seminoles.

The team’s shooting percentage should improve as Marshall gets the ball inside for dunks. Carolina will miss Drew’s defense but there may be better chemistry now with Marshall playing more minutes.

Maybe the amount of playing time as much as his nerves led to Marshall throwing up. But it was Florida State that felt sick after this game.

For more on the Florida State game itself, please click here.

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

Bullock’s three-pointers change UNC game at BC

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The three-point shot can certainly change games in a hurry and it did so during North Carolina’s 106-74 drubbing of Boston College. It looked as if BC might continue its ACC dominance at home after hitting four threes in a row to get out to an 18-13 lead.

But UNC’s Reggie Bullock went unconscious over a three-minute period with four three-pointers. His three from the right corner gave Carolina its first lead at 19-18. About 40 seconds later Bullock hit a three from the left corner and just over a minute later he swished a three from the left side to put the Tar Heels up 29-22.

At the end of the day, Boston College had 13 three-pointers compared to 11 by Carolina. But the time of the game in which the threes were made was big plus BC shot a lot more threes. You live by it and you die by it. Carolina hit 52 percent of its three pointers while BC hit 39 percent.

For more on the Boston College game itself, please click here.

Featured stories

Czisny stars in Saturday’s Figuring Skating performance

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Alissa Czisny, reason enough for red-blooded American males to watch figure skating, is back as America’s best female skater after taking the U.S. Figure Skating Championship Saturday night in the sold-out Greensboro Coliseum.

“It’s pretty exciting to come back after thinking about quitting,” Czisny said, “and being able to find my love for the sport again. I love to skate and I want to share it with everybody.”

Third after Friday’s short program, Czisny skated a near-perfect, fluid, energetic long program routine to hold off last year’s champion Rachel Flatt, who made two minor errors in her long program.

Czisny, who has struggled with confidence in the past, appears to be back after finishing 10th in the U.S. championships last year. She also won the U.S. title in 2009 but had struggled until beating the world’s best recently at the Grand Prix final.

“She has so many things you can’t teach,” former men’s champion Scott Hamilton said. “She has a beautiful presence on the ice. You can develop it but what she brings with her spinning and her artistic sense is really amazing.”

Even before the end of her long program, Czisny was smiling as she knew she had nailed it. “What else could you want in a woman figure skater?” Hamilton asked. “Alissa Czisny has it all and she just delivered it. What a comeback.”

Mirai Nagasu, on the other hand, faltered in the long program after leading going into Saturday night. Small errors throughout dropped her to third.

Flatt, competing last, was third after the short program and couldn’t overtake Czisny. “She put together a good routine but two mistakes are too many to hold off a performance like the one delivered by Alissa Czisny,” Hamilton said.

Czisny, who leads the U.S. team to the world championships in Toyko in March, finished with 191.24 points, while Flatt had 183.38 and Nagasu had 177.26.

The men’s champion, with favorites Ryan Bradley and Jeremy Abbott fighting it out, will be determined Sunday. The event closes with a skating spectacular performance Sunday night.