All posts by Cliff Barnes

The skinny, UNC

Furr could get significant minutes this week depending on Houston decision

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With the running back situation unsettled for Carolina – is Shaun Draughn healthy? will Ryan Houston burn a redshirt year – it appears Hunter Furr has become a key part of the UNC offense.

Furr, who ran three times for 27 yards on the game-winning drive last week against Florida State, has been the scout team runner this season. Those are the guys who prepare the starters for the opposition and don’t play in the game. “He’s not on the scout team anymore,” UNC coach Butch Davis said with a laugh, adding that he’s been getting 20-30 percent of the snaps with the starters in practice.

Davis said that drive last week at the end of the game against FSU was the best drive the Tar Heels have had during his tenure as coach. “The whole team was ecstatic for Hunter,” Davis said. “He’s been very unselfish. He’s been willing to play whatever role we gave him.”

Primarily, in addition to the scout team, he’s played a lot on special teams with the short-handed Heels. “With four senior running backs, he knew this wasn’t going to be the year he was going to get an awful lot of opportunities but he continued to practice hard, study and know the game plans,” Davis said.

Furr, a sophomore from Lewisville, said he felt ready when he was forced to enter the game after Johnny White, Shaun Draughn and Anthony Elzy all got injured during the course of the game.

“In our pre-game running back speech, Coach (Ken) Browning told us that your roles will change during the game unexpectedly, and you never know,” Furr said. “Since I’ve been here Coach Davis has always preached you’ve got to watch film, you’ve got to be ready you never know when you’re time’s going to come, and I guess my time came.”

For those wanting to know more about Furr, he wears No. 40 in honor of Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who was killed serving in the military. His favorite off-day activities are playing golf with teammates, hunting and fishing, and his dream job is to coach football at UNC.

Duke, The skinny, UNC

Yates, Helfet win player of the week honors in the ACC

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – North Carolina senior quarterback T.J. Yates has been named the Offensive Back of the Week in the Atlantic Coast Conference while Duke tight end Cooper Helfet was named Offensive Lineman of the week.

Yates, who claimed his second recognition of the season, threw for a school-record 439 yards and three touchdowns in the Tar Heels’ 37-35 win at then-No. 24 Florida State. He became the first player in school history to register two 400-plus passing games in a career and currently has the top two performances in the conference this year. The win was the first for North Carolina in Tallahassee.

Yates was 24-of-35 for a school-record 439 yards and three touchdowns in Carolina’s 37-35 win at Florida State. It was his fifth career 300-plus yard game and his second career 400-plus yard game. He became the first player in program history to pass for 400-plus yards twice in a career and the second player all-time in the ACC to have the two performances in the same season against nationally ranked opponents (No. 24 Florida State and No. 21 LSU). Yates, who passed for 412 yards earlier this season against LSU, has the top two passing performances in the ACC this season. He threw touchdown passes of 67, 14 and 4 yards in the Tar Heels’ first ever win in Tallahassee.

Helfet helped Duke to a 55-48 win over Virginia, catching seven passes for a career-high 122 yards and one touchdown. His scoring reception covered 30 yards. Five of his seven catches produced first downs, and he averaged 17.4 yards per reception. On Duke’s game-winning, 91-yard touchdown drive in the final two minutes, Helfet caught two passes for 30 yards and two first downs. He helped create holes for the Blue Devils’ rushing attack, which totaled 230 yards on the ground and six rushing touchdowns. Helfet’s receiving performance came against a Virginia defense that had ranked second in the league in pass defense.

The skinny, UNC

Baseball legend Clyde King was a true Tar Heel to the end

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Talk about a Tar Heel born and a Tar Heel bred, Clyde King was that and more. The former UNC baseball player died last week in his hometown of Goldsboro at age 86 after a six-decade baseball career.

King, who was born in Goldsboro in 1924, was the first person in his family and the only one of seven siblings to attend college. He came to Carolina without a scholarship.
At the end of his college career, the next day, he tried out for the Brooklyn Dodgers. As recounted in this excellent and insightful article from three years ago, King pitched in the very first big league game he ever attended, against the cross-town rival New York Giants, the very next day. Over seven seasons, he pitched for the Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds. His best season was 1951, when he went 14-7.
King, who married his college sweetheart and is survived by her, coached the Reds, the Cardinals, the Pirates, the Giants, the Braves and finally the Yankees. He then served as general manager of the Yankees in 1985 and 1986 and was a member of the coaching staff again in 1988. From 1998 to 2005, he was a special assistant to the general manager.
King was instrumental in the Steinbrenner family’s $1 million pledge to name the courtyard to the entrance at UNC’s Boshamer Stadium.
“It has been my great pleasure to get to know Clyde and Norma King during my time here at UNC,” UNC baseball coach Mike Fox told CapitalSportsNC after attending King’s wake. “Clyde was a special person who had an amazing career in baseball that spanned six decades. He traveled all over the world and played with and managed some of the greatest players ever to play the game. Yet he was always a Tar Heel and he came back to Chapel Hill regularly. He supported me and our program in many ways and he loved UNC.”
His granddaughter, Hadley, worked in the Carolina baseball office for three years.
“I was able to visit Mr. King in Goldsboro last summer and had one of most enjoyable evenings of my life there,” Fox said. “Clyde was a great man whose faith was and will always be how he will be remembered.”
Tar Heel born, Tar Heel bred, Tar Heel dead… but never forgotten.
The skinny, UNC

Yet another Tar Heel lost for the season – this time it’s injured tailback

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University of North Carolina senior tailback Johnny White fractured his right clavicle (collar bone) in the first half of the Tar Heels’ 37-35 victory at Florida State. White, the team’s leading rusher with 720 yards, will miss the remainder of the season.

A native of Asheville, White also was Carolina’s third-leading receiver with 24 catches for 288 yards. He currently ranks fourth in the ACC in all-purpose yards (112.0/gm) and sixth in rushing (80.0/gm). White finishes the year with 130 rushing attempts for 720 yards and a team-high seven touchdowns.

Thirty UNC scholarship players have missed at least one game this year due to injury (16) or the NCAA/UNC investigation (14), including 19 defensive players.

White will become the 31st scholarship player this season to miss a game. On offense, the Tar Heels have now lost their starting tight end (Zack Pianalto) and tailback for the season. Pianalto was leading the team in receptions and receiving yards when he fractured his right fibula in the win at Virginia.

N.C. State, The skinny, UNC

Not a good day for Wolfpack as they lose and have to root for Heels to win… and they do

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A couple of offensive errors wasted a good defensive effort by N.C. State and the Pack fell at Clemson and then had to cheer on the Tar Heels to a 37-35 victory at Florida State.

N.C. State’s Mustafa Greene, who earlier had scored, fumbled on his own 22 and that led to the Tiger’s first touchdown. Then, QB Russell Wilson threw an interception in the end zone on third down from the 6. Clemson scored in the fourth quarter to take a 14-13 win.

State needed the Heels, who survived mental errors themselves, to win so the Wolfpack could stay in the chase for the division title.

The Heels trailed at the half 28-21 despite QB T.J. Yates’ 67-yard touchdown pass to Dwight Jones. But Carolina controlled the third quarter, outscoring the Seminoles 10-0 to take a 31-28 advantage.

UNC held the lead until a bad snap on a punt and a bad decision by the punter C.J. Feagles. With less than six minutes to go and the Heels up 34-28, senior snapper Mark House hiked it well over Feagles head and it rolled all the way to the three-yard-line where Feagles kicked it through the end zone, thinking it would be a safety. Instead, it was a penalty on him and half the distance to the goal.

FSU went in from the one and a half to take the 35-34 lead.

Carolina, without its top three tailbacks, drove all the way down the field to set up a 22-yard go-ahead kick by Casey Barth.

A short kickoff, combined with a long return by FSU put the Seminoles in position to kick a field goal for the win with seven seconds left. But the 40-yard attempt by Dustin Hopkins sailed right and the Heels won.

It was the first time the Heels have ever won at Florida State. Yates threw for 437 yards to set a single-game UNC record.

UNC and N.C. State have identical 6-3 overall and 3-2 conference records. The Heels are two games behind Virginia Tech in the Coastal Division with two to play while the Wolfpack is only a half game behind Florida State in the Atlantic Division.

The skinny

Rested Wake Forest dethrones UNC soccer in penalty kicks

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Wake Forest did something only two teams have been able to do in more than 20 years – defeat the UNC women’s soccer team in the ACC tournament.

The Deacons, who earned a right to play Carolina with a victory over an intentionally short-handed Florida State squad, scored five penalty kicks after two scoreless overtime periods compared to four by the Heels.

The victory puts Wake Forest in the finals against Maryland at Cary’s WakeMed Soccer Park Sunday at 2 p.m.

Much of the talk in the last 24 hours has been about FSU coach Mark Krikorian leaving his top seven players back home to rest for the NCAA tournament rather than play them in the ACC tourney. As a result of that move, the ACC suspended the coach for one game and fined the school $25,000.

The shorthanded FSU lineup slowed the game’s pace and allowed Wake Forest to rest its top players for the Carolina game.

To his credit, UNC coach Anson Dorrance didn’t blame that for the Tar Heels defeat. In fact, he found a silver lining himself.

“There’s always a mixed blessing for not playing in the final game,” Dorrance said. “We get to rest some legs going into the NCAA tournament. Hopefully get some of our injured kids back.”

The Heels have five players, including four key players, out with injuries.

Technically the Tar Heels (17-2-2) did not lose as the game goes in the record book as a tie but Wake Forest (12-7-2) advances on penalty kicks.

The skinny

Former State player, once almost deported, charged with burglary

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Gavin Grant, who played basketball for N.C. State from 2004-2007, has been charged with first degree burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon, and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

Unfortunately Grant, who came to the country illegally with his mother from Jamaica as a boy, has not been located. Anyone with information concerning his whereabouts or other information that may assist the investigation of the case is asked to call Raleigh CrimeStoppers at (919) 834-HELP.

Grant is an African-American man who stands approximately 6-feet-8 inches tall and weighs approximately 220 pounds.

Grant was also charged in 2009 with credit card fraud. He had been playing in the NBA’s developmental league.

The attempted robbery and assault occurred Sept. 24 at Crossroads Arbor Way apartments in Raleigh.

Back in 2005 when Grant faced deportation, N.C. State’s then basketball coach Herb Sendek came to his defense. “Those of us who know Gavin, recognize that he’s a wonderful young man,” Sendek said. “He’s a true gentleman whose working hard to pursue his degree at N.C. State.”

In 2007 Immigration Judge Judge Wayne K. Houser apparently made a mistake by closing immigration proceedings against Grant and allowing him to remain in the country. Presumably his mother also remains in the country.

Grant’s lawyer at the time, Anna Baird Choi, said Grant could apply for permanent-resident status but it’s not known if he ever did. It’s unclear whether Grant would be deported after serving any time if found guilty.

This is an example of basketball stars growing up feeling privileged (and not really making it big) and an example of people who come to the U.S. illegally not having regard for our rule of law. It took 13 years for the government to realize he was in the country illegally. He even lived with a friend of the family so he could play for St. Raymond’s in the Bronx.

Grant was married while he was at N.C. State and had a young daughter. It’s unclear at this point if they are still in his life.

Below is one of Grant’s biggest moments as a member of the Wolfpack.

Duke, The skinny

What they’re saying about Quinn Cook signing with Duke

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Quinn Cook on why he chose Duke:
“Just my relationship with Coach K. We definitely had the best relationship of all the coaches. When you think college basketball you think Duke.”

Dave Telep, ESPN Recruiting
“By landing Quinn Cook, Duke got just what it needed — a pass-first point guard who can make big shots.”

Quinn Cook
“UCLA was a close second. They were definitely the toughest on me. They were up here every week and went to DeMatha and talked with Coach [Mike] Jones and were checking my background. It was definitely a tough choice.”

Steve Smith, Oak Hill Coach
“Quinn is a pass first point guard. He can really shoot it and has very good three-point range. A lot of point guards who can shoot it, look for their shot all the time, but Quinn wants to get everyone involved in the offense.”

Tim Stevens, News & Observer
“Cook gives the 2011 Duke recruiting class, which is currently ranked No. 2 in the country behind Kentucky, a point guard to go with 6-foot-4 shooting guard Austin Rivers of Winter Park, Fla., 7-foot center Marshall Plumlee of Arden (N.C.) Christ School and 6-6 forward Michael Gbinije of Richmond (Va.) Benedictine.”

The skinny

Final Friday Night Lights of the regular season; area games with predictions

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The regular season for high school football ends tonight for most teams. Here are 10 football games that are within driving distance in the Triangle area. Friday night’s weather is expected to be clear and chilly with temperatures in the upper 40s. Most games are at 7:30 p.m. You might want to check with local officials as some games start at 7. In bold below are the predicted winners. My record of predicting games was 9-1 last week, making the season total now 89-21, which is an 81 percent accuracy.

Apex at Middle Creek

East Wake at Knightdale

Harnett Central at Garner

Durham Hillside at Northern Durham

Holly Springs at Athens Drive

J.F. Webb at Cardinal Gibbons

Durham Jordan at Durham Riverside

Leesville Road at WF-Rolesville

Millbrook at Enloe

Panther Creek at Cary

Check the scores in our Sports Roundup on the left navigation bar.