All posts by Cliff Barnes

The skinny

UNC’s turnovers and Barnes’ shooting are quickly becoming problems

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North Carolina basketball has committed 73 turnovers in the last four games, including 18 turnovers in a 79-67 loss at Illinois Tuesday night.

Also troubling is the free throw shooting. UNC missed nine of 17 foul shots.

Harrison Barnes, the heralded rookie, was taunted by Illinois fan as being “overrated.” He hit only two of nine shots. UNC coach Roy Williams said Barnes hasn’t found his niche yet, isn’t playing smoothly and needs to move better without the ball.

Williams said the Tar Heels need to do a better job of getting the ball to Barnes while guard Kendall Marshall said that the Tar Heels are getting the ball to Barnes too far away from the basket.

Carolina is now 4-3 on the season – that’s already a third of the number of losses that Barnes had in four years of high school ball.

For more on the game itself, please click here.

The skinny

Carolina basketball overcomes Goudelock this time

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While North Carolina had to overcome the College of Charleston’s Andrew Goudelock – something the Heels couldn’t do last year – to win 74-69 at home tonight, Goudelock only hit 11 of 27 points and he went 10 minutes without a point. Dexter Strickland mainly had the responsibility in covering Goudelock.

During the two minutes in which Goudelock hit 13 points, including three threes, he really had no open shots. He just hit very, very long or tightly-covered shots en route to a game-high 28 ponts.

Carolina got into the more uptempo, fast-breaking style in the second half and tired the Cougars. John Henson led the way with 19 points. With a little better free throw shooting and without those wild threes from Goudelock, it would have been a comfortable margin.

But it wasn’t.

“I loved our poise,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “They go up five and Goudelock’s making some unbelievable shots, and we kept playing. I don’t want to call a timeout and have the kids panic. I think you get stronger through the course of your program if the kids can figure it out themselves.”

Even though Williams seems to be trying to inject confidence in his young team for the way they persevered, it’s going to be tough for the Heels to win at Illinois Tuesday.

Click here for a game story and click here for a photo gallery.

The skinny

Football is the king of television

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In the weekly broadcast TV ratings, three of the top 10 shows, including the No. 1 show for the week, were National Football League related. In the weekly cable TV ratings, ESPN, on the strength of pro and college football, was the top-ranked network.

Glee, at No. 3, is the top-ranked broadcast show not related to sports. The top five cable networks for the week, in order, are ESPN, USA, Disney, TBS and FoxNews. The NFL Network, which is not available in all markets, was still the 24th highest rated network. FoxNews was the only news channel represented in the top 25. Hey, football is the news this time of year.

The skinny

Clearing but cold for tonight’s high school football games

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Should be clearing but cold for tonight’s high school football playoffs. I went 5-1 in predictions for last week’s games and 12-1 the week before for a 17-2 mark which is close to 90 percent. In bold below are the predicted winners for tonight’s games. Games tonight are at 7:30 p.m. My record of predicting games in the regular season was 97-23, which is an 81 percent accuracy.

Panther Creek at Seventy-First

East Bladen at Carrboro

Cedar Ridge at Northwood

Northern Guilford at Cardinal Gibbons

Lee County at Hillside

Southeast Raleigh at New Bern

Garner at Wake Forest-Rolesville

Check the scores in our Sports Roundup on the left navigation bar. Good luck to Cardinal Gibbons – I hope I’m wrong… again.

Duke, The skinny

Devils look to revitalize the football rivalry with Heels in their "bowl game"

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North Carolina is fighting for a berth in the Music City Bowl while Duke is considering the finale at home against the Heels as their bowl game.

Duke coach David Cutcliffe said that the last game a team plays leaves “a little taste in your mouth that lasts.” He said through recruiting and into Spring practice it stays fresh in your mind.

“It certainly kicks off the offseason the way you would like it to be kicked off,” he said, especially if the last victory comes against chief rival North Carolina.

“I think it’s a great tradition, one of the better traditions in college football,” Cutcliffe said of the rivalry and the winning team getting the Victory Bell. “We just need to recreate a rivalry by playing well at Duke and winning a few of these ball games.”

Carolina has won 19 of the last 20 meetings, losing 30-22 in 2003 in Chapel Hill. Duke hasn’t beaten the Tar Heels at home since 1988.

UNC coach Butch Davis said that Cutcliffe has improved the Blue Devils team every year. “Statistically they’re better, athletically they’re better, and fundamentally and schematically they’re a better football team,” he said.

On top of the challenge from Duke, Davis said that losing two games in a row has been disappointing. “Emotionally and psychologically this will put our football team very much to the test of just bouncing back and playing to the very best of our ability this week,” he said.

The skinny, UNC

Zeller’s career high holds off Asheville

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North Carolina, behind Tyler Zeller who hit his first seven baskets and ended with a career-high 23 points, got out to a commanding 22 point-lead but saw UNC-Asheville pull within six late before wrapping up an 80-69 win at home.

The Tar Heels had their best free throw shooting game of the year (74 percent) and it was needed. Carolina hit eight of its last 10 free throws over the last three minutes to keep the Bulldogs at bay.

The 7-foot Zeller looked like a man among boys against UNC-Asheville as did John Henson, who led the team in rebounding and recorded his third double-double of the young season. Coach Williams said Henson, who many had figured to go pro early, needs to focus more on being a Dennis Rodman-type player than a Magic Johnson-type player. If so, maybe the sophomore will stay around at least through his junior year.

For a game story, please click here.

N.C. State, The skinny

Long punt return earns State’s Graham ACC Specialist of the Week award

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T.J. Graham, the junior N.C. State wide receiver, has been honored as the Atlantic Coast Conference Football Specialist of the week.

Graham had a milestone afternoon for the Wolfpack. He gave State its first lead of the game with an 87-yard punt return a minute into the fourth quarter. That return tied for the third-longest punt return in school history.

Graham also returned five kickoffs for 100 yards, giving him a new school record for career kickoff-return yards with 2,073. He finished the game with 188 yards in total return yardage.

The skinny, UNC

Shockingly, UNC women’s soccer loses in NCAAs while men win

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Most experts and casual observers would expect the UNC women’s team to have a better chance in the NCAA tournament than the men’s team. But the men are still playing while the women lost at home to Notre Dame, 4-1, Saturday in Chapel Hill.

It was one of the most decisive, if not the most decisive defeat in UNC history. Carolina hadn’t given up four goals in a game since 1980 and haven’t lost by more than a goal since 1985.

“I thought they completely outfought us in the first half and they deserved to be in a dominant position going into the second half,” UNC coach Anson Dorrance said. “I thought we tried to come back in the second half, but they counterattacked well and we just couldn’t seem to get anything past their defense and their goalkeeper.”

UNC, the two-time defending champion, saw its season end at 19-3-2.

The fourth-seeded men’s team North Carolina battled Georgetown to a scoreless tie through 110 minutes today but won a 5-4 penalty shootout to advance to the third round of the NCAA tourney.

With the shootout tied at 2-2, UNC goalie Scott Goodwin stopped Seth C’deBaca’s low shot to the right to put Carolina in control.

UNC’s Jalil Anibaba and Enzo Martinez scored before Alex Walters popped the winning goal inside the left post.

Carolina advances to take on Michigan State in the third round of the NCAA Tournament Sunday at Fetzer Field.

Field Hockey: North Carolina’s 2010 field hockey season ended today at Maryland’s Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex in the NCAA Championship game. But the Tar Heels stretched the campaign out just about as long as possible, playing through the better part of two overtime periods before the top-ranked Terrapins scored the game winner to claim the program’s seventh NCAA title on their home field.

Sophomore Megan Frazer’s goal with 2:10 remaining in the second overtime gave Maryland a 3-2 win, reversing the score by which UNC claimed the 2009 title over the Terps.

“Congratulations to the University of Maryland on winning the national championship,” said UNC coach Karen Shelton, whose team finished the season 22-3. “I think both teams fought extremely hard. It was two good teams going at it, as you would hope in a national championship.”