It's a terrible cliche, one that does not fully capture the frustration and anxiety Heels fans, to say nothing of Roy Williams or Kendall Marshall, feel as a result of tonight's injury to Carolina's all-everything point guard.
Of course, the weekend starting with anxiety about John Henson's wrist. The Heels' play today, where Carolina shot it extremely well and defended pretty well, too, in a satisfying beat down of a pretty good Creighton team, put that anxiety to rest. The Heels looked good-to-great today.
But what are the odds of two wrist injuries - in the space of two weeks - threatening to derail a season? Odder still to think about other wrist injuries Carolina has suffered. Tyler Zeller hurt his in 2009, but as a bench player it was not that big a loss. The most infamous wrist injury, for now, is Kenny Smith's from 1984 that was one reason Michael Jordan's last team in Chapel Hill did not win another championship.*
Hopefully, the injury to Marshall's non-shooting wrist is not as bad as feared. Carolina can probably get away with a Justin Watts-Stillman White point guard combo against Ohio on Friday night. The Bobcats play a half court game and like to slow things down. All bets are off, however, against a team like Kansas, Purdue or even NC State.
But until we find out more info, Tar Nation will have to hold it's breath.
But until we find out more info, Tar Nation will have to hold it's breath.
A few Creighton game notes:
I will say a few things about today's game. It was great to see Carolina shoot the ball well and get off to a great start. The Heels rebounded well, and got to run early in building a working lead. Of course, the key to that first-half run was Marshall, who routinely got to the rim. The Heels were so good they won even though Tyler Zeller was not dominant.
Carolina finished at 50 percent shooting for the game, and hit 8 of 16 threes, too.
The Heels got a little sloppy late, near the middle of the second half, but at that point the Harrison Barnes-bot became focused and engaged. Barnes hit back-to-back three point shots to put the game away, along with help - and sharp passing - from Marshall, Henson and Zeller. Barnes finished with 17 points.
Along with Marshall, the star of the game for me was Reggie Bullock, who did a bit of everything; 13 points, 3 three pointers, 8 boards, 2 assists. He also keyed a pretty good defensive effort by the Heels, and helped hold Creighton to 42 percent shooting.
And don't forget Henson, who came back after missing almost 4 games to block 4 shots to go along with a 13 point, 10 boards double-double. He even endured two borderline dirty plays - slaps to his wrist, one of which looked deliberate - and some very hard fouls.
Finally, James Michael McAdoo had another strong game, playing 24 minutes and making another of his new series of freak nasty dunks. He was Henson-esque with 3 blocks to go along with his 9 points and 4 boards.
So plenty of good things, all undone by one potentially terrible flick of our most indispensable player's wrist.
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