I think it's safe to say the Tar Heels hit the reset button on the 2014-2015 season after their come from behind win versus Louisville in Chapel Hill on Saturday. More than two months into this season, and the team still felt off, stuck in neutral. For every good win, over Ohio State in Columbus or the back-to-back wins over UCLA and Florida, there were equally odd losses to Iowa at home coupled with the 'meh' games at Kentucky and against Butler.
Ditto the players. Brice Johnson and Kennedy Meeks entered the season with altered bodies and great expectations. Both have played well at times, but there remain nagging questions about their offensive inconsistency.
But of course the biggest example of a player stuck in neutral, searching for a rhythm and flow, was Marcus Paige.
Not only is he our best player, the pre-season ACC player of the year and first team All-American, Paige carries the burden of being an actual student-athlete. He's asked to make shots, lead the Heels to championships, AND lead Carolina out of our post-Wainstein funk.
We, or at least folks like me, need him to save the team and help restore our alma mater's reputation.
That's a lot on the slender shoulders of the Iowa junior. But with 8.5 seconds left and the Heels down one, Paige found to way to balance all those responsibilities - or at least figured out a way to bank them high off the glass and into the basket - and lead the Heels to their most important win of the season.
A play that big, to cap off a comeback that important, can save a season for a team and a player.
And when that player is Marcus Paige it makes us, Tar Heels everywhere, feel better about Carolina - Dean's Carolina, the institution we believe in and cherish, THE university of the people - too.*
GO HEELS!
* I may be overdoing it a bit, but as you can tell I love Marcus Paige. He's as Dean as they come. Anyway, we'll find out if he has turned around our season on Wednesday versus State. It will be quite a game, if for no other reason it will be State's 'we just beat the crap out of Duke' mojo versus our 'The Marcus Paige who single-handedly took down the Wolfpack in Raleigh last year is BACK.'
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP NOTE
If you only read one article about tonight's college football championship game read this one from the Post: Students Try to Find Their Place For College Football National Championship Game. The networks and big six conferences lined up the money, sponsors, boosters, capitalist pigs, and the athletes but forgot about the students. Big time college sports don't need to be reformed; they are fundamentally corrupt.
Ditto the players. Brice Johnson and Kennedy Meeks entered the season with altered bodies and great expectations. Both have played well at times, but there remain nagging questions about their offensive inconsistency.
But of course the biggest example of a player stuck in neutral, searching for a rhythm and flow, was Marcus Paige.
Not only is he our best player, the pre-season ACC player of the year and first team All-American, Paige carries the burden of being an actual student-athlete. He's asked to make shots, lead the Heels to championships, AND lead Carolina out of our post-Wainstein funk.
We, or at least folks like me, need him to save the team and help restore our alma mater's reputation.
That's a lot on the slender shoulders of the Iowa junior. But with 8.5 seconds left and the Heels down one, Paige found to way to balance all those responsibilities - or at least figured out a way to bank them high off the glass and into the basket - and lead the Heels to their most important win of the season.
A play that big, to cap off a comeback that important, can save a season for a team and a player.
And when that player is Marcus Paige it makes us, Tar Heels everywhere, feel better about Carolina - Dean's Carolina, the institution we believe in and cherish, THE university of the people - too.*
GO HEELS!
* I may be overdoing it a bit, but as you can tell I love Marcus Paige. He's as Dean as they come. Anyway, we'll find out if he has turned around our season on Wednesday versus State. It will be quite a game, if for no other reason it will be State's 'we just beat the crap out of Duke' mojo versus our 'The Marcus Paige who single-handedly took down the Wolfpack in Raleigh last year is BACK.'
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP NOTE
If you only read one article about tonight's college football championship game read this one from the Post: Students Try to Find Their Place For College Football National Championship Game. The networks and big six conferences lined up the money, sponsors, boosters, capitalist pigs, and the athletes but forgot about the students. Big time college sports don't need to be reformed; they are fundamentally corrupt.
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