One more blog about ... Marcus Paige

There are plenty of story lines to contemplate as we await Monday night's national championship game between Villanova and Carolina. Will a title wash away part of the guilt associated with the academic scandal at THE university of the people? Can we break our title tie with Duke and sit alone in third place (UCLA 11; Kentucky 8, but only 4 not won by a racist named Adolph; Indiana and Duke also have 5 titles)? How do we feel about the prospect of Roy passing Dean?

But win or lose, tomorrow night marks the end of the Marcus Paige era. How sweet would it be if Paige went out with a title? I know Roy really wanted Hansbrough to get one as a reward for staying four years, and of course Tar Heels everywhere were happy when Jawad Williams, Melvin Scott and Jackie Manuel went out as national champs four years after enduring an 8-20 season.

Paige, along with Brice Johnson and Joel James, going out a national champion would probably top both of those, for now familiar reasons. As I've nattered on before, in blogs tens of people have read, to me Marcus Paige represents the restoration of something important, the return of the Carolina Way. To get him a championship in the wake of that scandal would be incredible and meaningful.

Of course, being an Academic All American AND making big plays is the Carolina Way. Once again, when Carolina needed him the most in this Final Four, Paige made the play of the game.

Saturday night was not a perfect game, for the Heels or Paige. Looking back at the win over Syracuse, despite shooting it pretty well I imagine you felt like I did: Carolina won without having actually played that well. We got off to a shaky start, Brice picked up two fouls in the first 10 minutes, Syracuse held it's own on the glass for the first half, and then we had some weird turnovers in the second half - 3 live ball ones by of all people Marcus Paige.

Fortunately, Marcus Paige is Marcus Paige. His touch pass to redirect Jackson's pass to Meeks for a layup was Dean-esque. Marcus' huge 3 when Syracuse had cut the lead to single digits was the dagger into the Orange's chances.

That shot was a continuation of the pattern we've seen during this run from Paige: at Duke he got the big steal, then the big defensive play that resulted in an important layup; in the ACC tournament he buried Notre Dame from behind the arc; against Virginia he scored the go-ahead basket and helped shut down Malcolm Brogdon; etcetera etcetera in the NCAA tournament.

If that pattern continues on Monday night, I imagine it won't just be ol' Roy crying. Go Heels!

A few more thoughts:

• I love our chances. Villanova has been playing great basketball, and tomorrow night's matchup now seems obvious. But as we've seen throughout this tournament, the Heels have too many weapons. James is Exhibit A; he calmly came off the bench in the first half and sank two shots like he was tying his shoes. He's Carolina's ninth-best player. I don't think the Wildcats can stop everyone.
• That is the key point: everyone. Carolina is getting contributions from the whole team this tournament. Kennedy Meeks had 15 and 9. If I didn't have a stat sheet I would have assumed he was our high scorer; that's how important each of baskets appeared to be. However, Justin Jackson and Johnson (where's Polk?) bested Meeks with 16 points. Joel Berry barely had to shoot but had 10 assists. And of course Marcus had 13, Theo made plays including a big three, and Britt was solid especially on defense. Everyone is contributing.  
• I also expect to see a totally dominant Brice Johnson - it's his last game as a Tar Heel, too - versus Villanova. Not FSU dominant, but don't be surprised if he is Notre Dame dominant, somewhere in the 25 and 15 range. 

GO HEELS!

Cliched Tournament Preview

It may come as a surprise, but in the 4 brackets I've filled out (ESPN, Dean Loves You and Sierra Club at CBSSports and Baseball America) I have Carolina - that's North Carolina - winning the national championship each time!

What a difference a year makes. On the eve of the 2015 tournament I typed a rather negative blog about the state of college athletics and the hypocrisy of the NCAA tournament in particular.  Speaking of hypocrisy, the official bracket of the official website of the official broadcast partner of the NCAA (CBSSports.com) actually says "Don't Bet On It!"  In keeping with that admonition, I regret to inform my employer and my brother's employer that I therefore can not pay the $5 or $10 entrance fee for the Sierra Club or BA pools. 

Of course, my negativity was in part based on the residue of a lackluster regular season for the Heels, even though they made the sweet 16 and played in the ACC tournament final, but more to the point the lingering academic scandal at the University of the People. Also a year ago Kentucky entered the tournament with another team, an undefeated one at that, loaded with rent-a-players biding their time between their senior year of high school and the NBA Rising Stars game.  It seemed that college basketball had sullied both the bad programs and even the good ones like my alma mater.

Instead of being negative on the eve of this tourney I'm more of a hypocrit.  Forget the scandal for now and the big money polluting college hoops; this year I love our team and the Heels' chances! Some of that is due to my deepening love for Marcus Paige and his epitomization of Dean's Carolina Way. But most of it is due to the recent play of Carolina. The Heels have won 7 of their last 8, and the one game they lost they avenged in the ACC tournament final. Their last 4 wins have been at Duke, two blow outs over Pitt and Notre Dame, and the tough win over the Cavaliers for the ACC championship.  That's a big-time winning streak.

The extra ingredient that has wratcheted up my enthusiasm (and thus the hypocrisy) has been the return of the trademark Carolina poise. Poise and grace under pressure, playing smart, have been central parts of the Carolina Way.  The Heels had that as recently as 2012, when Kendall Marshall looked poised to lead the Heels to another national championship until he broke his wrist in the closing seconds of our second round win over Creighton.  But this team, even with Paige, lacked that Dean-inspired, George Lynch-like poise.

Ironicly, the home loss to the devils may have triggered some growth and development from this year's team. After the Duke loss Carolina had to turn around and host number 11 Miami.  The Heels could have felt sorry for themselves and mailed it in, but instead ol' Roy helped Carolina get their heads straight and UNC blew the Canes out by 25 points.

They were poised in Durham in getting their revenge, with Brice Johnson and Joel Berry having big games - with Paige making the play of the game AND the clinching free throws.  

In the ACC tournament final Paige, Johnson and Berry again led the charge, but don't forget about Isaiah Hicks calmly making a 12 foot jumper in the lane with the shot clock winding down and the Heels clinging to a 3-point lead with less than 30 second left in the championship game.  Hicks was not intimidated by the situation. He was poised. He is a Tar Heel and plays the Carolina Way.

Anyway, add that up and I love our chances.  Go Heels!

Here is my quick look at the other 67 teams and the rest of the tournament:

• My brackets are almost all chalk. My elite 8 is Kansas (1) v. Miami (3); Oregon vs. Oklahoma (1 & 2); Virginia vs. Michigan State (1 & 2); and of course UNC v. Xavier (2).
• My Final Four is all ACC and Big 12. I have us beating the Wahoos in another nail-biter, Kansas beating Oklahoma, then the Heels smithing what ever demons ol' Roy has left by beating the Jayhawks.
• Overall I think Oregon has the easiest draw while Kansas has the hardest.  Virginia may finally slay their nemesis in the Spartans. 
• Carolina's toughest game will likely be against Kentucky, but I don't see the Wildcats having enough  to stop both our frontcourt AND our backcourt.
• I do not predict many upsets, and most of those are mild ones: Iowa over 'Nova; Notre Dame over WV; Cal over Maryland; Cuse over Dayton, but that's about it.
• My one exception of course is UNC-Wilmington beating the devils, and I would not be surprised if St. Joe's beats Oregon and goes to the sweet 16.
• But remember - don't bet on it!

A Game That Defines the Season

Last night's loss to Duke was more than a disappointing loss to our smug and lesser arch-rivals. The loss epitomizes why so many Tar Heel born, bred and dead fans feel uneasy about this team and it's lack of progress.

To me, there have been 3 themes - or problems - with this team, and all were on display last night in Chapel Hill.

1. This team is too dependent on Marcus Paige. I love Marcus Paige; in our new post-Wainstein era he is exactly who we need leading this team and frankly being the student face of the entire university. But the operative word there is lead. A leader leads but does not make every play, but that's what this team expects and all the opposing teams know it. As Jawad Williams tweeted (@worldwad) last night, someone else needs to step up and help Paige and this team win some games. Paige was magnificent last night vs. the Devils but needed help down the stretch but did not get much if any assistance. Finally, in a cruel twist considering recent events, an over reliance on one player is anti-Dean. One 'criticism' of Dean is that he was too egalitarian and team-oriented (yes, some idiots actually said that). Well, sharing the wealth is how you win games and championships. Look at Worthy-Perkins-Jordan, or Montross-Williams-Lynch-Phelps, or Lawson-Hansbrough-Ellington-Green, or Bird-McHale-Johnson-Parrish, or LeBron-Wade-Bosh, or Duncan-Parker-Ginobili-Popovich, Magic-Kareem-Worthy, Jordan-Pippen-Jackson, etc.
2. Point two is related to point one: the uneven development of the players on this team. Paige and Brice Johnson were both named third-team ACC, which seems about right. Johnson is the only player to have gotten better this year, and was the only other reliable Tar Heel on the floor versus the Devils besides Paige. Offensively Johnson is confident and has some great moves, is as athletic as you would imagine a state high jump champion to be, and does the work on the glass. But this team has been undone by a lack of progress from Kennedy Meeks and T.P. Tokoto and spotty  play from everyone else in the rotation: Britt, Jackson, Berry, James, Pinson. None of those guys are reliable contributors game to game. At the end of a season you should see more development from all the players, but especially from Meeks and Tokoto. Both could and should have been All-ACC players but instead they have looked lost down the stretch.
3. Which of course is maybe our biggest problem. In addition to being un-Dean in terms of players, it also appears that this team is very un-Carolina at the end of games. Your typical Tar Heels squad - the pre-broken wrist 2012  Kendall Marshall squad is probably the most recent example - is a well-oiled, smart and poised machine at the end of the season. But not this one. The late-game melt downs at Duke, at Louisville, and at home versus Virginia, State and the Devils could not be more frustrating or vexing. Of course, this problem is the sum of the first two issues. Who are these guys making all these unforced errors? Their jerseys say Carolina so my eyes believe it but my gut, my heart and the Carolina-blue blood coursing through my veins does not.

So what's next? It's hard to be optimistic at this stage of the season. To win the ACC tournament the Heels would have to go through Louisville (doable; we've practically beaten them twice already), Virginia (also doable especially if Meeks and Tokoto show up), and Duke. One of Dean's sayings is it's hard to beat a team three times in one season so I would love our chances to prove Dean right (again) and get some revenge against the Devils.

Even if this happens it's hard to imagine us going more than 2 or 3 games deep in the NCAAs. Another example of how un-Dean and un-Carolina team this teams seems to be. As sad as those 3 issues just discussed THAT may be the saddest admission of them all. 

Despite all that - GO HEELS!

Reset - for Paige and for Tar Heels everywhere

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.   

What a week

Quite the week for the Tar Heels: a big win against Kentucky; a frustrating yet explainable loss to Texas; then the big loss, when Carolina announced that P.J. Hairston would not be reinstated, ending his Carolina career before his junior year could even start.

But first, back to the Texas game. Not much to be said about that one, other than this is the kind of season this team is going to have. They're young, so will confound Tar Heel nation by coming out flat some games or missing tons of free throws.  The Heels played pretty well, and despite the sluggish start had tied the game midway through the first half.  

Then Carolina starting missing free throws, which kills a team twice - especially when you miss that many. One is you are obviously leaving points, free ones at that, on the rim.  Secondly, missed free throws and empty trips keep a team from picking up any momentum. That can wear you out physically and mentally, and it was evident versus Texas.

Also evident, for the first time this season, was Leslie 'Acutally I do indeed play for the Tar Heels' McDonald. Long an afterthought during his time in Chapel Hill, Leslie looked good in making 4 of 9 three-point shots.  For better or worse, he is now a key player, one the Heels will depend on to balance the offense and open things up for McAdoo but especially Meeks and Johnson and Hicks, who is likely to play more with Joel James hurt. 

Of course, most of us were counting on P.J. Hairston to play that role. Carolina's leading scorer from last season became tantamountly tantalizing as fans envisioned adding a player with his offensive game, particularly his outside and free throw shooting, and toughness to a team that has already beaten Kentucky, Michigan State and Louisville. 

I am of two minds on Hairston.  He clearly made some mistakes, with the biggest one being that he kept making the same one - speeding in a car rented by an individual of questionable character to put it mildly - over and over.  Even after being pulled over once he committed the same offense two more times.  Not good.

That said, he went to class while he was held out of nine games, and by all accounts was mature about the suspension, competed hard in practice, and was a good team mate.  Oh yeah, he was also embarrassed.  You would think that would mean something with the NCAA, but I guess not.

Hairston will likely go into the 2014 draft, an opportunity he turned down in favor of coming back to school last year.  Not exactly the way things are supposed to go for a student-athlete, especially one at Carolina. 

This team has shown that even without Hairston they can and will have a great season.  I wish the same could be said for P.J. Hairston.

GO HEELS! 

More Carolina Basketball, more Dean, and Phil Ford

It was more of the same yesterday as Carolina basketball, the style invented and developed by Dean Smith, triumphed over Kentucky for another marquee win for this year's squad.

It was not the most ascetically pleasing contest but it was a win - which IS Carolina basketball.

So is going inside, something the Heels did repeatedly and effectively; so is going to the free throw line; so is sharing the ball and having multiple players contribute.  

The 'sharing the wealth' is becoming the hallmark of this fun and successful team. This year's Heels, especially Marcus Paige, J.P. Tokoto, Brice Johnson, James Michael McAdoo, Kennedy Meeks, Johnson, are fun to watch.  Last year's team had a disjointed feel, a team that had fans nervous for much of the season. The schedule was an exercise in watching Roy try to find combos that worked despite a flawed lineup with too many shooting guards and not much else. High points such as the win at FSU and the 'run' to the ACC tournament final felt like found money, not expected wins.

I think many Tar Heels fans felt the same way heading into this season, especially with Hairston sidelined indefinitely.  But this team has cured any of those unsettling thoughts and feelings. Led by Marcus Paige this year's team almost reminds me of the early 90s Heels, great teams with some great players - Eric Montross and one of the greatest Heels of all time in George Lynch - but without a dominant superstar (Worthy, Jordan, Jamison, May, Hansbrough, Lawson, etc.).*

That lack of a superstar and the use of a deep bench (Henrik Rodl, Kevin Salvatori, Scott Cherry) led many to dub the '93 Heels the ultimate Dean Smith team, where the whole was greater than the sum of it's parts. Dean's humility and Carolina collective triumphed over our society's obsession with celebrity and ego.

And like the '93 team, or any successful team, these Heels simply make plays. Whether we are talking about drives by Paige or McAdoo or Tokoto or Nate Britt, tip ins by Tokoto, Meeks, Joel James or Desmond Hubert, key boards or baskets by Johnson, great passes by Meeks or Paige, or huge steals by Tokoto, these Heels - every Heels player - make plays when they need to make plays.

As great as the win was over Kentucky, the program that blends the worst of Duke (smug entitlement) and NC State (low-brow anti-intellectualism) the half-time ceremony honoring Dean Smith for receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom was even better.

If you have not seen it yet click here. The speeches by Dean's wife, who talked about his commitment to social change, and from Montross were great.  But I want to focus on Phil Ford.

Dean Smith's relationship with Ford epitomizes why Dean is Dean, the kind of person - not basketball coach - we should all emulate.

Ford was an elite basketball player; he won an Olympic gold medal in 1976 (for Dean - and the U.S.), was the ACC and national player of the year his senior year, and the NBA rookie of the year.  

Seven years later his career was over, derailed by the cocaine culture of the early '80s and alcoholism.  He washed out of the NBA in 1985. 

Carolina and Dean did not turn their back on one of the greatest Tar Heels of all time. Dean hired Ford as an assistant coach in 1988. He prospered, and was such a good recruiter that many assumed that Dean had groomed him as his likely successor.

How cool would that have been? Dean to Guthridge to Ford? That's got to be one of the biggest 'what ifs' in Carolina history!

The plan was derailed for good when Ford's demons reappeared, and he plead guilty to DUI in both 1997 and 1999. The second DUI cost him the JV coaching job and his position as lead recruiter under Bill Guthridge. 

Ford left Chapel Hill when Matt Doherty insisted on bringing in his own staff (sheesh, that guy...) but Dean's Carolina family continued to help Ford as he worked as an NBA assistant for Larry Brown in Detroit and New York before returning to Chapel Hill to work for the Education Foundation.

Dean never made a big deal about helping Ford get his life back together; what could be more un-Deanlike?  

Isn't that what one's life should be about, helping those who need a little help? That's why Dean is Dean, one reason why he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor, and the main reason folks like us love him and Carolina so much.

Go Heels!

A Few More Things

•  How great was it to see McAdoo back on track?  Much has been made of his aggressive play on offense, but he outplayed Randall on both ends of the floor.
• Foul trouble and perhaps some Dean-like insouciance led to Roy playing Jackson Simmons and Desmond Hubert at the same time in the second half yesterday.  Ol' Roy got away with it even though Simmons looked super nervous bricking 4 late free throws.
• A month ago I was afraid that Britt was the second coming of Adam Boone. Man, was I wrong.  Every minute of every game you can see his confidence and game grow.  In the 3 big wins - against the top three teams in the preseason top 25 - he has been fantastic.  His coast to coast drive late was one of the plays of the game, and like Paige he is money at the free throw line.  His play gives the Heels tremendous balance, especially if he and Tokoto can make an occasional three pointer. 

* I know you knew that list; I just liked typing it.   

 

 

Lost Weekend in Chapel Hill

It's not often when things go better in Fayetteville then they do in Chapel Hill, but that's what happened this Thanksgiving weekend for the staff of Carolina Hellenic Blue.

Thanksgiving in the 'ville was great as all 18 of our immediate family went to my parents house to celebrate, eat, and play foot, whiffle and kick ball games (in person, not video or computer games).

The weekend in Chapel Hill, and the games played there, were not so great.

First, we lose to Duke, which is bad enough, in football. The loss allowed the Devils to advance to the ACC championship game, so beating them would have been doubly sweat. To make matters worse, Carolina should have won that one going away.  The Heels dropped two touchdowns, and dropped an interception on Duke's game winning drive.  Those 3 mistakes doomed the Heels on Saturday.

Second, later that day the Carolina women's soccer team - the most dominant dynasty in the history of sports, winners of 21 of the previous 31 NCAA championships including last year's title - lost in the elite 8 to UCLA 0-1.  I think the Heels had never lost in the elite 8 in 32 NCAA tournament appearances.

Finally, and third, was Sunday night's shabby loss on the road to UAB. It was a classy move for 'ol Roy to go to Birmingham in honor of his former player and assistant Jerod Haase.  Usually, the big name school does not travel to the up-and-coming one, but Roy is Roy.

What we did not expect was Carolina to play terribly for 40 minutes and lose to the Blazers. Coming off an exhilarating win over Louisville the Heels looked listless and completely out of sync, with no one looking more discombobulated and down right untalented than James Michael McAdoo.  

The Heels looked like a team that had not played in a week, which was the case, and it showed early as no one other that J.P. Tokoto looked interested.  Marcus Page tried, but clearly the UAB defense was focused on stopping him, and they did. 

Without Page we needed at least one or two more guys to step up to help Tokoto, and usually reliable Brice Johnson almost did, Kennedy Meeks and Joel James could not give any sustained effort, and McAdoo had a serious case of Mac-A-Don't.

The lay off and the inexperience of this team, at least the inexperience of this P.J.-less rotation, is enough to cause me to shrug this one off as 'one of those games' that happen early in a season with a team like this one, a team still learning and figuring things out. 

The flip side is, it's hard to shrug off how bad McAdoo played. He not only looked soft when he attacked the rim, but he made terrible decisions - a three pointer, really? - and was inactive; he even had trouble catching the ball or grabbing loose balls or boards.

I don't think it's time to panic, but in a bizzaro world where things go better in Fayetteville we need McAdoo to be McAdoo and help Page, Johnson and Meeks overcome the loss of Hairston and make things right in Chapel Hill. 

GO HEELS! 

A Great Week to be a Tar Heel (after a rough couple of months)

After months and months of dissonance, from P.J.Hairston's mistake filled summer to the latest reminders that the Carolina football program is an embarrassment to the University, some semblance of order was restored to Tar Heel Nation last week. 

Two great things happened.

One, Dean Smith was awarded the highest honor that an American can earn, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. More than a great Tar Heel, Dean is a great American. For many, and certainly for me, he embodies everything good about Carolina. Not the basketball program - Carolina.  

To be, rather than to seem.*  Could a guy born in Kansas be any more a Tar Heel?

In recounting why we has awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom we are once again reminded why he is a great American. Dean was an active citizen on top of being a successful basketball coach. Sure he graduated 98 percent of his players, won an Olympic gold medal, won two national championships, and did it the right way.  But Dean also cared about the well being of his fellow citizens, and worked to make our country, not just Carolina, better. Whether he was integrating parts of North Carolina, advocating for gay marriage or against the death penalty, Dean knew that to truly be an American one has to be an active citizen engaged in making ours a more perfect union.  

Two, perhaps in honor of Dean Carolina looked like Carolina on Sunday in defeating the defending national champs on a neutral floor.  

What a game! Roy said it after the win but after 4 lackluster games the team seemed to finally stop looking at the bench hoping for Hairston to come in and bail them out (I can't include Leslie McDonald in the same sentence as Hairston; that guy has been in Chapel Hill for 4 years and yet has NO identity or presence it seems). 

The great news is the guy they need is already on the floor in the person of Marcus Paige. He finished strong down the stretch last year, and his progress along with Hairston and James Michael McAdoo was enough to make Heels giddy for this season, at least until the troubles with PJ surfaced this summer. Against Louisville, we saw Paige emerge as a two-headed monster who could dish like Marcus but score like P.J. 

It was fantastic to watch, and exciting to think about how Paige will only get better as he gets stronger. He's already a smart player - of course a Carolina player - and his skills will keep growing. Paige is going to have a monster year for the Heels.

Remember, this is Carolina. As great as Paige was the win reached the giddy level due to the contributions from the entire team.  There are many to choose from, but I'll start with Nate Britt.

Even in wins, such as the ones over Oakland and Richmond, Britt has generally been pretty bad.  His performance against Holy Cross prompted me to tweet 'that my biggest fear is that Britt turns into Adam Boone.' 

Against Louisville he stopped going north-south a la Boone and aggressively attacked the rim and even displayed a deft touch, too! He's a freshman so we should cut him some slack on his learning curve, but it was great to see him play with confidence and poise against an opponent like Louisville. 

Paige and Britt moved the ball, Carolina style, for 40 minutes as everyone contributed to a great win. 

Speaking of freshman AND moving the ball, how about Kennedy Meeks?  He looked like Sean May in ways ridiculous - he's chubby! - and sublime - look at those outlet passes, soft hands and soft touch around the basket.

We saw Paige coming, and knew Meeks and players like Isaiah Hicks and Britt were touted recruits, but I'm not sure if anyone other than ol' Roy saw Brice Johnson coming on the way he has so far.

He is this team's X factor.  His energy and skill off the bench have been phenomenal - so far.  Johnson appears to have a nose for the ball and scoring, and has become that third guy, along with Paige and McAdoo, that every successful basketball team needs.

If Johnson and Paige keep playing at this level, Britt and Meeks keep growing and getting more comfortable, and McAdoo starts acting like Mac-a-do instead of Mac-a-doesn't, this team will continue to be fun to watch AND make a run at an ACC championship - even without Hairston.

Of course, the Heels could use Hairston and even McDonald if for no other reason that as deep as our front court is (McAdoo, James, Tokoto, Hicks, Meeks, Simmons, Hubert all played and scored versus Louisville) our back court is equally thin (yes, that was walk on, fourth-string point guard Wade Moody getting first-half minutes).

This squad will make some noise nationally, too, and this team will keep being tested as the Heels play a brutal schedule. The Heels still have games against Kentucky and Texas, and at Michigan State before turning to the ACC with new rivals like Syracuse in addition to games versus Duke (overrated in my opinion with a weak front court) and FSU (under rated), etc. 

But this week the Heels showed we have the talent to be Carolina, Dean's Carolina.  Forget Hairston.  With Paige, Johnson, etc. we have enough talent and skill to go win a lot of games and go a long way. 

GO HEELS!

A Few Random Notes

• Kudos to Chapel Hill's Superchunk for, among other things, including the North Carolina state motto, 'to be rather than to seem,' in their song "Your Theme." If you are not listening to "I Hate Music" you are under utilizing the gift of hearing.
•  I was embarrassed to see Carolina send letters to Marvin Austin, Greg Page and Robert Quinn stating that those three should no longer associate with UNC or come back to Chapel Hill.  Did the same letter go to Butch Davis and his staff?  I am not absolving the players from associating with agents, etc. but to single out the student-athletes instead of the coaches and adults in charge is embarrassing.
• Dean is the STANDARD.  The athletic department, especially the football program,  needs to remember that; what would Dean do?