I didn't get a chance to blog between Carolina's blow-out win over South Carolina and the disappointing loss to UNLV last night.
But upon further review, the blog topic would have been the same - Kendall Marshall. He was once again unbelievable against Lesser Carolina. He finished with 14 assists - many of which were spectacular - his third double figure total for this young season.
John Henson may be our best player so far with Harrison Barnes poised to assert that title during the season, but Marshall is Carolina's most important player. I agree with Jay Bilas' assessment that we may be seeing the second coming of Jason Kidd.
The loss to UNLV also highlighted how important Marshall is. As my brother pointed out during the game, Carolina counts on our point guard to disrupt the other team's offense via ball pressure. The Tar Heels' recent championship teams have featured point guards who could dominate a game defensively: Derrick Phelps in '93, Raymond Felton in '05 and Ty Lawson 3 years ago.
Roy recognizes that Marshall might not be fleet enough to do that, at least not yet, so Dexter Strickland - who by the way was the only starter to play well for 40 minutes versus the Rebels - has been covering the other teams point guard.
Saturday night plenty of things went wrong for the Heels; Carolina could not rebound, guard or shoot. Even good teams will struggle with one of those facets of basketball during a game, but rarely do good teams stink at all three at the same time. Saturday night, Carolina certainly did. Zeller had a terrible game, both Z and Henson were pushed around on the boards where Carolina got killed, no one made free throws, and Barnes and the starters had a collectively terrible shooting night and settled for a shocking number of bad shots.
And on both ends of the floor Marshall struggled; he didn't disrupt their defense or run North Carolina's offense as well as he has throughout his tenure as our starting one. When he struggles, this team will struggle. The good news is Marshall - and by definition the 2012 Tar Heels - is too good to have THAT happen again.
This week will be a big one for the Heels as they welcome Wisconsin to Chapel Hill as part of the ACC-Big 10 challenge before heading to Lexington to face Kentucky in a match up of college basketball's two winningest programs. This loss to UNLV will bring out a more focused, determined Marshall and Carolina squad (and ol' Roy, too). In particular, look for huge games this week from Zeller, Barnes and of course our most important player, Kendall Marshall.
As few extra points:
- James Michael McAdoo, though not as key as Marshall, will be a very important part of our season. The Heels will need him to produce off the bench in general, but in particular as our lone reliable big man off the bench he will be key in spelling both Zeller and Henson. He had some nice moments versus UNLV, especially running the floor, but he also missed some important free throws in the second half that could have impacted the final outcome.
- Besides Strickland two other Heels had nice games versus UNLV: Reggie Bullock and P.J. Hairston. Both have put together back to back to back nice games. McAdoo, Bullock and Hairston give Carolina a phenomenal bench.
- Great to see Carolina stick it to Duke for the 20th time in the last 21 games, including 8 straight wins. At 7 and 5 Carolina is bowl eligible, no small feat considering the turmoil of the off season and the firing of Butch Davis. Kudos to Everett Withers and seniors such as Dwight Jones for leading this year's squad.
- Next year is already tantalizing, with Bryn Renner and Gio Bernard poised to lead the Heels to the promised land - 9 wins, including one over N.C. State!
- Finally, while were talking leadership one of my favorites is T.J. Yates, who led Carolina to 8 wins last year despite numerous suspensions and disruptions. Today, Yates played in his first NFL game and helped lead his Houston Texans to a 20-13 win. Yates took over for injured second-string quarterback Matt Leinert at the end of the first half, and completed 8 of 15 passes for 70 yards. Leinert may be out for the season so Yates is likely the de facto starter for the AFC South leading Texans.
- GO HEELS!
