UNC Hosts Duke Tonight @ 9 PM

One of the greatest rivalries in college basketball resumes tonight as the Duke Blue Devils travel the eight miles down Tobacco Road to Chapel Hill to take on the Tarheels. Duke enters the game (19-1, 7-0) ranked No. 2 in the nation. UNC (21-1, 6-1) is No. 3.

Bad Blood
The last time these two teams met, Duke's Gerald Henderson came across the paint to throw a flying forearm into the face of UNC's Tyler Hansbrough. With a broken nose, Hansbrough would go to the dance wearing a face-mask, a memory still quite fresh in all of our minds.

Q-turnover
Much of the Tarheel faithful are quite concerned with the loss of point-guard Ty Lawson (high-ankle sprain). His replacement will be (gasp) Quinton Thomas (aka: "Q-Turnover"). But I think we can put these apprehensions to rest after watching Q look like he might know what he is doing during the Florida State game. Will Thomas morph into the player that we thought he might develop into? If this is any consolation, Thomas' stats vs Duke seem "optimistic": 29 minutes, 8 assists and only 1 turnover.

GO HEELS!

(AP Photo/courtesy of Tarheel Blue)

Mitch Canham Raps as the Beavers Win the 2nd Straight CWS Title

UNC fought hard throughout the CWS and reached the finals for their second straight time, but unfortunately they lost again to the Oregon State Beavers. You have to tip your hat to Oregon State (who had a few close calls themselves) for, despite only returning two starters (SS-Darwin Barney & C-Mitch Canham-see video) from last season's Championship squad, played solid fundamental baseball. The Beavers made the routine plays that big league scouts look for in a player and they took advantage of any and all weaknesses the Tarheels had. The Beavers knew how to make small ball work, getting a small chunk at a time and backing up their offense with solid defense. Congrats to the Beavers!

UNC still has a solid team and it said a lot for their program to make it back to the CWS. I would look for the Tarheels in the CWS next year with a strong chance of getting a title to take home to Chapel Hill.

Beaver Moxie
If there was one thing that Oregon State had that UNC was lacking (other than a lack of errors and the ability to defend the bunt) was moxie and the confidence that they would win their second straight title. Here is an example of that kind of moxie from the rapping Beaver's catcher, Mitch Canham as their team "(w)rapped" up another title.

Mitch Canham raps

Tarheels Anniversary and Win as Coach Cremins shows he is the ultimate road warrior!

Today the UNC (22-3, 8-2 ACC) Tarheels killed Wake Forest (11-13, 2-9 ACC) 104 to 67 at the Dean Dome. Rayshawn Terry led the Heels with 23-points against his hometown team. Psycho-T put 16-points on the board and the youngster Wayne Ellington added 11.

Anniversary
Although the game was very important as the season begins to unwind, the show was at half-time as the Tarheels celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the 1957 Championship Team and the 25th Anniversary of the 1982 Championship Team. The list of former-players announced by Woody Durham was long and distinguished, but it was the final four (from the 1982 team) who garnered the most attention: Sam Perkins, James Worthy, Mike Jordan and Coach Dean Smith. (Picture courtesy of the AP). Indeed a group of champions celebrating their heritage and Coach Smith finally getting the NCAA Championship Title banner that eluded him for so many years.

Coach Cremins in the House!
With such a great group of honorees in the Dean Dome, it was a pleasant surprise to hear the announcers mention the College of Charleston's Coach Bobby Cremins' visit to the Dean Dome to scout players during the earlier game between Fork Union and UNC (JV). Coach made a quick drop in to check out the talent before today's game against UNC-G. The announcers mentioned that Coach is doing a great job down in Charleston, taking over a program made great by Coach John Kresse! Tony Cuiffo wasn't joking when he said that Coach was always recruiting!

Tarheel Triple-Lindy, UNC needs to make a big splash and "Cannonball" Butch Davis might just be the right guy for the job!

ESPN reported yesterday that UNC-Chapel Hill is offering the football team’s head coaching position to Butch Davis. Davis told the Charlotte Observer last month that he was interested in the position and that he is doing his “due diligence” or what I like to call “homework” concerning his possible return to college football. If you recall, after rebuilding the football program at the University of Miami (Fl) with a 51-20 record from 1995-2000, Coach Davis left the ranks of college football to try his hand at the pro-level in Cleveland. The Browns struggled with close losses, injuries, and “growing pains” (plaguing most expansion teams in their infancy) during the 4-seasons Davis was at the helm and he resigned in 2004 leaving behind 5-games left in the season and a 24-36 record in the pros. (Photo: Licensed by the University of North Carolina)

Of course, “failure” in the pros is not something of concern for Coach Davis because as they say, it is a “whole different ballgame” (see Steve Spurrier). Obviously, the Tarheels need to make a big splash with their next head coach, and Butch Davis just might be the right guy at the right time. If other basketball schools (i.e. Wake, Louisville, UCLA and Rutgers) have strong football programs, then deservingly so should the Heels. Butch Davis is a proven success with building competitive programs that have (something very fitting for Chapel Hill) character and class. Of course, he has his critics in Miami because Coach Davis is the only recent coach for the Hurricanes (in the company of Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson and Larry Coker) who didn’t bring home the crystal trophy, but he did do one thing the others were unable to do (or continue), he took a team that had a losing record, stripped of 31 scholarships as a NCAA probationary punishment and had the worst reputation (see: ND fans wearing “Catholics v Convicts” shirts) in college football and turned them into a national contender beginning the 30-straight wins Miami had going into the Fiesta Bowl against The Ohio State Buckeyes in 2002.

UNC’s recruiting class for 2007 is ranked 15th in the nation and key components Mike Paulus (QB recruit from Christian Bros. New York) and Ryan Houston (Butler High School RB-Charlotte, N.C.) are waiting pool-side to see how big of a splash the Tarheels make with their head-coach selection. Hopefully all of the recruits will be aptly pleased with a Butch Davis “TarHeel-Triple-Lindy” because we obviously need a coach that can win, along with a QB who can put the ball into Hakeem Nicks hands and a RB to establish a running game if we are to compete with these other “basketball” schools.

Things are looking up in Ann Arbor and in Chapel Hill!, Bunting gets his walking papers!

Good news for Wolverine fans, the computers finally give post them in the number 2 slot for the BCS rankings and after two-heart attacks and two open-heart, quadruple-by-pass surgeries, former Michigan coach (10th on the all-time Division 1-A wins list) Bo Schembechler successfully had a heart-regulating device inserted in his chest today. His recovery prognosis looks good enough for him to watch Michigan play Clemson or some other sure fire win! Oh for Pete’s sake, I just pitted two of my most unfavorable teams against one another.

It is about damn time!
For a while it seemed that UNC-Chapel Hill head football coach John Bunting had nine-lives, but last night, the AD, Dick Baddour fired Coach Bunting, but gave JB 5 more games to clean out his locker. Coach Bunting’s record at Carolina is 25-42, which means at the end of the 5-game “finish what we never began” stretch, Bunting’s record will be 25-47 at Carolina. Bunting told reporters that he is slow to decide on whether or not he wants to get back to coaching-I don’t know John, can you survive off of $286,200 per yr through the 2009 season? Work or don’t work, you get paid anyway, but I will offer you one bit of advice, I don’t recommend coaching a pee-wee league team in Philly. Although, they have a reputation of brotherly love in Philly, it appears that Wayne Derkotch (40) doesn’t want to have to tell his 7-year old son’s coach twice that his boy needs more playing time. Btw, who the hell brings a gun to their 6 or 7-year old son’s pee-wee football game?

Picture of unapologetic Wolverine fanatic, Dave Dickey, courtesy of JET)

Sunday Basketball Scores:
Heels v Terps
The #21st ranked University of North Carolina Tarheels swept the Maryland Terps 81-57 and earned a 1st round bye in the ACC Tournament. Freshman Tyler Hansbrough had his 11th game this season with at least 20-points scoring 21-points and 7-boards. David Noel and and Marcus Ginyard both scored 12-points putting any chance Maryland had of redeption from their previous meeting to bed. Ekene Ibekwe scored 12-points and Mike Jones had 11-points for the Terps, but it wasn't enough to cool the hot tar the Heels mopped across the floor.
The Terrapins are now 16-11 and 6-8 in the ACC. The Tarheels are now 19-6 and 10-4 in the ACC.



Bama v Florida
It seems 9th ranked Florida met the Man of Steele tonight but left their Kryptonite at home, losing 82-77. Ronald Steele went 6 for 6 at the line, leading the Tide with 20-points and 7-assists. Hendrix had 14-boards as the Tide rolled all over the Gators. Taurean Green led the Gators going 4 for 10 from behind the arch scoring 20-points.
The Gators are now 22-6, 8-6 SEC. Alabama is now 2nd in the SEC behind LSU and are 16-10, 9-5 SEC. Bama has their last season game against in-state rival Auburn on Wednesday, March 1 at 7 pm.

Big East Rematch
2nd ranked Villanova marched into UConn as the highest ranked team the Huskies have played at home. UConn wasn't about to hang their heads as they did earlier this season and put away Nova quite methodically 89-75. Ray led Villanova with 19-points, Sheridan had 11-boards and Lowry led with 4-assists. Leaders for the Huskies were Brown with 23-points, Adrien with 7-boards and Williams led with 10-assists.
UConn is now 25-2 and Villanova is 22-3 for the season.

In case you missed it go to the Budweiser Kaiser to read "Kaiser Chief" Brad's recap of games from Saturday and the special I saw on EPSN Sports-Center tonight about the autist High School Varsity BBall team manager named Jason McElwain who played and scored 20-points (hitting 5-three-pointers) in his first and only high school basketball game.

For all College Basketball scores click here for the ESPN Scoreboard. (Photos compliments of Espn Sports.)