UNC vs Duke: Showdown for First Place in the ACC
The game between the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Duke Blue Devils tonight is the College Basketball game I look forward too the most every year. As a fan of UNC, last year was very difficult to watch but I knew that UNC needed one year to bounce back and recover the magic that had been lost when in 2009 they lost all of their best players to graduation and or the NBA Draft. The loss of Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Danny Green, Wayne Ellington and more weighed heavily on a team that was looking to try and repeat their run for the National Championship game. The freshman class last year was heralded but early injuries and players not stepping up to the leadership positions derailed a storied program that instead made a run for the NIT Championship and lost in that title game. While on the other hand Duke rode one of their best seasons and won the NCAA Championship game to the sadness of all Tar Heel fans. Coach K is one of the best coaches in history and also one of the best current coaches, he understands how to push him team to be the best they can be.
Fast forward to the summer and it looked like again UNC was going to have a difficult season ahead of them the Wear Twins decided to transfer to UCLA thus Coach Williams was losing two of his biggest men in the front court and Duke was everyone's pick to repeat as National Champions. The season started with UNC being ranked in the top 10 all because of an incoming Freshman Harrison Barnes who was heralded as being one of the best back court players. He was picked to be on the Pre-season All ACC team. Yet the season started out weak UNC lost two of their first four games and quickly fell out of the rankings. Barnes was not playing to his potential and people all believed that he was going to be a bust. While on the other hand it seemed that Duke just could not lose. They were picked week in and week out as the Unanimous number 1 in the polls until their loss to FSU when they dropped in the rankings and then again with the blowout loss to unranked St. Johns. As Duke looked to fall apart in some ways UNC was growing stronger and stronger winning games, Barnes has been playing to his potential and showing the world that he is one of the best freshman guards in the country. Then a wrench was thrown into the bag for UNC with Larry Drew II deciding to quite the team in the beginning of this month. Unfortunately for Larry Drew this seemed to be a loss more for him then for the Tar Heels as they won their first game without him pretty handily.
Now it is finally time for the biggest game in College Basketball besides the second UNC vs Duke game and of course March Madness. Both teams need this win to cement the lead in the ACC as they are tied as of right now. UNC has Barnes, Zeller, Kendell Marshall has stepped up in the absence of Drew and Dexter Strickland. These four players have great chemistry and Strickland is right, it looks like this season the Tar Heels finally have the chemistry on the team that was around when Hansbrough, Lawson and Ellington played together. You can see that this team enjoys playing together and that is clearly seen in how much better this UNC team is versus the team last year.
On the other hand you have the reigning National Champions in Duke who have Kyle Singler back who is a major threat in the front court. Duke is looking to avenge the loss to St. Johns and what better way for them to show that the St. Johns game was a fluke then to beat their biggest rival on the national stage with the entire nation watching on ESPN. While Duke does have pretty much the entire team back from last years National Champions, I see the fractures in their team. They haven't really had to struggle this season until very recently and it shows in their chemistry. When things started to go wrong against St. Johns instead of working together and trying to fix the problem, it kept getting worse and St. Johns was able to blow them out. We shall see how this game tonight goes but I am hoping that it will be a good game and that UNC will beat Duke and thus show the world that they are back in the game.
Information on this game tonight, it will be played at 9pm Eastern on ESPN and ESPN3.com.
I hope you enjoyed this post and keep following my love affair with sports.
Fast forward to the summer and it looked like again UNC was going to have a difficult season ahead of them the Wear Twins decided to transfer to UCLA thus Coach Williams was losing two of his biggest men in the front court and Duke was everyone's pick to repeat as National Champions. The season started with UNC being ranked in the top 10 all because of an incoming Freshman Harrison Barnes who was heralded as being one of the best back court players. He was picked to be on the Pre-season All ACC team. Yet the season started out weak UNC lost two of their first four games and quickly fell out of the rankings. Barnes was not playing to his potential and people all believed that he was going to be a bust. While on the other hand it seemed that Duke just could not lose. They were picked week in and week out as the Unanimous number 1 in the polls until their loss to FSU when they dropped in the rankings and then again with the blowout loss to unranked St. Johns. As Duke looked to fall apart in some ways UNC was growing stronger and stronger winning games, Barnes has been playing to his potential and showing the world that he is one of the best freshman guards in the country. Then a wrench was thrown into the bag for UNC with Larry Drew II deciding to quite the team in the beginning of this month. Unfortunately for Larry Drew this seemed to be a loss more for him then for the Tar Heels as they won their first game without him pretty handily.
Now it is finally time for the biggest game in College Basketball besides the second UNC vs Duke game and of course March Madness. Both teams need this win to cement the lead in the ACC as they are tied as of right now. UNC has Barnes, Zeller, Kendell Marshall has stepped up in the absence of Drew and Dexter Strickland. These four players have great chemistry and Strickland is right, it looks like this season the Tar Heels finally have the chemistry on the team that was around when Hansbrough, Lawson and Ellington played together. You can see that this team enjoys playing together and that is clearly seen in how much better this UNC team is versus the team last year.
On the other hand you have the reigning National Champions in Duke who have Kyle Singler back who is a major threat in the front court. Duke is looking to avenge the loss to St. Johns and what better way for them to show that the St. Johns game was a fluke then to beat their biggest rival on the national stage with the entire nation watching on ESPN. While Duke does have pretty much the entire team back from last years National Champions, I see the fractures in their team. They haven't really had to struggle this season until very recently and it shows in their chemistry. When things started to go wrong against St. Johns instead of working together and trying to fix the problem, it kept getting worse and St. Johns was able to blow them out. We shall see how this game tonight goes but I am hoping that it will be a good game and that UNC will beat Duke and thus show the world that they are back in the game.
Information on this game tonight, it will be played at 9pm Eastern on ESPN and ESPN3.com.
I hope you enjoyed this post and keep following my love affair with sports.
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