Your “Show of Hands…Who’s Still Here?” U*NC Game Thread

In spite of a boatload of distractions over the past several days (none of which I plan to talk about in this entry, because there are plenty of other places where those things are being discussed), the reeling Pack (14-12, 3-10 ACC) welcomes their non-rivals to the PNC tonight. Carolina (21-5, 9-3 ACC) is coming off a loss at Duke. Let’s at least TRY to slap 2 in a row on ’em???

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The Wake Forest game….review at your own peril.

(may cause eye twitching, uncontrollable swearing, or seizures…if any of these symptoms occur, treat with alcohol)

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Let’s Take This In a Different Direction

It’s Carolina. Regardless of what may or may not be going on in our own house, I STILL hate these guys and I STILL want to beat the stink off these guys. So for a few hours, on this thread at least, let’s try to direct the hate properly….

Here’s your target.

So, Carolina jokes….

Q: How do you neuter a Carolina fan?
A: Kick his sister in the jaw.

Feel free to pick it up with more in the comments.

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U*NC at NC State

Tipoff: Wednesday, February 15, 8pm

Coverage: ACCNetwork (WRAL5 locally)

Pack Hosts Rival UNC-Chapel Hill on Wednesday (GoPack.com)

Pack Tracks
– NC State dropped an 88-58 decision at Wake Forest on Saturday. Freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., led the Pack with 17 points. it was the 13th time this season and eighth time in 13 ACC games that Smith has led the team in scoring. Sophomore Torin Dorn came off-the-bench to record his third double-double of the season – first in ACC play – with 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
– Home court shooting: NC State has shot 50 percent or better in nine of its 14 games at PNC Arena this season, including four of its six home ACC games. For the season inside PNC Arena, the Pack is shooting 50.5 percent from the field and averaging 87.6 points per game.
– Senior Terry Henderson and sophomore Maverick Rowan combine to make over seven three-pointers per game (7.33 per contest) in NC State’s six ACC home games this season. They have each made 22 three-pointers in the Pack’s six conference home games this year. Henderson enters the game Wednesday against the Tar Heels having hit 9-of-his-last 12 three-point attempts at PNC Arena.
– In six league home games this year, Dennis Smith, Jr., is averaging 21.3 points, 10.0 assists, 7.0 rebounds and 2.5 steals per outing.

Lucas: Pack History Ignites Williams (GoHeels.com)

It’s NC State week, so you know what that means for Roy Williams.

“He gets fired up every time we play them,” Theo Pinson said after the last time the Tar Heels faced the Wolfpack, a 51-point victory in Chapel Hill. “There’s a certain spark he has when we play NC State…You can just tell by his voice. He wants our execution to be perfect because it’s NC State.”

That approach has worked, as Carolina has enjoyed significant success against NC State in the Williams era. The last NCSU win in the series in Raleigh came in 2013, and Carolina has won 20 of the last 22 meetings between the two Triangle squads.

With such a dramatic edge in the series, why does Williams still get so amped to play the Wolfpack? It’s because his formative years as a Tar Heel came in a very different time in Carolina-State history.

Williams arrived in Chapel Hill as an undergraduate in the fall of 1968. Those were good Tar Heel basketball times, as Dean Smith directed the program to three straight Final Fours. Carolina eventually stretched out a 10-game winning streak over the Pack that was snapped in December of 1970. This was an era when it wasn’t unusual for Carolina and State to play three times during the regular season, with a pair of ACC meetings plus a Big Four Tournament contest in Greensboro.

That’s where the series turned, as the Pack took a victory in December of 1970. And after four more Carolina wins, Norm Sloan’s team won the final UNC-NCSU game of Williams’ undergrad career, an 85-84 upset in Reynolds Coliseum of the fifth-ranked Tar Heels, and then proceeded to win a total of nine games in a row against their hated foes from Chapel Hill.

Frankly, I like that the overblown little Huckleberry Hound looking [insert your profane insult here] dislikes us. The whiny cheating little [insert additional profane insult here].

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One Last Shot at Random Wolven Song