So…I titled my entry for today’s Tar Heel pasting of Maryland as “Wow!”…and then I started writing.
As I was writing, I was surfing the internet for URL’s to hotlink in the article and it seems that we have consensus on today’s performance. And, it is not just Tar Heel fans giving props – even the posters on Pack Pride’s free boards are in awe of the Tar Heels win
A few comments:
– Before Carolina began its run away from the Terps when the game was tied at 32-32, I couldn’t help but be reminded of last season’s Carolina-Wake Forest triple overtime classic.
The level of play today was comparable with that game until the Heels put the Terps in their rear-view mirror. And, that is what is scary about what we saw today. This Maryland team is solid. For Carolina to dismantle them like this en route to scoring 100 points for their third consecutive game is quite impressive.
– Carolina has scored 100 points in 7 games THIS YEAR. NC State has scored 100 points in 4 games in the NINE YEARS that Herb Sendek has coached NC State.
– Speaking of high levels of play…Carolina and Maryland each had scored more than 10 points just less than three minutes into the game. I couldn’t help but cry when I thought about NC State’s experience in Madison Square Garden when we couldn’t score 10 points in an entire half against a St. John’s team that looks like a weak YMCA-league team when compared to the Terps and the Heels.
– In a classic example of, “what goes around comes around”, Carolina’s waxing of Maryland served as some stingling payback for the Terps. On February 12, 2002, this same core group of (what is now) Carolina seniors experienced the worst Atlantic Coast Conference loss in the history of Carolina basketball in College Park when the Terps beat Carolina 112-79.
– Carolina’s 109 points are not the most that Maryland has ever surrendered in ACC play. That honor still belongs to NC State in a 114-91 win in Reynolds Coliseum on February 27, 1991.
State had lost to Maryland previously that year in College Park and really needed to win to insure an NCAA Tournament berth. Reynolds rocked that night…and for good reason – The Pack, who was in love with the 3-point line, was on absolute fire in one of those “can’t miss games”. I know that you may believe that it simply physically impossible for NC State to actually have one of those unstoppable nights where we just “can’t miss” (especially against a team without a direction in its name and rated worse than #250 in the RPI)…but, I promise that the condition has existed in Wolfpack Basketball before.
On this night, the Pack rode the streaky 3-point shooting of Migjen Bakalli who put on a clinic. I am pretty sure that Bakalli set the record for 3-pointers in an ACC game that night…just a few weeks prior to tying the NCAA Tournament record for three-point attempts without a miss.
– It is hard to imagine that Carolina is only 3 seasons ago Carolina was 8-20 record; and only 2 seasons ago were being swept by State while missing the NCAA Tournament in 2003. Wow!! What in the world happened?
Well, Carolina fans all seem to be in agreement with their answer, HA!!! What do they know? Some of them even are labeling their style of play, “Roy Williams Basketball.”
Obviously these Tar Heel fans need to talk to some of our State fans who can explain to them that no coach really has any impact on his team. I mean…come on! A coach can’t shoot for the players and make the players do things!!! Right?!
– Obviously I am being sarcastic in my comments regarding Carolina’s coaching situation. Roy Williams is not only one of the best coaches in college basketball, he is so damn likeable that if Rashad McCants wasn’t on this team then many fans would have a hard time not pulling for the Tar Heels. (Well, McCants and that red-haired spaz wearing the Carolina jersey on ESPN’s broadcast in the student section today while looking like a moron and exemplifying the typical Tar Heel “male”.)
Carolina is on their FOURTH COACH in the Herb Sendek era. We’ve had MORE opportunity to establish ourselves as a dominant/competitive program over the last decadethan one could have ever dreamed.
We didn’t. We didn’t take advantage of the most turmoil and inconsistency that will ever exist in Chapel Hill and now it is too late. Sendek was 0-2 vs Roy in Williams’ first friggin year. It isn’t going to get much better in the future…especially when ESPN’s two headliner college basketball commentators don’t even know that we exist.
– For the record, NC State was a combined 1-4 against these two teams last season in our “great year”. Herb Sendek is a combined 5-13 against Carolina and 4-17 against Maryland to create a combined 9-30 record against these two. After witnessing the level of play of today’s game, I definitely don’t hold much hope for much improvement to the Wolfpack’s dismal performance of the last decade.
