Four seasons ago, W&M led Carolina, 75-72, with five minutes left in an NIT first-round game in Chapel Hill, but never scored another point as the Tar Heels went on to win, 80-72. The next year, Kyle Gaillard scored 25 points on a variety of dunks, threes, and athletic drives, but UNC drilled the Tribe, 85-60 in the teams' most recent meeting.Tonight, in W&M's final non-conference outing, Tony Shaver takes the Wrens back to his alma mater to face the 19th-ranked Tar Heels. UNC comes in at 9-3, beating a Florida team that drubbed the Tribe, and boasting wins over Ohio State and UCLA (the latter less impressive than it might've seemed a few weeks ago). Meanwhile, W&M stands at 6-4 after losing three of four, including a 69-62 defeat at Old Dominion that prompted the generally circumspect Shaver to offer some choice words about his team to Daily Press scribe Dave Fairbank.
"My biggest disappointment," Shaver said, "is we're not tough enough to win these games on the road right now. We knew coming into this game, the No. 1 statistic, the most vital thing we could do was rebound the ball and we gave up 15 offensive rebounds and 20 second-chance points. We've got no chance to win if we do that."
Carolina, led by 6'9" big men Kennedy Meeks and Brice Johnson, outrebounds its opponents by nearly 10 caroms per game, while junior guard Marcus Paige paces the balanced Heels with 13.6 points per game. Roy Williams pushes the tempo, while Shaver's Tribe has yet to allow an opponent to top 70 points in a game this season.
In sum, a scuffling W&M squad with doubts about its fortitude heads to Chapel Hill to play against a bigger, faster team whose strengths (athleticism, rebounding, depth) align neatly with the Tribe's weaknesses.
The only question, as I see it, is how many we win by.
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34 comments:
Am I allowed to answer in negative points?
no rules, zman. do what feels right.
/libertarianrobot
I learn something every day. I didn't know that Larry Bird was 22 in that NCAA Final while Magic was just 19.
Nor did I know that the Tribe will not be favored against UNC.
Z, that could work, since according to this post, the Tribe scored negative-3 in the last five minutes of the game four years ago.
where's our fucking editor?
carolina favored by 16.5 this evening, though the line opened at 19.5. massive amounts of early money on the tribe.
Maybe they scored negative points for interceptions? Like Yahoo! scoring?
Anybody watching ND-LSU live? I'm priming with UT-Arkansas from yesterday.
I'm watching live. You will be soon too.
Watching live. At work.
Zaire looked pretty impressive. Golson might be riding the pine next year.
u.s. soccer folks are pretty geeked up that gedion zelalem announced his intentions to play for the usmnt.
http://www.espnfc.us/united-states/story/2221237/arsenal-prospect-gedion-zelalem-is-us-citizenwill-file-fifa-switch
Notre Dame's kicker is 13 for 23, but got a combine invite? What am I missing?
Maybe he has distance and coaches think they can correct accuracy?
5-6 were not his fault....botched snaps and blocks. And last year he was close to if not perfect.
He was only 20 of 26 last year. I was wrong. Mark that down.
Louisville helmets are dope.
I managed to catch the flu - not sure if similar to what Mark had. Mostly coughing violently (cracked a rib) and resounding headache. Quarantined for the rest of the year. No Rocking New Year's Eve for this guy.
I had some of that. The whole fever/chills/congestion combo as well. Get well, sir.
On the topic of binge watching, our neighbors today gave us as a gift the first two seasons of Game of Thrones. I'm excaated.
It burns when I pee--do you have that too Mark?
Come for the breasts and stay for the dragons, Danimal.
UNC was covering the spread less than 9 mins into the game. Nice college for you, Rob.
I see that offer for 50 nuggets for $9.99 and think "I can throw all 50 of those fuckers down in one shot."
the ebola/sars strain pummeling the rest of the country, including mark...and the other mark, has been a member of our household for going on three weeks now. good times. terrible house guest
- i am robot dayquil
i would like to see Jerry battle TR in the McNugget Challenge. many moons ago, Dennis and I took on Jerry, who destroyed us in downing faux chicken pellets (Dennis was in low 30s I believe, I might have hit 38/39...and I think Jerry was in the upper 40s)
No one wins in a mcnugget eating contest.
Belk Bowl sideline reporter Cara Capuano looks more like Joe Mantegna than Erin Andrews. HD TV is not her friend.
Florida just lost to FSU at the buzzer in a highly unfortunate way. Fuck.
My brother in law got me some wax for a late Xmas present. He's pretty great.
Surf or bikini?
If I remember the Jerry McNugget story correctly, he had eaten lunch before taking you guys on wasn't even that hungry.
He called me Greenhorn. I called him Tony Randle. It was a thing we had.
zfamily now has this bubonic SARS airborne gonorhea thing like Mark and Mayhuge. I am not enthused about it.
The wife had a version of this for a couple of days last week. I'd say about 1 out of 3 people I know have had it or have it now. Started coming down with it on xmas eve then ingested wife's leftover antibiotics, plus some other narcotics. I feel it trying to get all up in here, but I'm dodgin and weaving like a mofo. Should be able to get my groove on this evening.
mustache, clarence
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