Where: Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC
When: Wednesday, January 7th, 9:00 PM
TV: Fox Sports
Records: UNC 13-1; Charleston 10-2
There will be liveblogging tonight.
Here are the three things I know about the city of Charleston.
1. The Civil War started there.
2. I spent part of my honeymoon there.
3. Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind was from Charleston.
As for the basketball team hailing from the College of Charleston those of us who have been watching ACC basketball since the 1980s get to see Bobby Cremins again. Cremins was the head man at Georgia Tech for many years during which the Yellow Jackets were known to cause all sorts of grief every so often for the Heels. Cremins, whose hair may have been white from birth, had a penchant for recruiting good point guards from New York City and GT for a while was generally know as a PG school. Mark Price, Kenny Anderson, Travis Best, and Stephon Marbury are among some of the best PGs to play for Cremins.
With that in mind and given the fact that Cremins is by and large a fairly successful coach, Charelston should be approach with a modicum of respect as a dangerous squad. Which really should not matter. The expectation is for UNC to come out and drop the equivalent of a Trident II nuclear missile on the Chanticleers Cougars(wrong South Carolina school) in a bid to exorcise the demons of Sunday past. Whether that will be the case or not remains to be seen.
The point is there have been pesky questions raised about whether this team is all that and a bag of chips. Nothing would please me more than to see the Heels answer that question with an emphatic, “darn straight” and then head to Winston-Salem to cap off the week with a “any questions now?” My gut feeling is that will be the way of things but we will see how the Heels respond to their first loss in how they handle Charleston.
And since parity plus uncertainty is the way of college basketball I am just going to toss some 20 point win prediction out there and be done with it.
UNC 90 CofC 70
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Totally agree…I feel the Heels are going to come out Guns-a-Blazin’! I certainly see a HUGE game from TH and Lawson to show all the naysayers that we are as dominant as ever. Heels have come to chew bubblegum and kick a$$… and they’re all out of bubblegum!
besides justin.tv, does anyone know where i might be able to watch the game online? I live in NW Ohio, therefore I do not get FSN South. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Go Heels!
That is the only online streaming I am aware of that UNC has been on consistently.
ok…thank you! By the way, this blog is the best…it is like my morning newspaper!
fyi–when the Carolina “posse” makes it’s annual golf junket down here to Pinehurst, Cremins is often included in the group, so except for tonight, he is “one of us”.
I would really like to predict Carolina by 33 points. I’d like to, and probably would have before Sunday. But now we just wait and see, and hope they are the team we know they can be.
Cremins is OK. He was a fantastic recruiter and a good coach. It’s nice to see him back in the coaching ranks.
And I forgot to mention that if have been watching ACC basketball since the 1960s you actually saw Cremins play in the ACC.
Well covered THF, not a whole lot to add to that. I’m really looking forward to the game tonight and to liveblogging. For any that haven’t tuned in to liveblogging yet you’re missing out. For those of us that aren’t able to go out to a sportsbar and watch our Heels with a few hundred of our closest friends liveblogging fills in pretty nicely.
*disclaimer* This was an unpaid (and unsolicited) endorsement. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.
By the way, I suck at predicting scores so I’ll just say Heels by double digits.
I would actually rather see a pretty close game tonight. If the Heels get a blowout, that just sets up the whole bully mentality again.
Let’s face it, no one is going to be impressed if Lawson has 10 assists against two turnovers tonight or if UNC wins by 50.
The Heels are just going to have to wait and show that they can do it against somebody the media loves, like Wake Forest. If they beat Wake by 15+ points as they have done several times during the last three years, then people will start to consider BC a fluke.
CoC lost to Temple by 5, to Davidson by 4 and they beat South Carolina.
Match-ups make games, but this is far from a bad team and this could be the best mid-major UNC has faced all year.
My favorite Bobby Cremins story is that he credits Dean Smith with helping him lose his virginity. Cremins was a guard at South Carolina and was in a tight game with the Heels. Dean instructed his players to foul Cremins (knowing Dean, he knew exactly what his FT percentage was) but Bobby sank the free throws and won the game. Later that night, Cremins got thanked by a grateful coed for his heroics.
Cremins was the coach at Appy State in the late 70’s. He was almost completely gray at that time as well.
You’re right William, no one is going to care when the Heels dispose of CofC like yesterday’s trash, but it is a great game for the Heels to have before heading to WF on Sunday. They get to play at home and use their final non-conference game to work on the missing pieces to the puzzle. Sunday, most definitely will be the key game of the year thus far, but tonight will be a confidence booster and give them a chance to work out the kinks before this weekend.
Off Topic: Looks like the injury bug is now biting our recruits
http://blog.nj.com/hssportsextra/2009/01/north_carolina_mens_basketball.html
Would love to participate in live blog but I cant seeing as I’m GOING TO THE GAME! Can’t wait to see the Heels get their revenge in PERSON!
Oh yeah! Heels by 21!
Do the Heels want revenge on CoC? Or is it against Cremins for 1985 and 1993 in the ACC tourney?
Exactly what I was thinking, william. Yeah, those two games hurt!
Which was his final four year? That was a streaky but deadly team.
BC is going to have to really come back here to beat Harvard in the last 7 minutes. 62-48 Harvard leading.
Lethal weapon 3 was 1990 I believe. I think they were probably the second best team in the country that year. Cremins beat us plenty of times when he played against us, as well.
ain’t…going…to happen!
Curry taking Paulus to school. Wildcats have gone to zone and making a run.
Down goes Big Al and BC! Couldn’t happen to a nicer team. I guess Harvard knows how to defend the flex!
lol–now let’s pray for a meltdown in Cameron!