The Tar Heels gave us that old, familiar feeling at the ACC tournament. They came out with the true swagger we haven’t seen in a few years, and even though they didn’t shoot the ball that well the Heels took control of the game in the first half. A 17-2 run never let Virginia out […]

The new ACC commissioner made the right, and gutsy, call. One of Dean Smith’s favorite expressions was, “How you start is how you finish.” It meant his players should develop good basketball and personal habits early so it would be easier to be consistent in the long run. Jim Phillips, the new ACC commissioner, got […]

Maybe Louisville and Virginia will beat each other up. There are two ways to look at Carolina’s first ACC Tournament game Thursday night at 9:30 p.m. One way is that it’s just too darn late to play basketball, which obviously the TV people don’t care about because the dreaded No. 3 seed has always been […]

Early voting hurt Armando’s chances for Player of the Year. I’ve always hated how the ACC handles its all-conference voting, especially Player of the Year. All the way back to 1969, when South Carolina’s John Roche beat Charlie Scott for Player of the Year, the votes were already in when Scott scored 40 points against […]

Apparently, no one was prepared for Duke to lose. From the athletic administration at Duke to ESPN, all plans were proceeding for a big Blue Devils win in Mike Krzyzewski’s last game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Except nobody told the Tar Heels they were supposed to lose. When they rallied from a 7-point deficit midway […]

How will Hubert Davis get his team to have fun at Cameron? Davis said his Tar Heels “are not part of the pageantry” surrounding Mike Krzyzewski’s last home game at Duke. Not the Coach K-centric hype that has been a dominant portion of ESPN programming for more than 30 years. Not the jet-engine roar his […]

What should Carolina have done about honoring Coach K? That is a difficult question and it is aside from what all the other schools on Duke’s schedule have done during this swan song regular season that ends Saturday evening when the Tar Heels visit Cameron for another ESPN “Sonic Blockbuster.” The greatest rivalry in college […]

The ACC tourney docuseries sent Dean Smith out the right way. After watching the first two episodes of the 10-part documentary, I wondered how it would treat Smith’s last years on the bench after painting him as the coach who brought the ACC into the modern era. I was pleasantly surprised that Smith remained the […]

So, is this team growing on you yet? On Dean Smith’s 91st birthday, the Tar Heels engaged in a game so similar to those Smith used to coach when his teams took the opponents best punch, hung in there and still survived. Syracuse out-shot Carolina in every category behind a career-high 36 points from senior […]

Come on time to honor Leaky Black. Ceremonies for “seniors” Black, graduate transfer Brady Manek and walk-on Ryan McAdoo will start promptly at 6:40 before Monday night’s last home game against Syracuse, which is reeling after getting blown out at home by Duke Saturday. Leaky is questionable after hyperextending his right knee late in the first […]