Before the conference season started, Ken Pomeroy used his supercomputer to determine the percentage chance for every team in the country to win their conference. The ACC was deemed to be by far the least competitive conference, with Duke given a 93% chance of taking the regular season title. This was taken as a surprise by absolutely nobody in the national media, who continued to tout Duke as the runaway winner of the mediocre ACC. Somewhere during that time they probably took the time to take some jabs at the preseason expectations placed on the Blue Devils' ACC counterparts and a particular freshman named Harrison Barnes.
Unfortunately, college basketball championships are won in February and March, not in November and December. And here we are, on February 27, and Duke has found themselves in a fight for that regular season title that Pomeroy handed them on January 5.
On the morning after Virginia Tech upset Duke despite Malcom Delaney going 4-for-15 from floor, North Carolina took care of business against a desperate Maryland team, scoring 87 points in the process to pull even with Duke at 12-2 in conference. Let's break down what happened in Chapel Hill on Sunday night.
To be honest, there was probably a lot not to like about UNC's victory. After all, the Heels still shot only 40% from the floor, and once again they failed to close out a team when they had them down 15+. Harrison Barnes looked hot early but wound up needing 23 shots to get his 21 points. And Reggie Bullock continues to go through the most painful-to-watch shooting slump of any Tar Heel I can ever remember.
But this is not a morning to be pessimistic. So I will highlight three factors from last night's victory which should cause anyone in baby blue to smile as we head into the final week of the ACC's regular season.
1) Tyler Zeller. Anyone who knows me knows that I have often been frustrated by Zeller's inconsistency. At times he has been the rock of the Heels' offense but at other times he looks lost by the double team when it comes, making it very difficult to run the offense through him. But last night he was Hansbrough-esque in the way he completely dismantled his post counterpart, Marlyand stud Jordan Williams. Sure, Williams finished with 15 and 19, but anyone who watched this game knew that he had absolutely no answer for Zeller, who was a brutally efficient 10-16 from the floor including one filthy Dream Shake through contact for the and-one. Nasty.
2) Kendall Marshall. After generating hype following the 16-assist showing against FSU a few weeks ago, Marshall had actually cooled off culminating in a pedestrian 5 assist, 5 turnover night against NC State on Wednesday. But against the Terps, Marshall was once again brilliant, routinely finding shooters in rhythm and even throwing one pass through Zeller's legs. How Marshall only finished with 10 assists I will never know.
3) Winning. At the end of the day, do not dismiss the difficulty of this win. These guys all read the same things we read and watch the same games; they knew full well that Duke's loss Saturday night opened the door for the Heels to control their own destiny. It would have been easy to get too caught up in that excitement and begin looking past the Terps toward the regular season finale with the Blue Devils. Add to that the fact that Maryland badly needed this win, and this formed a trap game for UNC. But give the young Heels credit for coming out with focus and energy and for withstanding numerous Maryland runs to try to get back into it in the second half. Let's hope they respond in the same way to a similar trap situation on Wednesday night.
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