Carolina Blues

The days that Duke and North Carolina met up in this classic rivalry where one of those great days to look forward to because the teams always bring it and usually, they are really good teams in at least the top twenty.  You have Dickie V acting like an absolute maniac and seems to be at home when this game is going on.  But this game tonight is not one that I am looking forward to for the first time in several years because the Tar Heels are a bad team. 

In the past, I liked Carolina more than the Dukies because simply, they had more exciting players when I grew up in the late 90s watching guys like Vince Carter, Antwan Jamison, Joe Forte, and Ed Cota.  Duke just seemed boring to me and made them the enemy for a long time.  Now, as years past I leaned more towards Marquette because that is my hometown team and didn't want to be like others I know who just loved the good teams.  

I still follow the Tar Heels and cheer them on when they are on television but even I am completely stunned with what has happened to Carolina this season.  Even though, they lost some great players in Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, and Wayne Ellington but they had some great recruits filtering into the Tar Heel system.  In my opinion, Roy Williams' system isn't like John Calipari where you can have a revolving door and still be successful.  Williams needs guys to stay there and develop into his system to make things work.

I also think that the Tar Heels are suffering from the same complex that Marquette has dealt with all year and that's having a team of completely role players with no player to step up in the clutch when they need it. Granted, MU has seemed to figure that out in the coming weeks with the good late game play of Darius-Johnson Odom and Lazar Hayward.   Ed Davis, the supposed star of this Tar Heel team needs to prove that he is worth a top ten pick right now because all I see is a guy who has uber-potential and is not living up to it. Davis' play will be huge tonight in the game this evening. 

Do I believe that Williams poorly recruited some of these guys?  No doubt about it, I think there is no excuse for the Heels giving up 80-plus points in most games.  I think Williams didn't look at his players in defensive aspects as well as he probably needed to.  Coach K had some down years but he never was at the level of what is happening to North Carolina right now.

Like I said earlier this week, I am taking Duke but expect a close game, even with Duke had their one awful year and Carolina went on to win the National Championship, it went to double overtime. There is no doubt in my mind that you will see a blowout tonight, but if the Heels don't show up on the defensive end could spell trouble.

-Charlie.