Rapper J. Cole, an instate native of Fayetteville, sat courtside.
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But the Tar Heels already have conquered some tall mountains.
Paige, who averaged 14.1 points and 4.5 assists per game past year, is set to link up with Justin Jackson, Kennedy Meeks and Brice Johnson who have been carrying the bulk of the weight in their leader’s absence. In fact he might be even better.
Draw from experience – Aside from Layman and Sulaimon, not many Maryland players have played in Chapel Hill before. “And if they don’t have people in the box, the run game makes plays. Cole walked in! He’s sitting right over there'”. Despite the eight turnovers, many early, it was a good night for the Big Ten preseason player of the year.
“They’re the No. 1 team in the country for a reason”.
If North Carolina wins on Saturday, it will be an upset. The combination of Stone and Carter is going to need to protect the paint in a big way against North Carolina. He dove on the floor defensively and was a constant voice in his teammate’s ears.
Both teams have so many issues right now that I chose to pass on releasing a star rated pick on Monday Night’s National Football League match-up.
Paige said the most important component in avoiding a duplication of last season’s results is to become “tougher” in closing out games. Or plantar fasciitis. Or any of the pain that bothered him throughout his disappointing junior season. In his first appearance of the season after missing a month with a broken hand, Paige had an assist and a 3-pointer on North Carolina’s first two possessions.
The Tar Heels worst offensive showing was their first game, an inexplicable 17-13 loss to the Gamecocks at the title game site, Bank of America Stadium. Eight times the Tar Heels blew second half leads and those losses proved instrumental in saddling UNC with poor seeding position.
The play was a turning point in the half, but what went overlooked in that moment was that Paige was calling for a lob. So it will be interesting to see how Paige fits into this game.
“We had a number of revotes, and there were times in the meeting I actually thought Alabama was going to be voted ahead of Clemson, but they were not”. He was anxious to play his first game.
And why was he calling for lobs? “I was anxious about how I would be conditioned because I only had one full practice of up and down”. It is the ninth consecutive time the Tar Heels have defeated the Terrapins and tied the challenge at four games apiece.
“We’ve got great length on the outside, so those guys can really make plays”, Fedora said. Last week against the Wolfpack, quarterback Jacoby Brissett was able to rush for over 100 yards, and while he only threw for just over 200 yards, he took advantage of some big plays that opened up for touchdowns. “Easy. Like it wasn’t nothing”. Joel Berry answered a Rasheed Sulaimon three, Marcus Paige answered Trimble’s, UNC answered Robert Carter’s three with an alley-oop.
North Carolina will be at home again on Sunday as they take on the Davidson Wildcats.
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The committee will reveal its second-to-last pecking order Tuesday, giving UNC an idea of how much further it has to climb to get itself into the final four – provided the Tar Heels can knock off top-ranked Clemson in Saturday’s ACC Championship, of course. Paige said afterwards hitting the first shot calmed him down and allowed the team to really get into a flow.
