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Reggie Bullock and Danny Green each scored 11 points and played big minutes as their teams won Game 2 first-round playoff games Monday night. The win for Bullock’s Dallas Mavericks, a 110–104 home triumph over the Utah Jazz, was huge because it evened the series at 1 as it shifts Thursday for the first of two games in Utah.
The Phoenix Suns, who had the league’s best record during the regular season, had no problem with the New Orleans Pelicans in their playoff opener, highlighted by Cam Johnson’s thunderous, highlight-reel first-quarter dunk. Johnson, a finalist for the NBA Sixth Man of the Year, came off the bench to score 13 points on 5 of 6 shooting as the No. 1-seed Suns beat the No. 8-seed Pelicans 110–98 in Game 1 of their first-round Western Conference series.
In his first game as a head coach since leaving Carolina in 2018, Larry Fedora won his United States Football League debut with the help of T.J. Logan Jr.’s running. Their New Orleans Breakers beat the Philadelphia Stars 23–17 Sunday in the first weekend of action for the new spring football league in Birmingham, Ala.
CHAPEL HILL — Power surges have short-circuited North Carolina in recent weeks and Georgia Tech played the long (ball) game well. Homer runs, two of the five from designated hitter Tim Borden II, drove in every Yellow Jackets run in their 11–8 victory Sunday at Boshamer Stadium as Tar Heels pitching has given up 30 home runs in the last 12 games.
Garrison Brooks finished a productive three games at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament with 25 points and nine rebounds in leading his team to a victory in the fifth-place game on Saturday in Portsmouth, Va. Brooks made 11 of 15 shots, collected two assists and a block and was named player of the game as his K&D Round’s Landscaping team’s 96–86 victory over Portsmouth Partnership. Also on his team was former Miami guard Charlie Moore, who had 15 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
CHAPEL HILL — It’s hard to win in the rugged ACC without good pitching and North Carolina continues to struggle to find any since the league season started. A Tar Heels staff that had one of the best ERAs in the country and a low walk rate during the non-conference season has seen those numbers flip in league play, and that continued Friday night.
Seven Tar Heels, and potentially an eighth, will begin play in the NBA playoffs this weekend. Cameron Johnson’s Phoenix Suns are a solid threat to win the title and the Dallas Mavericks, with Reggie Bullock and Theo Pinson, are playing like they could make a long run. Joining them in the playoffs are Danny Green of the Philadelphia 76ers, Coby White and Tony Bradley of the Chicago Bulls and Day’Ron Sharpe of the Brooklyn Nets.
Leaky Black announced on social media Friday that he will use his extra season of eligibility to return to Carolina next season. Black has played four seasons for the Tar Heels and is taking advantage of his COVID year the NCAA is giving players who played during the 2020–21 pandemic season.
Brady Manek’s perimeter shooting, grit inside and leadership in helping North Carolina make an improbable run to the national championship game had many Tar Heels fans wondering if he was the best transfer in program history. You have to go back to the early 1970s to find a transfer who had more impact but you only have to look on last season’s roster team to find a member of his family.
The NCAA has a way of making plenty of head-scratching decisions and, unfortunately, the latest has ended the Carolina playing career of last season’s starting point guard on the women’s basketball team. Carlie Littlefield transferred to UNC after earning an undergraduate degree at Princeton. Like other players who were at Ivy League schools during the 2020–21 season, she won’t get an extra year of eligibility like most athletes since the entire conference decided not to not play basketball that season.
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