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NEW YORK — Streaking North Carolina has the full attention of Virginia coach Tony Bennett as his Cavaliers make a quick turnaround after a 51–50 win over Louisville late Wednesday night in the second round of the ACC Tournament. No. 6-seed Virginia (19–12) gets the chance to avenge a 74–58 Jan. 8 loss to the No. 3-seed Tar Heels (23–8) in the quarterfinals Thursday night at 9:30 (ESPN) at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
NEW YORK — Hubert Davis wasn’t focused on the hype before Carolina’s big upset at Duke on Saturday and that didn’t change in the aftermath of the game. It was all about Coach Mike Krzyzewski in the days before the game and much of the talk afterward was about the historic aspects of the Tar Heels ruining his final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. But Davis focused on the big picture throughout, and where his No. 3-seed and No. 18-ranked Tar Heels are heading into the ACC Tournament. He loves how RJ Davis has become a huge floor leader and Caleb Love has become a dependable finisher, among many other improved areas.
Could it be a battle between quarterbacks from Carolina and Duke for the New York Giants’ starting quarterback job? That could be the case if reports are correct.
Current Carolina players are exposed to much more information about opponents than they got in the days when Coach Hubert Davis was playing for the legendary Dean Smith. While Davis believes and follows the reasoning behind that approach, he gives players more insights on player tendencies than Smith did.
There has been a lot of talk about Duke assistant coach Chris Carrawell snubbing UNC coach Hubert Davis in the handshake line after Saturday’s game. There were also suggestions from the Duke side that it was because Davis didn’t shake hands with the assistant coaches before Carolina’s historic 94–81 victory to ruin Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final Cameron Indoor Stadium game.
Sometimes the best individual games in the NBA come in losses and that was the case Monday night for Harrison Barnes and Coby White, whose teams couldn’t overcome big nights from opposing stars. Barnes scored 23 points and three 3-pointers in Sacramento’s 131–115 home loss to New York and White had 19 points and three 3-pointers in Chicago’s 121–106 defeat at Philadelphia.
North Carolina slipped two spots to No. 18 in the latest AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll after losing to Virginia Tech in an ACC Tournament quarterfinal game Friday. All but one team below UNC in last week’s poll that played lost at least one game and the two teams ahead of the Tar Heels (23–6) in last week’s poll also lost.
After being unranked for 15 consecutive weeks, North Carolina returned to the AP Top 25 at No. 25, thanks to the Tar Heels’ impressive road upset of Duke. UNC (23–5) was ranked No. 19 in the preseason poll and No. 18 on Nov. 15 but fell out of the poll after losing to Purdue and Tennessee in the Hall of Fame Classic in Uncasville, Conn., and didn’t return until its historic victory to ruin Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final Cameron Indoor Stadium game.
While conference tournament play starts this week for many, it has already ended in frustration for Brandon Huffman’s Jacksonville State team. But Garrison Brooks hit a big career milestone and Walker Kessler was named as a Wooden Award finalist. The Gamecocks, the tournament’s top seed, lost Saturday at home 54–51 in the ASUN Tournament semifinals to Jacksonville, with Huffman scoreless for the third game this season but for the first time since Jan. 8. He contributed four rebounds, one block and one steal.
If you were looking forward to watching Cameron Johnson on national TV Sunday after his career-best game on Friday night, that unfortunately won’t happen. Johnson had 38 points and nine 3-pointers off the bench in Phoenix’s 115–114 home victory Friday over New York and banked in a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. But he’ll miss the Suns’ 3:30 Sunday game at Milwaukee (ABC) with a contusion to his right quad.
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