The big ACC news was Brendan
Haywood's breakout performance last night, the first recorded triple double
in UNC history. We say first because we're pretty sure someone has done it
before, but no one kept track before Magic Johnson. Just as an example,
Oscar Robertson averaged a triple double, but no one called it
that. Our money is on Charley Scott and also Billy Cunningham.
There's no question
it was a huge performance. We didn't catch much of it, but we saw
Haywood block one shot out of bounds like a tennis serve, and then follow that
shortly with a block at the top of the key and then running the break for a
layup. Kids, this
is not your father's Haywood (actually that does sound like a Cadillac name
- the Cadillac Haywood. Starts slow but you don't want to be on the road
when it gets cranked up).
Unfortunately for UNC, there were some negatives, particularly with Capel's
unfortunate injury. It looked to us like it was just a hard landing and
therefore probably a bad bruise, but this is a guy who had back surgery.
You just never know. Hopefully it's not serious. The Capels are good
people and we certainly wish Jeff's little brother the best, except for a few
times a year.
UNC had a near-disaster in the turnover department, giving it up 29 times.
Brian Morrison had seven all by himself, which is really too bad, since he's the
guy most likely to be able to take over the point at least in the short term.
He's a much, much better athlete than Boone and Curry, as we learned the other
day, is still recovering from his Achilles injury. Against Duke, Maryland, or
UVa, 29 turnovers would probably be game, set and match. But that was
largely balanced by 51 rebounds to Miami's 32. Incidentally, hot shot
rookie Darius Rice was by and large contained.
And Forte continues his sophomore slump, scoring just 8 points on 3-8
shooting. While it may perhaps be that the point guard situation allows
defenses to concentrate on Forte - no one dared leave Cota alone with the ball
last season - it's probably not critical, at least not yet. Forte is a
legitimate All-American and he'll adjust and someone soon will be the victim of
a major scoring outburst.
Nonetheless, as Coach K said, no one else has anyone like Haywood, and if he
continues to play with passion, and Lang continues to be such a potent sidekick,
the Heels can build from the inside out. They do have to take care of the ball,
but we could see this team coalescing around the two big guys. But either
Morrison or Curry will have to step up because we just don't see Boone getting
it done.
In other UNC news, the football hunt drags on, and area
columnists are starting to go after Baddour. The other day it was Caulton Tudor;
today it is Frank
Dascenzo, who rips Baddour for not having a Plan B. And Tudor is
making more suggestions, this
time peddling FSU's offensive coordinator.
On the depressing side, in another ACC game with Floridian
connections, Florida
State had a major choke vs. Furman. Essentially it came down to three
point shooting - Furman hit 24 points from bonusland, and FSU hit only one.
That's pretty much game.
In some bright news, though, Michael Joiner had a great line (and played 40
minutes out of a 45 minute game). In some not-so-great-news, he and Antwan
Dixon combined to outrebound Nigel Dixon by 18.
Being that the game was in Tallahassee, maybe they could ask for a recount or
an injunction or something, but none
of that could cure the depressing nature of this loss.
UVa followed up their magnificent performance against Purdue by nearly
laying a huge egg at VMI, where they Hoos had to struggle for their
win. Here's a stat we bet you didn't know - UVa is leading the ACC in
rebounding. So it's startling that VMI, which has if we recall a height limit of
6-7, outrebounded Virginia - and had 20 on the offensive boards! Good
night in the day. According
to the Roanoke paper, UVa didn't yank the starters until there was less than
a minute to play - 48.3, to be exact.