Sports Passion The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 3 (February 2014) | Page 7

rebounds per game while shooting at a 50% clip from the field. He was 72% from the charity stripe. Warren was the leading scorer against the Blue Devils with 23 points and earlier in the year put up 32 versus East Carolina. The month of February begins and ends with games against intrastate rival North Carolina (Feb.1 in Chapel Hill and Feb. 26 at home). At mid-month they must travel to Syracuse to face the Orange. There are very winnable games too, including two against Miami and Virginia Tech. Even with the Tar Heels experiencing a down year, the ACC is a rough road to go leading to “Selection Sunday” on March 16. Without a pronounced turnaround between now and then North Carolina State may not be a part of it. North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball The Ups and Downs of the 2013-14 Tar Heels (but mostly downs) It has been, to say the least, an interesting campaign thus far for the North Carolina basketball program. By Tar Heel standards it has been a very disappointing one as well. So let’s take a look back at UNC’s few achievements, but mostly disappointing play to date. In just its third game of the season and after starting 2-0 with wins against Oakland and Holy Cross, the Tar Heels lost to the Belmont Bruins. To make matters worse, if that is possible, the game was played in Chapel Hill. This was no fluke either. Belmont led for 30 of the 40 minutes. After forgetting how to play defense, shooting free throws also escaped the UNC hoopsters. They were 22 of 48 from the charity stripe while allowing the Bruins to shoot 41% on “treys”. One week later, they would have to face the Louisville Cardinals in the Hall of Fame Tipoff Championship game. Most prognosticators didn’t give the Tar Heels a chance, but somehow they emerged victorious over the then ranked #3 Cardinals. With another week behind them in the schedule, North Carolina was still savoring the win against Louisville when they visited the University of Alabama at Birmingham. This time rebounding proved to be the fatal deficiency in the Tar Heels game. They were beat on the boards at a clip of 52-37 (21 offensive) by the Blazers. The final score was UAB 63, UNC 59. Next up were the Michigan State Spartans, who, by the way, just happened to be on top of the AP poll on December 4th. Once again all the so called experts proclaimed “Let the slaughter begin”. Well it wasn’t necessarily a slaughter, but it was a certified 14 point win… by North Carolina! With the Tar Heels rediscovering its defense and improving on their free throw shooting when it mattered most (8 of the final 14), they came out on top 7-65 in East Lansing. For the first time in a while there was optimism to be found at the Dean E. Smith Center awaiting the arrival of No. 11 Kentucky on December 14th. The Tar Heels did not disappoint the hometown faithful, emerging with an 82-77 victory over the Wildcats. As high as ѡ