Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Charlotte 49ers: first viewing

Tuesday was the first time I have seen the Charlotte 49ers play in person this season, and I guess I didn't catch them on a very good day. A 42-point defeat at the hands of Duke was the subject of my column in Wednesday's paper, which you can also find here.

Like so many teams before them, Charlotte got flustered early by Duke's pressure. It's easy to say, "Well, just cut backdoor, Duke overplays everyone." But it takes a bunch of athletes to be able to do that effectively -- athletes at the top of their game. Charlotte has a few big-time athletes, but not as many as the Blue Devils, and other than Shamari Spears, no 49er was close to the top of his game Tuesday.

Speaking of Spears, though, he may be a poor man's Charles Barkley for the 49ers this season. He's got a nice touch around the basket and although undersized to play power forward in terms of height, he uses his weight well to work his way around the basket. He's the biggest reason the 49ers, while embarrassed Tuesday, will be an improved team after last season's 11-20 debacle.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CHARLOTTE 49ERS NEVER HAS BEEN NEVER WILL BE - THAT IS A CHEAP GIMMICK TO TRY COPY CINNCINATTI OR OTHERS SINCE THE IDIOT FEMALE AD WHO CAME UP WITH THIS CANT THINK OF ANYTHING ORIGINAL AND DOSENT HAVE A BRAIN IN HER HEAD -

PER 95% OF ALUMNI SINCE 1965 WHEN UNCC OPENED IT IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE 4EVER AND ETERNAL:

UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC UNCC...

Anonymous said...

That was not fun to watch. However, Spears is a force and there is a lot of young talent on this squad. Hopefully a drubbing by a top ten team early in the season will help them mature quickly. Let's hope they do better against the Yellow Jackets and Vols.

To the last guy: easy on the caps lock, bro.

Anonymous said...

You should come to UNC Charlotte and take an English class you idiot. Our athletic teams are the Charlotte 49ers. If you don't like it don't read the articles or watch our games. But you clearly care enough to spew that garbage every time the Obs prints something about the Charlotte 49ers.

Spears was about the only one who came to play. Hopefully this will be a wake-up call to the other guys.

Anonymous said...

Agree. UNCC 49ers is perfecto in sports or education or whatever.

Can you imagine UCLA called Los Angeles Bruins?

Any nickname other than the original is cheap and gimmicky.