5 thoughts on Duke's win over Maryland

Duke's 87-71 win over Maryland in an ACC quarterfinal Friday night was impressive, especially considering Duke lost point guard Nolan Smith due to a toe injury (his second toe, to be exact) with a 65-60 lead and 6:48 to go.

After that:

-- Duke played very inspired basketball. Without Smith, the 2011 ACC player of the year, Duke still outscored Maryland, 22-11, in the final minutes.

-- Charlotte's Seth Curry (11 points, 3 assists) filled in ably at point guard for Smith.

-- Kyle Singler broke out of his shooting slump with a flourish, scoring 29 points on 10-for-15 shooting. Singler said he still didn't think he shot that well, noting he was 0-for-4 on threes.

-- The Plumlee brothers had 20-20 vision Friday, combining for exactly 20 points and 20 rebounds between them. Their rebounding in particular was a huge reason why Duke won.

-- Coach Mike Krzyzewski said after the game he won't know Smith's availability for Saturday's game until shortly before gametime, but that he hoped Smith would at least be available for the NCAA tournament given that it was his second toe that was injured (big-toe injuries are considered to be more serious).

This means both Duke and UNC are into the semifinals of the ACC tournament. If they both win Saturday, we'll get the first Duke-UNC ACC tournament final since 2001.
Weird, huh? The two schools have won every ACC tourney since 1997 except one between them (Maryland, 2004) and yet they haven't met in 10 years in the final.

5 thoughts on UNC's last-second win

North Carolina gave a double jolt of caffeine to the ACC tournament Friday – first by nearly losing to Miami, then by clawing back from a 19-point deficit to beat the Hurricanes on a buzzer beater by Tyler Zeller.

Zeller’s layup just before the buzzer – off a beautiful feed from Kendall Marshall – gave North Carolina a 61-59 ACC quarterfinal victory that seemed very unlikely until the final minute. The result: a crowd of more than 23,000 at the Greensboro Coliseum, made up of 90 percent Tar Heel fans for this one, got very scared and then got overjoyed.

Five reasons why North Carolina finally pulled this one out after never leading for the game's first 39 minutes and 59 seconds:

1. A three-point binge. Down 55-39 with 7:46 to go, the Tar Heels reeled off four three-pointers while Miami went scoreless in a span of two and a half minutes. That made it 55-51, and it obviously rattled Miami.

2. Zeller awakens. UNC’s leading scorer at 14.6 points per game, Zeller was flummoxed by Miami’s matchup zone until the last four minutes. He then scored the Tar Heels last eight points on four straight field goals from inside.
In the first 36 minutes, Zeller had five points. In the last four, he had those eight, including the last left-handed layup. “I just sort of shot-putted it up there,” Zeller said.

3. Miami miscues. You can’t make a comeback from 19 points down with 10 minutes to go – UNC’s largest comeback since 2006 – without a lot of help. Miami gave it by not being able to score. One shot after another went sour for Miami. And with the score tied at 59-all, the Hurricanes fumbled a relatively simple pass out of bounds, setting up Zeller’s layup.

4. Coaching strategy. Roy Williams went small with a three-guard lineup for much of the comeback, allowing the Tar Heels to trap more and make a few more three-pointers. Williams also sent in five walk-ons early in the game – basically to give him time to yell at the starters – but that didn’t do much immediately as the Tar Heels still trailed by nine at halftime.

5. The crowd. It was full, it was very loud and there’s no doubt it helped.

Packer: UNC more likely to make Final Four than Duke

Billy Packer says it would be “a shocker” if Duke makes it to the 2011 men’s Final Four. If North Carolina does, however, Packer said it would be “no surprise at all.”

Packer, 71, told me that today while I interviewed him about college basketball. The interview was in conjunction with an event Packer has going this Monday at 7 p.m. at Spirit Square in uptown Charlotte called “Inside the Brackets.” At that 90-minute event, Packer, Bob Knight, Phil Ford and Mike Gminski will talk college basketball and speculate about the just-released NCAA 68-team bracket.

It should be a lot of fun. Tickets are on sale to the general public for $20 at 704-372-1000 or www.CarolinaTix.org.

As part of the interview I asked Packer – who worked more than 30 Final Fours as a TV analyst and broadcast his last Final Four for CBS in 2008 – what he thought about Duke and North Carolina’s chances to reach this year’s Final Four.

Of Duke, Packer said: “Unless Kyrie Irving comes back – and I have no information that he will or anything like that – it would be a shocker to me to see Duke in the Final Four.

“There are certain players that can make a team special. Duke had that player in Irving. He could break down the defense. You had to guard him with two people when he got inside. Now Duke is too perimeter-oriented. To me, Duke has gone from a team that could separate itself from the field like Ohio State is doing now to just a good team among 30-40 other good teams around the country.”

Of UNC, Packer said: “North Carolina has excellent balance. Kendall Marshall has such a high basketball IQ, and is such a good distributor at point guard, that he has made every man on that team half a man better. The Tar Heels certainly could be haunted by a game with poor outside shooting or foul trouble, because their depth is weak, but overall it would be no surprise at all to see them in the Final Four.”

In the current Associated Press poll, Duke is No.5 in the country and North Carolina is No.6. The teams split their regular-season matchups. Both clubs open ACC tournament play Friday and could face each other again in Sunday’s championship game in Greensboro.

As Cam's crazy world turns

How many times do the Panthers really need to see Cam Newton throw the ball in a T-shirt and shorts with no rush? Apparently, at least one more, as they have scheduled a private workout with Newton for sometime next week.

Not only that, but they still plan to bring Newton into Charlotte for a meeting with team officials sometime before the late April draft (which will still be held regardless of the current labor negotiations).

What to make of all this interest? I have two competing theories:

1) The Panthers are going to take Newton. All of these repeated job interviews are just making sure. He's got great size, he plays the most important position on the field, it's a huge need for Carolina, plus he's got charisma, he wins, they think the wild-card father can be kept out of the mix.... they are going to harness the franchise to Newton.

2) The Panthers want everyone else in the NFL to believe they are about to take Newton. Why? This makes his trade value higher. Newton is the most marketable asset in the draft (eight other teams have scheduled private workouts with him too). If other teams believe Carolina doesn't want him and is fairly desperate to get out of that No.1 slot, then why offer a lot? But if Carolina can say, "Well, we really want him, as you can see, but if you throw in a couple more draft picks and that veteran quarterback you have sitting over there, then we'll consider it..." that's better for the Panthers.

Maybe you've got another theory that's even more plausible and if so, I'd like to hear it. Otherwise, which one do you buy? Right now, I'm leaning toward No.1.

Duke, UNC should be in Charlotte

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and UNC coach Roy Williams are lobbying a little for their teams to be in Charlotte for our NCAA tournament weekend March 18 and 20, and they're both right.

It makes a lot of sense for both schools to get rewarded and play in Charlotte. They should each be No.1 or No.2 seeds in the NCAA tournament after excellent regular seasons -- Duke is currently No.5 in the AP poll and UNC is No.6. Top seeds like that should get to play close to home and usually do.

Since the advent of the NCAA's pod system, it's no longer necessary to ship one team far away so the clubs won't meet each other too early. UNC and Duke could be in entirely different regionals -- and undoubtedly will be -- but will both play here. Tickets at Time Warner Cable Arena will sell out in a heartbeat Sunday night if that's the way it goes. And if either Duke or UNC gets moved somewhere else for the opening two rounds, then you can bet there will be some howling -- and well-deserved howling.

A couple of other notes:

-- I wrote my column for Tuesday's newspaper on Blake Griffin's first-ever trip to Charlotte Monday night, and here's the link.

-- At that Bobcats game, the team was trying to sell tickets by advertising Friday night's home game against Portland as "The Return of Gerald Wallace." That strikes a very off note to me. Wallace didn't want to get traded, told our Rick Bonnell last week that he felt "betrayed" by the Bobcats for doing so... and now they're using his face to sell tickets again to his "glorious homecoming," just like they used his face for years when Wallace was here? I know the Bobcats paid Wallace extremely well while he was here and are within their rights on this, but I think I'd quietly drop that little ticket campaign if I were them.

5 Monday thoughts: Wallace, UNC-Duke and Griffin

A quick look ahead and back on a Monday:

1) The NFL and NFLPA are back at it today, trying to divide a few billion. If you missed my Sunday column on the NFL labor dispute and how ridiculous it is, here's the link.

2) Gerald Wallace saying he felt "betrayed" by the Bobcats to our Rick Bonnell over the weekend makes sense. Wallace always gave everything he had to this team. It will be interesting to see how he's treated Friday night when Charlotte -- which suddenly can't score 70 points per game anymore -- hosts Portland. What if Gerald makes the winning shot at the end? Wouldn't that be ironic?

3) I'm rooting for a Duke-UNC final Sunday in the ACC tournament. Since both held serve on their respective home courts, would be great to get the neutral court tiebreaker. The draw sets up pretty well for both of them, but the ACC is always peculiar, and I'd say there's only a 40 percent chance that both will get to Sunday's final.

4) Carl Edwards has to be the early favorite for the championship right now. If not for some bad luck, he'd already have a substantial lead in the points race. He really could have won all 3 of the first 3 races if things had worked out a bit differently.

5) Am really looking forward to seeing Blake Griffin tonight in Charlotte. I love the way SportsCenter puts up a "Blake Griffin alert" on many of his highlight dunks now. The Bobcats are reeling after that terrible West Coast trip, but then again the Clippers are only 5-25 on the road this season.

Jeremy Shockey: I like it

I'm so tired of hearing about mediated labor talks, player-owner disputes and the expiration (or extension) of the current CBA.

Maybe that's partly why I'm so in favor of the Carolina Panthers' signing of Jeremy Shockey, announced today. It means we can talk about football again -- thinking about what third-and-7 looks like instead of what a seven-hour negotiating session must sound like.

I know there are risks involved with Shockey. He's been injury-prone recently. He's blunt. He's a character. And he's 30 years old, which is nearing old age at the tight end position.

But there are also rewards. The last "senior" tight end the Panthers signed following his stint in New Orleans, Wesley Walls, was the best at the position the team has ever had.

New coach Ron Rivera has spoken about finding one guy at TE to be Carolina's threat, rather than the 3-headed monster of mediocrity that played the position last season. This looks like Rivera and his staff doing something pro-active, trying to see how much tread Shockey has left on the tires. The guy has the Super Bowl ring the Panthers all want, he's a multiple Pro Bowler -- he's worth a shot.