Tidbits: UNC vs. Duke Edition

Tonight is the first of two nights that ESPN has been waiting for all year long: it's the first run of the annual North Carolina vs. Duke rivalry (a.k.a. the most hyped up sporting event this side of the Super Bowl).

In honor of tonight's big game, Drive and Dish is rolling out another installment of our ever-popular "Tidbits" feature. For those readers who are sick of the UNC vs. Duke hype, rest assured: not all of our "Tidbits" items pertain to the Duke vs. North Carolina game. However, we're not getting paid to write about the Mercer vs. the Citadel rivalry, so forgive us if we're a little UNC vs. Duke heavy today.

On second thought, we're not really getting paid to write about the North Carolina vs. Duke rivalry either. Our high six-figure blogging salaries were casualties of the recent economic downturn, so the Drive and Dish writers are now blogging pro bono (although thanks to the largess of the U.S. Senate, the "sports blog bailout" allocation in the stimulus bill will allow the twelve member Drive and Dish Editorial Board, the Drive and Dish Board of Directors, and the 21 year old Long Island Iced Tea- drinking, table-dancing, Pussycat Doll lookalike Drive and Dish interns to retain their usual high levels of compensation).

So before we start having second thoughts about the whole "pro bono blogging" thing (and before we start to resent the Editorial Board's high level of compensation and begin to demand salary caps for Editorial Board members ... damn those "suits!" ... workers of the world unite! ... viva la revolucion!), we present the "UNC vs. Duke 2009" edition of "Tidbits":

1. Ken Tysiac (a noted North Carolina hater, at least according to many Tar Heels fans) of the Charlotte Observer says that North Carolina is starting separate itself from Duke as a basketball power because of Roy Williams' superior recruiting:

“Not that Duke has recruited badly, but North Carolina has sort of exceeded them in recruiting,” said (Bob) Gibbons, the All-Star Sports recruiting analyst. “And the end result is the differential in the game performance.”

Just a few short years ago, Duke was widely considered the preeminent program in college basketball, and Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski was said to be able to get just about any recruit that he wanted. But Duke has gone just 2-5 against North Carolina recently, despite having won 15 of the the previous 17 games against the Tar Heels. And Raycom Sports analyst (and former Duke center) Mike Gminski thinks that North Carolina's recent dominance in the heated series is likely to further the Heels' recruiting advantage over Duke:

“Kids can't identify with history. They're too young.”

2. Scout.com, powered by Fox Sports and MSN previews tonight's North Carolina vs. Duke game. (Hey, wait a minute ... aren't Fox News and MSNBC supposed to be bitter, archenemies? Don't Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow make their livings by "speaking truth to power" to the nefarious "right wing fascist Nazis" at "Fixed News"? And don't Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity lampoon the "crazy liberals" at MSNBC and in the "mainstream media?" Isn't the Fox vs. MSNBC rivalry more heated and intense than the Duke vs. North Carolina rivalry? Don't tell me that the parent companies of the two cable news rivals are actually partners in some kind of cynical, capitalist, synergistic media alliance! Could the respective politics of the cable news enemies be little more than the result of programming decisions that had their roots in corporate media attempts to establish strong "brands" for their cable news entities? Oh, the horror!)

3. The ACC & SEC Blog also previews tonight's game and predicts a 1-5 point North Carolina win.


4. North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough looks to go 4-0 vs. Duke at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium.


5. Drive and Dish gets frequent requests from readers to step up our coverage of mid-major college basketball. Many of those requests come from fans of a Horizion League programs (one or two programs in particular).

Ask and ye shall receive: coverage of Tuesday night's Wright State (OH) win over Loyola (Chicago) courtesy of the fine blog, Chicago College Basketball.


6. Michigan turned some heads earlier in the season when they upset then-No. 4 UCLA and then-No. 4 Duke in the space of two weeks. Hopes were high that Wolverines head coach John Beilein was in the process of reestablishing Michigan as an elite college basketball program. But the Wolverines trailed off somewhat after their hot start. However, all is not lost in Ann Arbor: after last week's nice win over Penn State and respective showing at No. 1 UConn, Michigan is still very much in the mix for a post-season berth. And considering the depths to which the once proud UM program had fallen to, John Beilein has done a nice job turning what was a moribund program around. Hoopraker looks at Michigan's climb back up to college basketball prominence.

Wake Forest Beats North Carolina

Sunday night, # 4 Wake Forest defeated # 3 North Carolina 92-89 (more here) in Winston-Salem, NC. It was the second losing effort of the week for visiting North Carolina -- the Tar Heels had been undefeated ranked #1 in the nation before being upset by #17 Boston College last Sunday (Boston College celebrated their win over North Carolina by going on to lose to lose to both Harvard -- yes, Harvard! -- and Miami).

Jeff Teague scored a career high 34 points to lead Wake Forest. Danny Green led North Carolina with 22 points. North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough, the reigning National Player of the Year in men's college basketball, finished with 17 points, but was held to only 4 points in the second half.

North Carolina fell to 14-2, and 0-2 in the ACC.

(Photo: Winston-Salem Journal).

Hansbrough to Return to North Carolina

North Carolina has announced that Tyler Hansbrough will return to North Carolina for his senior year, while Hansbrough's teammates Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington will declare for the NBA draft.

Hansbrough Wins Wooden Award

North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough keeps racking up the awards. On Friday night, Hansbrough received the John R. Wooden Award. Tennessee's Candace Parker won the women's award.

Last week, Hansbrough was named the men's college basketball Player of the Year by the Associated Press.

Also last week, the Commonwealth Athletic Club of Kentucky extended its Adolf F. Rupp Award to the junior Tar Heel forward.

And as Drive and Dish noted earlier, Hansbrough was named the Sports Illustrated Player of the Year last month.

Is the ACC In Decline?

The Charlotte Observer's Ken Tysiac asserts that North Carolina's poor showing in this year's Final Four is just another piece of evidence which supports the thesis that Atlantic Coast Conference basketball is in a "historic downturn."

Tysiac alleges that although the ACC had the highest RPI of any conference during the 2008 regular season, the relative poor showing by ACC teams in this year's NCAA Tournament is part of a larger trend:

"• The ACC's 19 NCAA tournament wins from 2006 through '08 are its lowest for a three-year period since 1979-81, which was before the tournament expanded to 64 teams.

• At least two ACC teams reached the NCAA's Sweet 16 in each year from 1980 to 2006. In '07 and '08, North Carolina was the only team representing the ACC in the Sweet 16."

And although Tysiac expects North Carolina and Duke to be strong again next year, he doesn't seem to think that they'll be serious Final Four contenders:

"Unless Tyler Hansbrough returns at North Carolina, it's difficult to imagine the ACC having a serious Final Four contender next season."

North Carolina and Duke will be fine next year. And Drive and Dish expects Tyler Hansbrough to return to Chapel Hill, NC, for his senior season.

So the Drive and Dish editorial board finds the Charlotte Observer writer's prediction of a bleak future for the ACC to be overly pessimistic.

But that's O.K.-- it's not first time that a Charlotte Observer sports writer has been a tad dramatic this week. Maybe being a drama queen is a prerequsite for attaining employment in the Observer's sports department.

North Carolina's Hansbrough Named AP Player of the Year

Yesterday, North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough was named the college basketball player of the year by the Associated Press.

Hansbrough is the third Tar Heel to be named player of the year. As the Houston Chronicle notes:

"Hansbrough, second on the North Carolina career scoring list with 2,151 points, 139 behind Phil Ford, joins Michael Jordan (1984) and Antawn Jamison (1998) as national players of the year from North Carolina. The last two players to lead the ACC in scoring and rebounding in the same season, Tim Duncan of Wake Forest in 1997 and Jamison, were national players of the year."

And the AP player of the year award wasn't the only post season prize that Hansbrough picked up yesterday. The Commonwealth Athletic Club of Kentucky extended its Adolf F. Rupp Award to Hansbrough, as well.

And as Drive and Dish noted earlier, Sports Illustrated named Hansbrough its player of the year in early March.

Drive and Dish extends congratulations to Tyler Hansbrough.

Hansbrough Named Sports Illustrated Player of the Year

Sports Illustrated has bestowed its Player of the Year honor upon North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough.

North Carolina Beats Clemson in Double Overtime

North Carolina came back from being 15 points down late in the second half to beat Clemson in double overtime, 103-93.

Tyler Hansbrough and Wayne Ellington were the catalysts for the Tar Heels. Hansbrough went off for 39 points, 13 of which came in the two overtime periods. Ellington finished with 28 points and accounted for the basket that sealed the win for North Carolina: a difficult driving shot in the lane that came in the final minute of the second overtime.

North Carolina remains undefeated (53-0) in home games against Clemson.

And with this win, the Tar Heels set a new NCAA record for consecutive home wins against a single opponent, besting Princeton's 52 straight home victories over Brown from 1929-2002.

Duke Dunks UNC 89-78 !

By Mark Buckets

On a night when the former stars of North Carolina Basketball were out - and the big names rolled in from everywhere for this game - it was one of Duke’s more criticized players that took center stage. Many people will attribute this lackluster performance from Carolina to the much-publicized ankle of Ty Lawson, but there were other factors at work.

For one, North Carolina needed to play some defense.

Duke continually sliced and diced the Carolina defense from all angles. The Tar Heels allowed Greg Paulus, of all players, to penetrate and find shooters all night long. From around the back passes to wide open shooters in the corner, to off-balance three pointers, it was Paulus’ night.

Opposing fans - And a good faction of Duke supporters - have been unfairly harsh of Paulus this year. He has answered the bell time after time, and seems to be at his best when the pressure is on.

Lance Thomas was a player that Drive and Dish expected to play a key role for Duke tonight.

The rangy - but occasionally spastic - Thomas didn’t disappoint.

His constant hustling on the offense glass ( which led to easy put backs) was invaluable for the Devils tonight.

Tyler Hansbrough got his double double. Outside of Clemson (which can throw two of the conference’s best big men at opponents) no team has really controlled Hansbrough this year. And even though he struggled against Clemson, the man they call “Psycho T” had double digit rebounds.

But it was Duke’s ability to adjust and maximize their strengths that ultimately led to Carolina’s demise.

As a Duke supporter, I was thrilled that the Devils pulled this one out. As if the team needed a confidence boost, this game solidified them as a Final Four contender.

A scary thought for the rest of the ACC, indeed.

Separated At Birth?

North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough



Bloody chainsaw wielding killer Gregory Despres

Edit: The link that I originally posted took readers to MSNBC's home page. The next two or three links I tried led to newspaper home pages. The story is so old that it's no longer available at many sites. Thankfully, the above CBC link works. Blame (in this case, thank) Canada.

Oh, and yeah- I realize this separated at birth is a bit of a stretch. Remember it's meant to be entertaining. And it's the eyes.