Tag Archives: Marcus Paige

Finish the Season Strong

UNC National Championship Banners

(Originally posted on Facebook immediately after UNC lost to Duke in Durham, 93-81.  Follow us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/CarolinaTarHeelsOnMyMind.)

McAdoo’s early foul trouble, Meeks’ illness, a great game by Hood, and a stellar game by Parker were too much for this Heel team to overcome. They’ll learn from this, and they’ll grow because of this.

This season is far from over, and we’ll still make some noise this year in both tournaments. But the dividends of some of these tough losses — especially the one tonight — will really show up next year and even the next.

We can’t start a game like this not matching their intensity. We have to stay poised and take care of the ball much better than we did tonight. (Early in the game, we had 6 points and 6 turnovers. Think about that.) And Paige can’t wait until the second half to start exerting his will on the offensive end. He has to break that pattern.

A coach can tell players those things over and over and over. But sometimes the players only partially understand words. They think they understand, but on nights like tonight, it becomes clear what “playing with a sense of urgency” and “playing the full 40 minutes” really means.

We have good guys on our team. They have heart, they’re talented, they’re coachable, and they’re resilient. They never give up — one of my favorite things about this team. They have far exceeded my expectations once we all learned PJ would not rejoin the team. But my expectations for them next year will be much higher.

For now, let’s finish the season strong. Let’s try to continue to exceed expectations. Let’s keep getting better.

Go Heels!

UNC vs Duke — Round 1, 2014

UNC Stomps Duke 400 x 400

Here we sit less than 48 hours away from tip-off of potentially one of the most exciting men’s college basketball games of the season:  UNC vs Duke — Round 1 in Chapel Hill.

Duke is the higher ranked team and the team most of the talking heads expect to come out victorious Wednesday night.  But when these two rivals meet, you never know what the outcome will be until it happens.

Tonight,  #17 ranked UNC women’s basketball marched a team of mostly freshmen and sophomores into Hansbrough Indoor Stadium, a.k.a. Cameron Indoor Stadium, and handily knocked off the #3 ranked women Blue Devils 89-78.  Let’s hope the ladies inspired our Tar Heel men to follow suit and complete the sweep of Round 1, UNC vs Duke.