A Little of This, a Little of That, a Little Carolina History

Saturday at halftime of the Wake Forest game, Carolina will honor its 1982 national championship team.

This is the team of James Worthy, Sam Perkins and Michael Jordan. The coach was, of course, the legendary Dean Smith. I tell you what: that was a great team. With all its talent, it was arguably the best in ACC history. A case can be made.

The Tar Heels were 32-2 that historic season and beat Georgetown 63-62 for the title. The star of this team and of the title game was Worthy, who went on to have a great career with the Los Angeles Lakers. But it was the freshman Jordan who hit the winning shot. It was this shot that first put Jordan in the national spotlight, and we all know the rest of the story.

I’m just wondering where the last 25 years have gone? It doesn’t seem that long ago to me.

Earlier this week, Bob Holliday sat down to talk with Dean Smith about this ‘82 team, and you can view that conversation on WRAL.com.

I believe that the ‘82 Tar Heels will watch the 2007 Tar Heels have a pretty easy time of it against Wake Forest. Carolina’s too good and the Deacons—well, they aren’t very good.

In the first meeting in Winston-Salem, Wake hung tough until early in the second half and then boom—Carolina brought out the steamroller, and there you go.

Just two short years ago, Wake Forest with Chris Paul was one of the powers in basketball. Their slide has been fast. Now Skip Prosser has a lot of work to do.

I don’t think that Carolina will help his team’s confidence.

I think N.C. State must win at Miami. As bad as Wake Forest is, Miami is probably the worst team in the ACC. After those big wins against Virginia Tech and Carolina, the Pack fell back to earth with a big thud at Georgia Tech. State had a 15-point first-half lead, but went through an 18-0 drought in the second half. Losing at Miami to an injury-riddled team would not be a good thing. Sidney Lowe told us Friday, they must dictate the pace.

Despite the loss in Atlanta, State is making progress. I think this is one they can’t afford to lose. Road wins in the ACC are precious, and there’s real opportunity here for State. A loss at Miami would be devastating.

Both those games are on WRAL, starting at 1:30 with the Deacs and the Heels.

Did you see the big women’s game in Chapel Hill on Thursday? I will tell you this: every shot was an adventure as top-ranked Duke beat second-ranked Carolina 64-53. It was two teams that were pretty and glittering at 24-0, but ended up playing a very ugly game.

But you know what? Duke says they’ll take it anytime.

Points were hard to come by. Duke shoots 39.7 percent while the Heels a dismal 27.3 percent, and their star players, Ivory Latta and Erlana Larkins, were a combined 4 of 28. Yuck. There were so many missed shots in this game, there were over 100 rebounds.

But while the game wasn’t pretty, I enjoyed it nonetheless. It was exciting and played with so much intensity and heart. And there were some great athletes on the floor. It meant so much to both teams.

To be honest, I would much rather watch two good women’s team play anytime as opposed to, say, the Miami men against Maryland. I know many won’t agree with that—and a couple are standing right here with me—but that’s how I feel.

By the way, the Duke-Carolina women’s game dwarfed the Hurricanes and Bruins game in the ratings.

On ESPN2, the women’s game did a 5.7 rating and an 8 share. The hockey game involving the defending Stanley Cup champions, on at the same time on Fox Sports South, registered a 0.7 and 1 share.

Oh you better believe Duke’s game Sunday at Maryland is big for the Blue Devils. And Maryland will tell you the same thing for them.

Well, I’ve got to go to a gathering to honor a dear friend. Hope everyone has a great weekend.