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The senior version of Rick Barnes is still pretty tough.
As a young college basketball coach at Clemson, Barnes made a name for himself when he confronted Hall of Famer Dean Smith at the 1995 ACC Tournament and two years later showed some antics at the Dean Dome.
Tonight, the 69-year-old Barnes will still be fired up when his 10th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers visit Carolina in the inaugural ACC-SEC Challenge. The No. 17 Tar Heels are slight favorites but must meet the Vols’ manhood.
The clash in ’95 was over Smith yelling at a Clemson player for holding the Tar Heel he was guarding, and when the head coaches were summoned to scorer’s table, they ended up nose to nose. Smith, hands in his pants pockets, invited Barnes to “take the first shot.” Barnes erupted.
Early in the 1996-97 season, which would be Smith’s last on the bench, Clemson was ranked second when the Tigers tried to win their first game ever in Chapel Hill and the No. 19 Heels had gotten off to a 3-4 start in ACC play. Smith assigned 6-5 Vince Carter to cover 5-9 All-ACC guard Terrell McIntyre and cut off his passing vision. Clemson shot 27 percent from the floor and 3 for 24 from the 3-point line, as UNC won 61-48. When McIntyre came out with his fourth foul, Barnes took off his coat and feigned putting himself into the game, which drew laughs and catcalls from the home crowd.
Barnes moved on to Texas, where he led the Longhorns to the 2003 Final Four and defeated UNC five straight games. He is now in his ninth year in Knoxville, where a once-villainous coach endeared himself to Tar Heels last season when the Vols bounced Duke from NCAA play.
Tennessee, 4-2, with losses to Kansas and Purdue, plays rugged defense and will employ it against Carolina, which is better in most offensive statistical categories. The Heels have higher shooting percentages from the floor and the arc, average more rebounds per game and have a far better assist-to-turnover ratio.
The well-balanced Vols’ top player is Northern Colorado transfer Dalton Knecht, who connects at 45 percent overall, 39 from downtown and averages 17.5 points a game. Their next two scorers are fellow guards Jordan Gainey and Josiah-Jordan James. Fortunately, neither of them is the REAL Jordan.
Size, if not strength, favors the home team, as long as Armando Bacot can get back on his horse after struggling to score in the Bahamas. AB had 18 rebounds against Villanova but did not record a double-double in three games down there.
UNC asks that this be a “white out” night where everyone wears a white shirt. The last time for that was 2013, an 82-77 win over No. 11 Kentucky. The very next game, the Tar Heels lost at home to unranked Texas and Rick Barnes.
Featured image via Associated Press/Mike Stewart
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