UPDATE: Duke men’s basketball has reported a positive COVID-19 test. The ACC announced Thursday morning the program’s game scheduled against Florida State has been cancelled.
Silly me. What was I talking about?
The weird season continued as Carolina came back with its second straight dominating performance, following the Duke win Saturday by pulling away from 11th-seeded and thought-to-be dangerous Notre Dame in the second-round ACC tournament blowout.
The Tar Heels may owe part of their stirring play to a tradition set by Roy Williams’ mentor, Dean Smith, who maintained that he never worried about missing a key player for one game because the others would band together and make up for his absence.
“We challenged the three guys to be ready,” Williams said of senior Garrison Brooks sitting out with the ankle he sprained against Duke. Roy received a record-breaking night from his young triumvirate who combined for 50 points and 35 rebounds and took the fight out of the Irish in the paint early and then the whole team blew them away with an incredible 42-4 run in the second half before Williams cleared his bench.
Silly me for thinking it would be close.
Brooks is questionable for the quarterfinal match-up with No. 3 seed Virginia Tech, the second of a night-time doubleheader featuring opposing teams that missed scheduled games in the regular season due to COVID cancellations. It marks the first games in the 67-year history of the tournament that has happened.
Unlike the first game between Duke and Florida State, which will be a high-scoring shootout, UNC will face a Hokies team that has not played in 12 days due to a health pause and will try to hold the score down. It will be up to Carolina’s front court to be overwhelming again.
It has also turned out that the Blue Devils and Tar Heels are one win each away from a third meeting of the season. And, largely, they are both in that position due to freshman 7-footers who barely got in during the first half of the schedule.
Mark Williams has come out of virtually nowhere and played his best college game with 23 points and 19 rebounds in Duke’s win over Louisville. And Walker Kessler continues to bloom like a spring flower with 16 points, 12 rebounds and an ACC tourney freshman record of 8 blocked shots against stunned Notre Dame.
Wouldn’t it be something if the Blue Bloods who thought they were done with each other played in the Friday semis for a fourth straight tournament? What else would you expect in this weird season?
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