Welcome to 2,000. No, no, not Y2K, but 2,000 wins for a program that is celebrating 100 years of playing this wild and wacky game we call basketball. So, while this might not be the season that we were all hoping for, it is the century mark for the program and it has reached 2,000 wins after a lot of the fan base didn’t think it would win anything anymore. Best of all it did it at home, as North Carolina (16-14 & 5-10 in the ACC) took down Miami (18-11 & 4-11 in the ACC) by the final score of 69 to 62. It also happened on Senior Night, and the two biggest seniors, Deon Thompson and Marcus Ginyard, showed up for this one.
Thompson, who scored 14 points and 4 rebounds, and Ginyard, who got his first ever double double as he had both a dozen points and boards, adding five assists to his stat sheet. Will Graves added 16 points, while John Henson chipped in seven points, 12 rebounds and four blocks in this one. All in all what this game showed us what the future can be at North Carolina, and that future seems pretty bright from where I am standing. Sure, there are still many things to be fixed, but on the other hand this team has a lot more positives than a negatives.
The one thing that still seems to be the main problem for Carolina is that they turn over the ball too much! Going into Durham this weekend and the ACC Tournament next week this has to be controlled, because we all know that the team is better, but not good enough to over come a 17 to 8 turnover margin. On the other hand it is nice to see the team hitting 74% from the charity stripe. While on the individual basis, Henson is getting better and better by the game and Graves seems to be hitting shoots from the outside. Not holding my breath for a deep run in the ACC Tourney, but I have to say, one win I can easily see coming.
This is the first winning streak that this squad has had since the calender turned to 2010, the only thing that could make this even better is seeing this same team ruin another Senior Night when they face their arcrival Duke in Durham. But for now I am just happy to be celebrating a victory to Senior Night and the 2,000th win for the program, and I think that Marc Campbell put it well in this quote (let’s not dwell on the political part of it please):
“I don’t think I could have picked a better time to be born. These four years: 500 wins for Coach Williams, 600 wins, 2,000 wins, national championship, Obama; it’s just unbelievable the stuff that’s happened while I’ve been here. And I’m blessed every day to be a part of it.”
As fans we should also think about that every once in a while. Think about the fact how we are blessed to have been part of it. So many of us (me not included) ran for the hills because of the losses. It’s a shame that they did so, because this team is a Carolina one just like the ones before it and the ones that will come after. For a lot of the fans last night it was a great night to be a Tar Heel, for me it’s always a good day to be one! To these seniors, thank you for your years at Chapel Hill, to the whole team, thank you for coming to Chapel Hill!
