Hoop Scoop: North Carolina
Right: North Carolina’s Deon Thompson averages a team-leading 17.7 points per game. (AP Photo)
The 15th-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes travel to the Big Apple to take on the sixth-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels in the semifinals of the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches v. Cancer, Thursday night. Tip-off at Madison Square Garden is scheduled for 9:15 p.m. ET, and the game will be televised on ESPN 2 with Dan Shulman, Bob Knight, Dick Vitale and Doris Burke.
As always, you can hear the game all across the state on the 60-station Ohio State Buckeyes Radio Network with “Big Daddy” Paul Keels and former Buckeye Ron Stokes. WBNS outlets 97.1 FM and 1460 AM are the flagship stations in Columbus.
North Carolina, the defending national champion, is currently 3-0 with wins over Florida International (88-72), North Carolina Central (89-42), and Valparaiso (88-77).
But these Tar Heels are not quite the same ones that were clipping down the nets at the end of last season. Gone from the title team are UNC’s top four scorers from a year ago: Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green. Combined those four averaged 66.2 points per game, so that’s a huge chunk of offense that either graduated or left early for the NBA.
North Carolina’s top scorer is 6-foot-9, 245-pound senior forward Deon Thompson, who is currently averaging 17.7 points per game while sharing the team lead in rebounds pulling down 8.3 boards per contest. Last season, Thompson was fifth on the UNC roster in scoring (10.6 ppg) and third in rebounding (5.6 rpg) and is the lone returning starter.
Ed Davis, a 6-foot-10, 225-pound sophomore forward, is also averaging 8.3 rebounds per game and is chipping in 11.7 points per ball game.
Marcus Ginyard, a 6-foot-5 senior guard who missed nearly all of last season with an injury, is third on the team averaging 11.3 points per game.
Larry Drew II, a 6-foot-2 sophomore, takes over at point guard for the departed Ty Lawson and is averaging 8.3 points and a team-high 6.0 assists per contest. Drew is also the Tar Heels best three-point shooter at 45.5 percent.
Will Graves rounds out the starting five. The 6-foot-6, 240-pound junior guard/forward is averaging 6.6 points and 3.3 rebounds per outing.
Coming off the bench is Tyler Zeller, a seven-foot, 220-pound sophomore center, who averaged a mere 7.8 minutes per game last year, but is currently getting 17 minutes of game action while averaging 12.0 points and 5.0 boards per contest.
In North Carolina’s last game against Valpo, Thompson scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half to lead the Tar Heels, while Davis added a career-high 16 points. UNC led just 38-31 at halftime, but scored on 12-of-13 possessions to build a 67-43 lead midway through the second half.
Valparaiso, though, connected on 7-of-10 three-pointers during stretch later on in the second half in which the Crusaders shot 53 percent and they quietly inched their way back into the game and got as close as 84-75 on a three-pointer with 1:47 left before the Tar Heels finally sealed the deal.
North Carolina shot 56.1 percent (32-of-57) from the field, but were just 6-of-15 from beyond the arc and 18-of-29 from the foul line against Valparaiso. The Tar Heels also committed 14 turnovers to only nine for Valpo.
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No. 6 North Carolina Tar Heels
(3-0, 0-0 ACC) |
No. 15 Ohio State Buckeyes
(2-0, 0-0 Big Ten) |
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