Where: Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC
When: Sunday, November 28th, 7:45 PM
TV: Fox Sports Net
Records: UNC 11-0; Rutgers 9-3
Basketball takes center stage.
After a second extended lay off the Heels resume business against Rutgers whose 9-3 record is not nearly as impressive as it might sound with huge wins over Bryant University, Princeton and NJIT. In short Rutgers is not a very good team and we can probably expect the Heels to roll out a 20 point lead and then screw around for the remainder of the game.
Other than that there is not much to say. I am pretty convinced the Heels will stay on cruise control until they actually hit ACC play at which point I think they will raise their game a notch. We could get into the business of nitpicking their peformance against weaker teams but I am not sure what purpose that serves nor do I believe you can do so without falling into an endless cycle of always finding something to gripe about. Based on the Heels’ performance versus all the other teams out there you can honestly say UNC had not played a game yet where they were truly threatened. I do not know of any other team ranked directly below the Heels who can make the same claim outside of Pitt and even they struggled versus Florida State.
Bottom line is UNC has three more non-conference games they should win easily with Boston College mixed in before the real test comes on January 11th at Winston-Salem. At that point the real season begins.
UNC 105 Rutgers 70
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hopefully we’ll get to see Marcus back tonight.
I’m not complaining but I would really like to see us play a higher caliber of team early in the season. Win or lose, we should be playing at least 5 top 20 teams. I don’t know it just irks me. We should have the toughest schedule in the land every year.
UNC is being predicted above to paste Rutgers by 35. Let’s see, on the season to date (to my count), THF has predicted – courageously in my view – 10 scoring outcomes. UNC failed to meet those expectations by an average margin of 17 points in 7 predicted games (those darn rose-colored glasses), and exceeded expectations by an average margin of 14 points in 3 games. (MSU’s +28 pounding skewed up that one.)
Now, should the Heels under-perform by the average 17, the score might be more like 88-70 or so. Should they exceed the prediction by the 3-game avg. underestimated margin, the score might be 119-70 or thereabouts.
I’m going with the former. (Also against the Vegas line of 32.5) I read Rutgers as better than a push-over with the caliber of Heel’s play of late. Could be a toughie for 35 minutes. I’d be delighted to be wrong, see us bring it at tip-off rather than after the 3rd TV timeout, witness some quality interior defense & rebounding against a taller lineup, open some back door cuts, post pass inside out – and blow their behinds out o’ the Dome, damnit!
Yo’ Heels!
Zoomba!
I agree russfuss. I’m fairly certain we will win but it could be a tough one.
Rutgers ain’t no pushover. With that being said, it will be a close game we wind up pulling out late in the 2nd half by 20.
I hope the long break won’t affect our play in a negative way. I have seen several sites favoring Rutgers and of course it has made me nervous. There is a chance we will lose. Just so you know. Evveryone seems very confident but we need to be prepared to lose.
I’ve watched a couple of Rutgers games, and to be honest, they are pretty terrible. KenPom has them ranked 145, which backs my opinion. For comparison, Oral Roberts is ranked 123, and Evansville is ranked 68. No one of any modicum of sanity favors Rutgers.
Yeah, I wouldn’t pay attention to any site that is favoring Rutgers. We might not win by 30, but to lose at home to this team would defy logic.
Thanks. That makes me feel much better!
Be glad you aren’t a Rutgers fan… they play at UNC today, Pitt on Wednesday, and then at UConn on Saturday!! Yes, they play the top 3 teams in the country over the span of a week! I maintain that they are terrible, but if the go ahead and sweep their next three games, then they should be ranked #1!!
Woah. I kinda feel bad for them. Thats a tough schedule! I can’t feel too bad since we’re playing them!
Yeah, I’ll feel bad (and root) for them starting tomorrow!
I can’t imagine anyone favoring Rutgers in this game that has any knowledge about basketball. Of course, anybody can pull an upset, but to favor a team such as Rutgers vs UNC is just rediculous. Please do not buy into any such hype. To me, there is less than a handful of teams I would even worry about this year.
Live blog for this game?