Where: Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC
When: Wednesday, February 24th, 7:00 PM
TV: ESPN
Livestats: SCACC Hoops
Records: UNC 14-13, 3-9 ACC; FSU 19-7, 7-5 ACC
With four games left and players dropping like flies this proposes to be an interesting game. Mainly because FSU can be as turnover prone and undisciplined as this Tar Heel team. UNC also puts its perfect record vs schools with "State" in their name on the line in this one. Yes, I am grasping at straws for positives here.
At the beginning of the season, this game appeared to be nice matchup of solid interior games. FSU has Solomon Alabi, Chris Singleton and Ryan Reid giving the Seminoles plenty of strength down low. Prior to everyone getting hurt, UNC could have matched that. Not now and if Travis Wear is unable to play then UNC will basically have Deon Thompson, Tyler Zeller and John Henson in the post. That probably means Will Graves spending some time at the four, Marcus Ginyard at the three and conceivably healthy doses of Larry Drew and Dexter Strickland in the backcourt. If Wear does play it alleviates some of the issues but there will be questions concerning how effective he can be after a four game layoff.
FSU's backcourt has not been all that impressive and the Noles only have one guard, Brian Hoff, averaging in double figures. The talented freshman Michael Snaer will be one to keep an eye on. Derwin Kitchen's two games last season versus UNC were rather unremarkable. Based on that and the fact he is shooting 30% from three point range I hereby tabbed him as the "Opposing Guard To Play Out Of His Mind Versus UNC" guy. That means he will go for like 25 and hit six threes or something.
If I had to set what I would consider to be a reasonable expectation I would say at least win the last two home games. Beating the two Florida schools would give UNC 16 wins and ensure they finish at .500. Yes, I know, this is miserable crap to even be talking about and I probably should not even be talking about setting the bar so low. At any rate, the only thing I want to see is that this team is giving it all they have. Then we get to complain about why they have not done so all season.
UNC 67 FSU 66