The media has a fevah and the prescription is more Kendall Marshall.
Marshall's ROW and UNC's bump up to 19th in both polls basically confirms what we all thought after the Duke game. UNC is looking very good despite the loss in Durham.
Kendall Marshall makes it four straight weeks of Tar Heels as ACC Rookie of the Week. It is his 2nd straight award after sharing it last week with Harrison Barnes.
North Carolina's Kendall Marshall is the ACC Rookie of the Week and Duke's Nolan Smith has been selected as the ACC Player of the Week following their outstanding performances last week.
Marshall averaged 13.5 points and 4.5 assists as the 20th-ranked Tar Heels split a pair of conference games on the week. The Dumfries, Va., freshman had a career-high 18 points, including 14 in the second half, three assists and three steals in Saturday's 64-62 win at Clemson. Earlier in the week, Marshall had nine points, six assists and only one turnover in 37 minutes in a 79-73 loss at No. 5 Duke.
I think you could have made an argument for Barnes or these two sharing it again. Obviously the media put more value on Marshall's performances than they did Barnes.
At this point, there is a good chance both Barnes and Marshall land on the ACC All-Freshman team. I also think you are reaching a point where one or both of them sneak onto one of the All-ACC teams. The real debate lies for Rookie of the Year. Before Drew left, I was thinking Barnes would win Rookie of the Year. Now, you have to include Marshall in the discussion. If you look at the stats for ACC games only, Marshall leads the league in assists with 5.9 apg and A/TO at 2.7. If you look at overall stats which includes all games, Marshall is 2nd in assists at 5.0 apg and A/TO at 2.6. The caveat on Marshall where the assists average goes is he was playing limited minutes for most of the season and anyone looking at his assists per 40 minutes will realize just how insane his average really is even at 5.0 apg. Some voters look at all games and some voters look at only ACC games. For the record Barnes is averaging 15.5 ppg and 5.3 rpg in ACC play. In all games Barnes is at 13.4 ppg and 5.5 rpg.
The next six games will bear this out. What really matters is having these two elevate their game at the same time. You can certainly see that as one of the major reasons why the Heels are where they are right now.