Man I love Twitter and to a lesser extent message boards. The free flow of information, the instant reaction or in this case overreaction to something that no one officially confirmed until there really wasn't much to confirm. I do know this, I bet the old school SIDs and coaches really long for the days when a player could sit out 2-3 practices and not a soul heard about it.
Anyway, yesterday Kendall Marshall left practice early with some sort of issue with his back. That set of a chain reaction of rumor and fretting which culminated with his father, Dennis Marshall tweeting this:
Praying...let it not be serious...
That tweet set off a seven page thread on Inside Carolina which included certain insiders saying it could be serious, games might be missed and HOLY CRAP THE SEASON IS RUINED!!!! OH THE HUMANITY!!!!!!
As it turns out, no one really knew what was wrong with Marshall because all that had actually happened up to the point this news broke was that he left practice early with some sort of back issue. After a visit with the doctor a much brighter picture has emerged.
A source has informed IC that Marshall suffered a muscle spasm in his back during practice on Thursday. It was not caused by any type of collision. Just happened during a routine part of practice. A meeting today with doctors revealed nothing serious. He will not practice today. UNC does not practice on Saturday, but it's yet to be determined if Marshall will practice on Sunday.
A UNC official confirmed that it is a muscle spasm and that Marshall is not practicing today as a precaution. He is listed as "day-to-day."
My guess is Marshall won't practice on Sunday either unless he is 100%. Obviously this could have been much worse and the upside is UNC has time to be cautious with Marshall. Over the next two and a half weeks UNC toughest opponent will be Michigan St. next Friday on the USS Carl Vinson. By this time Roy Williams is an expert in taking the cautious route with a player's health having handled Ty Lawson and Tyler Hansbrough in 2009 at different points of that season.