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After all those buzzer beaters in a row, it was nice to have a game that wasn’t in doubt by the time the first TV timeout of the second half happened, wasn’t it?
Earlier in the year, I had this assignment for the Virginia Tech game, fully expecting a blow out. If you recall, this was after a couple of no shows by the Tar Heels and it was still in the “we don’t know if Cole is coming back” era. I had pre-planned to name one of my cats as the POG just to provide a little humor and to try and cheer everyone up because LOOK AT THEM:
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But a combination of Matt advocating for his very good boy Boo to play for the team, and that both of my cats decided to go MIA during the game made me decide to go ahead and write this straight up.
In truth, when it was announced that Garrison Brooks and Justin Pierce were going to miss the game, there was no reason to have any sort of hope of a competitive game. Cole Anthony did what he could and provided at least a few wow moments to where he gets the official-unofficial award.
There was zero secret who was going to get the ball to try and drive the offense for Carolina, and Louisville constantly shrouded Cole throughout. He was still able to score 18 of Carolina’s 55 points, doing it on 7-16 shooting. He also grabbed seven rebounds, went perfect from the line, and had a couple of highlight-reel threes to at least give Carolina fans something to enjoy.
A shout out goes to Andrew Platek as well. Platek lost his starting role to Christian Keeling, but he’s handled the demotion well and went 3-5 overall, including 2-3 from behind the arc. He was shooting with some confidence, which has been rare this season, and if that can keep up he at least has a chance to build some momentum going into next year.
After that? Well have you seen how Ezra sat like he was wondering where his beer was, or how Thumbelina buried herself under a bedsheet on her own?
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OK, so I stole this from Matt. At least it wasn’t another last second loss. And by the way, both cats were living with us in 2017 so they aren’t a reason for the bad luck this season.
Four games left and then the ACC Tournament, gang. We’ve come this far, let’s see it through to the end.