College Hoops Video

A bright spot in an other wise gloomy season for the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team occurred tonight when the Tar Heels defeated the Miami Hurricanes 69-62 to become the second team in NCAA history to win 2,000 games. The win improved North Carolina’s record to 16-14/5-10 in the ACC and assured the Tar Heels of at least finishing at .500 for the regular season.

North Carolina – Miami Game Recap

Deon Thompson led the way for the Tar Heels tonight with 14 points in his final home game for North Carolina. Marcus Ginyard chipped in with 12 points in his final home game as Coach Williams won back to back games for the first time this calendar year. The Tar Heels upset Wake Forest 77-68 in the previous game. The Tar Heels almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the Miami game tonight, however, seeing an 18 point lead get cut to just one point in the final four minutes of the ballgame.

The Road to 2,000 Wins for North Carolina Basketball

North Carolina came off of their 2009 NCAA basketball championship just behind the Kentucky Wildcats on the road to 2,000 wins. The Tar Heels started ACC play at 11-4 this season, before getting hit with injuries and a string of ACC losses that have resulted in hall of fame Coach Roy Williams having his worst season as a head coach with the previous being his 19-12 initial season coaching the Kansas Jayhawks on probation. The Tar Heels will close out the 2009-10 NCAA regular season at Duke on Saturday March 6th. The 2010 ACC tournament will start on March 11th and is being held at Greensboro, North Carolina.

The following is a guest post from Andy Charles who regularly contributes to Bet Fair.

Kentucky’s hopes of going a long way this season have been boosted by the news that point guard John Wall has been cleared to play by the NCAA.

Although Wall will have to sit out two games – only one of those a regular season outing – he will be eligible from their November 16 clash with Miami (Ohio) and gives the Wildcats a real prospect to work with.

Wall has long been considered one of the top high-school players in the country and Kentucky were desperate to get him on board for the season, coach John Calipari’s first in charge since his sterling efforts with the Memphis Tigers.

His status had been in doubt over a possible relationship with his AAU coach Brian Clifton, who is a certified agent, since any connection with him would have left his amateur status in tatters and probably meant a move to play professionally in Europe.

The freshman out of Raleigh, NC, joins a roster full of talent and including a pre-season All-American in Patrick Patterson, who averaged 17.9 points per game last season    on a team he and Jodie Meeks, now involved in the NBA Picks, dominated.

But in Wall the Wildcats have a far better (and less greedy) ball handler than Meeks and he could rival many of the recent star point guards in college, with Calipari already saying he was more advanced at this stage than either Derrick Rose or Tyreke Evans – high praise indeed.

Wall and Patterson’s talent mean it is imperative that Kentucky does not match last season’s failure to even make the NCAA Tournament in March – indeed failure to make the Elite Eight would be a disappointment given the resources at hand.

And Calipari will be aware that in both of the last two seasons, the Wildcats have suffered early shock defeats (2007 to Gardner-Webb and last year to Virginia Military) which put them behind the eight-ball before things had really gotten started.

As for pre-season top five basketball picks, there is no room for that kind of error, and Wall will have to get up to speed quickly with early December games against North Carolina and Connecticut on the slate and a tough SEC season to look forward to as well.

I, for one, can’t wait for the games to start!

2009 North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball Schedule

Nov. 9      Florida Int’l         7:00pm
Nov. 11    NC CENTRAL       9:00pm
Nov. 15    Valparaiso           4:00pm
Nov. 19    at Ohio State       9:00pm
Nov. 23    Gardner-Webb   7:30pm
Nov. 29    Nevada                  7:45pm
Dec. 1      Michigan State     9:00pm
Dec. 5      at Kentucky 12:30pm
Dec. 12    PRESBYTERIAN    7:30pm
Dec. 19    at Texas                  2:00pm
Dec. 22    Marshall                 7:00pm
Dec. 28    Rutgers                   8:30pm
Dec. 30    Albany                    7:00pm

January 2010 North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball Schedule

Jan. 4      at C of Charleston    7:00pm
Jan. 10    Virginia Tech            7:45pm
Jan. 13    at Clemson                 9:00pm
Jan. 16    Georgia Tech             2:00pm
Jan. 20    Wake Forest             7:00pm
Jan. 26    at NC State                  9:00pm
Jan. 31    Virginia                        7:45pm
Feb. 4     at Virginia Tech        9:00pm
Feb. 7     at Maryland               2:00pm
Feb. 10    Duke 9:00pm
Feb. 13    NC State                      4:00pm
Feb. 16    at Georgia Tech       9:00pm
Feb. 20    at Boston College   12:00pm
Feb. 24    Florida State            7:00pm
Feb. 27    at Wake Forest        2:00pm
Mar. 2      Miami-FL                  8:00pm
Mar. 6      at Duke 9:00pm

ACC TOURNAMENT
Thursday-Sunday Mar. 11-14 TBD < Greensboro N.C. Raycom / ESPN TBD