Kendall Marshall Gets His Opportunity, Clearly Validates my Argument

This isn't about Larry Drew II.  It's about Kendall Marshall being the most essential part of the success of the 2010-2011 UNC basketball team. After Thursday's 9 point, 9 assist, 0 turnover performance against a good Virginia Tech team, this fact has never been more obvious.  While the stats are very impressive, much of what Marshall brings to the team doesn't show up in the stat sheet.  His incredible vision leads to many easy buckets where he didn't necessarily make the last pass before the basket, but his play was the main reason the basket occurred.  Zeller and Henson finally got the opportunity to play big minutes with Marshall on the floor, and they both flourished with the improved looks they received.  Zeller finished the game with 16 points and 9 rebounds and an abundance of short half hook shots, while Henson had 17 points and 8 boards with 4 blocks and a plethora of huge dunks.  Marshall knows where everyone likes the ball, and he gets them in positions to be successful.  Our offense operates with much more efficiency when he's in there, and we play with more swagger and energy along with it.

After escaping these first 2 ACC games at 2-0 and Duke looking at least a little vulnerable, I'm suddenly getting more and more excited about this season.  While I still think Duke will win the ACC, these early season results have at least provided a little hope to the rest of the conference that there is a chance that someone else could do it...as long as Kyrie Irving doesn't return from injury.

For the Heels to win on a night when Malcolm Delaney was in an unbelievable zone and led the Hokies to a 16-point first half lead, it really says a lot about how this team handles adversity.  Even with Bullock and McDonald shooting horribly all game from the outside, UNC never panicked, and for the 2nd game in a row they came from behind to win a close game.  Barnes made some horrible plays earlier in the game, but he showed he's not afraid to take the big shots and was extremely clutch down the stretch. Since I've bashed on Roy for playing the wrong players, I'll give him some credit where its due.  He is a magician at knowing the right things to say to keep his teams in the right mindset, regardless of the circumstances.  This team could have folded, but I'm sure the coach had a lot to do with keeping this team calm and convincing them they would be in the game at the end if they just kept playing.  No one was shooting well, but the entire team maintained confidence and pulled it out.  If we can just get the right players in the game for the right amount of time, this team could be really good.

Georgia Tech is up next (Sunday 7:45), and while they always play the Heels tough in Atlanta, UNC is the clear favorite and should win the game.  The Yellow Jackets just took a 25-point drubbing at the hands of Clemson, so a Heels' loss here would be a bad one.  I'm excited to see the starting lineup on Sunday night, as the man with striking similarities to Jason Kidd has to be in there...Right?