The North Carolina Tar Heels will look to rebound from an upset in the CBE Hall of Fame Classic.
North Carolina may be feeling that Sports Illustrated cover curse a little bit and, oddly, it revolves around a cover that never was.
In sticking with tradition, SI had planned to do regional covers for their college basketball preview issue. Three covers were set to go featuring Kansas and Perry Ellis, Kentucky and Alex Poythress and the Tar Heels and their senior star Marcus Paige. These were bumped from print after the Kansas City Royals won the World Series.
Rather than letting them go to waste, SI released the drafts of these three covers and shared them with the public.
Coincidentally, that same day it was announced that Paige had suffered a break in his non-shooting hand (right hand).
The SI cover curse is real, at least to some extent, and UNC is now facing more of an uphill battle than many thought they would at this time of the season.
Four games in, UNC has its first loss after suffering a 71-67 setback at Northern Iowa. That same game is the one Roy Williams and his staff put in place so Paige, a Marion, Iowa native, could play a game close to home in his final year. A good deed went punished as the Tar Heels’ other point guard options were unable to spread the floor enough on offense and had an even harder time keeping UNI’s Wes Washpun from dictating the tempo of the game.
Now, just two days removed from what some are calling the upset of the year in a season that’s already seen a number of upsets, North Carolina must readjust and refocus as they prepare for the CBE Hall of Fame Classic.
Need To Know Info:
The CBE Hall of Fame Classic kicks off on Monday from the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo. with four games to be played by the four teams involved.
In one of the semifinals, UNC (3-1), who will find themselves ranked somewhere other than No. 1 by tipoff, takes on Northwestern.
The Wildcats (3-0) will be looking to keep the Tar Heels down rather than help build them up. Northwestern has never made an NCAA Tournament appearance and to help them break that trend, a win over UNC could be that signature non-conference win to make their case stronger in March.
Of course, Northwestern will need to do more work beyond this game, but one strong win can take them a long way.
UNC and Northwestern (on ESPN2) is actually the second game of the day with Missouri and Kansas State kicking things off at 6 p.m. on ESPNU. Both teams are expected to take their bumps this season, and the Tigers (2-1) have already suffered their first loss, dropping a road contest against Xavier 78-66 last week.
Kansas State is off to a 3-0 start and got there in an unconventional way. In their most recent game against South Dakota, the Wildcats were down by three at halftime but turned it around and won by 21.
Since it’s just a four-team tournament, the winners will play the winners and the losers will play the losers on Tuesday night. The consolation game can be seen on ESPN3 with the championship game set to air on ESPN2.
Common Opponents:
Like with most tournaments, those in the primary bracket such as this one each play one or two teams from the subregional bracket, which provides a bit of a measuring stick to see how the teams matchup against potential tournament opponents based on the outcomes of these games.
Here’s how those games turned out:
North Carolina & Northwestern both played Fairfield
- UNC won by 27; Northwestern won by 7
Kansas State & Missouri both played Maryland-Eastern Shore
- Kansas State won by 27; Missouri won by 18
North Carolina & Missouri both played Wofford
- UNC won by 20; Missouri won by 9
Northwestern & Kansas State both played Columbia
- Kansas State won by 10; Northwestern won by 3
Number To Know:
Under Roy Williams, North Carolina started off incredibly hot against the Big Ten. Both of their national championship wins have come against Big Ten opponents and they play at least one every year with the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
Through his time, UNC is 17-6 overall against Big Ten opponents. However, that success came before 2011. In the past three years, the Tar Heels are just 4-3 against the Big Ten and just 4-5 in the past four years.
Predicting A Winner:
It seems rather unlikely that Paige plays in this tournament, though there was some speculation that he could’ve maybe returned for the Northern Iowa game, but wound up suiting up just to make an appearance on the court before sitting out the rest of the game.
Should Paige somehow make his season debut against Northwestern, it could do one of two things: either make UNC even more lethal and provide a leader, ball handler, shooter and scorer to a team that’s relied on their two bigs Kennedy Meeks and Brice Johnson to carry much of the load, or they could struggle trying to adjust to how they played in their first four games and how they’ll play the rest of the season.
For now, we’ll assume Paige will sit these two games out and hopefully be back for the Dec. 1 clash with No. 3 Maryland in Chapel Hill. That game has been circled on the calendar for some time and is important for both teams. Even if Paige could play, giving him some more time could be beneficial in the long run.
As for the tournament, Northwestern is the wildcard team. They have a chance to make some noise early on. Sophomore guard Bryant McIntosh is currently leading the team in scoring (21.3 points) and assists (6.3) while shooting over 56 percent from three.
The Wildcats currently have four players averaging double-digit scoring numbers, two of which are quick, athletic and skilled guards, the same type of player that caused UNC to fall on Saturday.
Northwestern also has the size to match up with Meeks and Johnson in the post. UNI doubled them and forced UNC to shooting from the outside, something that’s still a work in progress. This is not a cakewalk. This could very well be another loss for the Tar Heels.
Despite this, expect UNC to come out refocused and energized after their loss on Saturday. They know they can’t dig themselves a bigger hole if they want to get where they want to be at the end of the season. UNC to pick up the win in the semifinal.
On the other side, look for Kansas State to start another “Nobody Believed But We’ll Achieve” campaign that closely resembles the 2012-13 season that saw them finish tied for the Big 12 regular season championship.
Justin Edwards is currently doing everything for Kansas State, leading them in scoring (17.0), rebounding (6.7), assists (4.0), steals (2.0) and field goal percentage (53.3%). He’ll be the key for the Wildcats.
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Unfortunately, that’s about as far as Kansas State can go in this tournament. Northwestern is the second-best team in this field by a wide margin, and if they’re outed in the semis, that clears the way for North Carolina to come away with two victories and get back on track.
UNC may have lost, but they’re certainly not out. These two games could be just what they need to gear up for a difficult month of December and prepare them for what’s to come. Northwestern won’t be easy to overcome, but the Tar Heels were ranked first in the preseason for a reason.
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