Tag: UNC Tarheels

Caleb Love and RJ Davis make unfortunate history on Thursday

Former Tar Heels teammates Caleb Love and RJ Davis both went 0/9 from 3-point range during upset losses on Thursday night, the first team two players did so on the same night in NCAA Tournament history.

Caleb Love and RJ Davis aren’t both wearing Carolina blue anymore, but the former teammates shared some accidental (and unfortunate) solidarity on Thursday night.

Both Davis’s North Carolina Tar Heels and Love’s Arizona Wildcats lost in the Sweet 16, and neither guard had a game to their usual standards. In fact, they each had one of the worst games of their careers.

Davis, the All-American Tar Heels star, finished with 16 points on 4/20 shooting. Love, the former Tar Heel who sent Duke packing in the Final Four two years ago, finished with 13 points on 5/18 shooting. Both players went 0/9 from beyond the arc.

Not only had neither player finished 0/9 from distance before, but two such performances in one night was unprecedented. Literally.

According to former ESPN researcher Jared Berson, Thursday night was the first time in NCAA Tournament history that two different players from 0/9 or worse from 3-point range on the same day.

Add it all up, and the former North Carolina teammates went a combined 9/38 (23.7%) from the floor and 0/18 from behind the 3-point line.

Duke baseball looking to clear final hurdle and get to Omaha as 2024 season is set to start Friday

Duke baseball gets set to open their 2024 season. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the Blue Devils’ season opener.

1961. 1961 was the last time a Duke Blue Devils baseball team made the College World Series.

Last year was about showing up every doubter of the Duke baseball program as the team broke every preseason expectation of them en route to a 39-24 record, coming up just one win short of a trip to Omaha, Nebraska.

Head coach Chris Pollard retooled the Duke roster in hopes of clearing that final hurdle and leading his program to heights not reached in over 50 years.

Duke will start the season ranked as the No. 12 team in the country. In short, they will not be sneaking up on anyone this year. And that presents one of many challenges the Blue Devils will face this year: going from solely the hunters to being hunted while still hunting the class of the ACC, Wake Forest, Clemson, and Virginia as they too pursue a trip to Omaha.

The question now is: How does Duke live up to and exceed last year’s results?

It starts with their pitching. Duke’s pitching staff last year was unconventional but highly effective. At season’s end, they had the 18th-best ERA in the country. They’ll need to keep Duke in games as the bevy of transfers and new faces in the lineup, especially around the infield, begin to gel.

The staff’s ace is preseason second-team All-American Jonathan Santucci, a lefty with big strikeout stuff. James Tallon, Fran Oschell, and Andrew Healy are talented pitchers who received preseason award buzz. With that core four of pitching along with reliever Charlie Beilenson, Duke should remain competitive in many games.

They also should get a boost from two-way true freshman Kyle Johnson, who is expected to start in the outfield while contributing a solid number of innings on the mound for the Blue Devils.

Johnson was among the 50 best high school prospects per Perfect Game and was named the number one impact freshman in the ACC during the fall by D1Baseball. Expectations are high, but many around the Duke program believe they are warranted.

Duke’s season will depend on health and how long their revamped infield takes to gel. The Blue Devils lost every infielder from last year’s team that made it to Super Regionals. Some hit the transfer portal, and others were drafted in the MLB Draft last June.

Ben Miller (Penn), Logan Bravo (Harvard), Ben Weaver (Wheaton), and Wallace Clark (Oklahoma) are just a few of the names that transferred in with significant opportunities to start in Duke’s infield. They all have over 50 games of starting experience, so they are far from inexperienced. They’ll need to hit the ground running and quickly find their stride at the plate. As soon as Duke’s nonconference schedule ends, they’ll jump right into conference play, where the ACC is home to five other top-20 teams, and Duke will open ACC play by taking on four of them to start.

As the Blue Devils ready themselves for a weekend slate of games in the Baseball at the Beach tournament hosted by No. 18 Coastal Carolina, they do so knowing that this season won’t be easy. They open up this weekend with Indiana, George Mason, and Coastal Carolina.

The possibilities for this team can be sky-high, but things could get scary if their pitching, health, and offense don’t gel in unison. Nonetheless, this team is talented enough to get to Omaha. Will they?

We’re about to find out.

North Carolina falls on the road against Syracuse for third loss in five games

The Tar Heels began the year 9-0 in conference play, but a Tuesday loss to Syracuse has them just 11-3 to let Duke and Virginia right back in the ACC race.

After opening ACC play with nine consecutive wins, North Carolina lost for the third time in five games on Tuesday.

In a road game against Syracuse, the Tar Heels could not mount a last-minute comeback against the Orange en route to an 86-79 loss.

The Orange jumped on North Carolina early, taking a 17-9 lead in the opening six minutes after a pair of early 3-pointers from Maliq Brown.

Syracuse led by 10 with eight minutes to play in the opening half, but UNC surged back to square the game at 42 apiece before the break.

However, with all the momentum in their favor once the second half resumed, the Tar Heels again fell flat on the opening whistle. The Orange opened the second frame on a 10-1 run behind two 3-pointers and four points from guard Judah Mintz.

Syracuse accomplished all of this offense with just six players in their rotation. Mintz and his teammate J.J. Starling combined for 48 points on 26 shots, and four of the six Syracuse players who saw the court scored at least 13 points.

The Orange were outrebounded 30-23, but they shot 62.5% from the floor and 47.1% from beyond the arc as a team in one of the most impressive and efficient offensive displays of the season.

On the North Carolina end, star guard and potential All-American RJ Davis made just seven of his 17 attempts, including a late 3-point effort that could have made it a one-score game, to finish with 19 points. The Tar Heels finished the game shooting 47.5% from the field.

The replay booth offered a helping hand to the Orange, too. Within the final minutes, officials overturned two different out-of-bounds calls to give Syracuse possession after a video review revealed North Carolina touched the ball last.

The two reversals, combined with a turnover from UNC guard Cormac Ryan, gave Syracuse the chances they needed to put North Carolina away, and the Orange made seven free throws in the final minute to ice the game.

With the loss, North Carolina falls to 19-6 on the season and 11-3 in conference play. Duke now sits just half a game behind the Tar Heels in the ACC standings as the Blue Devils haven’t lost a game since the two battled in Chapel Hill.

ESPN BPI forecasts ACC photo finish with Duke and UNC’s near-identical projected records

ESPN’s Basketball Power Index expects the ACC to come down to a photo finish with Duke and UNC currently sitting on near-identical expected records.

The ACC is routinely one of the most competitive conferences in men’s basketball, and the 2023-24 season is shaping up to be no different.

North Carolina currently leads the way with an 11-2 record in conference play, but Virginia and Duke both sit just a game back at 10-3 apiece and all three teams are 19-5 for the season. Which of the three has the advantage down the stretch?

According to ESPN’s Basketball Power Index, the advantage goes to the Tar Heels…narrowly. North Carolina is expected to win 24.4 games during the regular season, according to the BPI projections, but Duke is expected to win 24.1 to sit right on their heels. The Cavaliers are third with 22.8 expected wins.

North Carolina’s advantage widens slightly when looking at ACC records. The Tar Heels are projected to win 16.3 conference games compared to Duke’s 15.1 and UVA’s 13.8 projected wins.

However, all signs seem to indicate the conference coming down to next month’s clash at Cameron Indoor.

Duke remains steady at No. 9 in latest AP Poll

After two relatively stress free wins last week, Duke remains at No. 9 in latest AP Poll.

After winning both of their games last week in an attempt to bounce back from the loss to their Tobacco Road rivals, Jon Scheyer’s Duke Blue Devils remained at No. 9 in the latest AP Poll released Monday afternoon.

Duke dispatched Notre Dame at home 71-53 to complete a season sweep of the Fighting Irish. They followed up with an 80-65 home win over a Boston College team led by All-ACC big man Quinten Post.

As the calendar inches closer and closer to March, Duke is trying to round itself into form and begin playing their best basketball at the right time.

At the top of the AP Poll, Connecticut and Purdue serve as the two best teams in the nation, respectively. UNC‘s home loss to Clemson for just the second time ever cost them their spot at No. 3. That now goes to the Houston Cougars, who moved up since Kansas lost against their in-state rivals, the Kansas State Wildcats on the road.

Marquette and Arizona are your fourth- and fifth-ranked teams as both saw themselves rise three spots from last week’s poll.

Kansas is now sixth, while Hubert Davis’ team is now seventh. All-American candidate Dalton Knecht and the Tennessee Volunteers are now eight after Texas A&M drilled them on Saturday evening.

T. J. Otzelberger and the Iowa State Cyclones round out the top 10, giving the Big 12 three schools in the top 10.

Tony Bennett and the Virginia Cavaliers join the Blue Devils and Tarheels as the only ACC teams represented in the top 25.

Duke, Virginia, and UNC are in a tense battle for ACC supremacy, with the Tar Heels holding onto a one-game lead over UVA and a 1.5-game lead over Duke. UVA and UNC are set to play each other toward the end of February, while Duke is set to host both Virginia and UNC in March as their final two home games to close out this ACC regular season.

Duke women’s basketball completes remarkable fourth-quarter comeback against UNC

The Blue Devils trailed by 12 points at the start of the fourth quarter and by eight with six minutes to play, but they came back for an overtime win over North Carolina.

Duke women’s basketball got to take on rival North Carolina in front of a sold-out home crowd on Sunday, and despite trailing by 12 points at the start of the fourth quarter, the Blue Devils clawed back to win the game in overtime.

The two seemed evenly matched when the day’s game began. The Tar Heels were 15-8 on the season, while the Blue Devils were 15-7. The first two quarters further highlighted how even the two rivals really were, with UNC taking a 26-25 lead into the halftime break.

The game came unraveled for Duke in the third quarter, however. The Tar Heels opened the second half on a 13-2 run to break the game wide open. UNC guard Deja Kelly, who finished with a game-high 20 points, kept offering dagger after dagger. She made three shots in the first four minutes of the quarter, the final of which gave her an additional free throw after a foul. Add in four points from teammate Alyssa Utsby, and the Tar Heels seemed to find the open field.

When the third quarter came to a close, North Carolina led by 12 points, and Duke’s chances seemed to be on life support. An early few points from Blue Devils forward Reigan Richardson marginally cut into the lead, but the Tar Heels still led by eight points with six minutes to play.

Then the Blue Devils came alive.

Duke rattled off eight unanswered points in the next two minutes to tie the game, spearheaded by a 3-pointer from Oluchi Okananwa. Duke’s Delaney Thomas finished through a foul for an and-one, and the ensuing free throw tied the game at 48 points apiece with four minutes of game time.

UNC responded with another basket, but Blue Devils guard Taina Mair nailed a 3-pointer to hand her team its first lead of the second half.

After trading free throws and no points over the last 90 seconds of regulation, the sold-out home crowd was treated to free basketball, and the home team looked to be playing with house money.

With the game still tied and a little more than two minutes on the clock, the Blue Devils seemed to channel the last burst of energy they needed. They went on a 9-2 run over the next minute-and-a-half, cemented by another massive shot from Mair.

The sophomore fired off a stone-cold 3-pointer from the corner, giving Duke the seven-point lead with less than a minute to play.

Mair finished the game with 13 points, second on the team only to Thomas’s 19-point performance. The Blue Devils outscored UNC by 20 points over the final 15 minutes for the 68-60 win.

The victory moves Duke to 16-7 on the year and 8-4 in ACC play, and the team has now won 11 of its past 14 games.

Midseason Awards for Duke Men’s Basketball: Jared McCain and Jeremy Roach have been stars

Handing out midseason awards for the 2023-2024 Duke basketball team.

Duke is fresh off the heels of a 71-53 win over Notre Dame to complete a season sweep of the Fighting Irish and now sits just 1.5 back of first place in the ACC behind only the North Carolina Tarheels and the Virginia Cavaliers.

It’s been an up-and-down season by Duke standards. Of course, they aren’t in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament, but it’s reasonable to believe that one or two head-scratching Duke losses have impacted how we view them in totality.

That said, the Blue Devils have everything in front of them, and they have the offensive firepower to beat any team in the country on a given night. Other components must continue to come together, but Duke is a threat.

With over half of their ACC games done, the Blue Devils are just past the midseason point of their conference schedule, so now’s the perfect opportunity to hand out our midseason awards.

Check them out below.

5 takeaways from Oklahoma’s loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels

Oklahoma struggled in a marquee matchup against the UNC Tarheels, falling 81-69.

Wednesday had the chance to be a season-shifting moment for the Oklahoma Sooners. Porter Moser and his program made the long trek from middle America to Charlotte, North Carolina. Awaiting them was a date with one of college basketball’s most iconic programs, the UNC Tar Heels.

What transpired was unlike anything anyone had seen from Oklahoma this season. The Sooners struggled to defend, had too many unforced turnovers, shot poorly, and were outhustled in an 81-69 loss.

Otega Oweh led all OU scorers with 23 points. Javian McCollum shot 6 of 17 for 14 points. In contrast, UNC had four starters in double figures; senior guard RJ Davis led the Tar Heels with 23.

The Sooners have two nonconference games remaining before embarking on their final Big 12 campaign. But first, here are five takeaways from the loss:

How to watch, key players for No. 8 Oklahoma Men’s Basketball vs. No. 13 North Carolina Tar Heels

The Sooners are set to take on their toughest opponent of the season. Here is how you can watch the big game.

The Oklahoma Sooners are set to take on their toughest challenge of the season as they face the No. 13 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels. This game will be played in Charlotte, NC as a part of the Jumpman Invitational.

The Tar Heels are sitting at 7-3 with losses to Villanova, UConn and Kentucky. The Sooners however are undefeated on the season.

People would have probably called you crazy if you said Oklahoma would be the higher-ranked team heading into this game but that speaks to the job Porter Moser and his staff have done. While they have played some good teams, they haven’t faced anyone like the Tar Heels.

So, if you want to watch this game or want to know who the key players are for both teams, we have that all for you.

Oklahoma Sooners remain unbeaten, run away from Green Bay in 81-47 win

Oklahoma used a 15-0 run to close the first half to run away from the Green Bay Phoenix and improve to 10-0 on the season.

It was a one-point game late in the first half, but the Oklahoma Sooners turned up the defensive pressure to pull away from the Green Bay Phoenix in their 81-47 win on Saturday night.

Green Bay went on a 5-0 run to make the score 21-20 with 5:43 left in the first half, but the Sooners took over with defensive pressure and efficient shooting to go on a 15-0 run to close the first half with a 36-20 lead.

And the second half wasn’t much different. The Sooners’ defense was too much for the Phoenix. After the break, Oklahoma outscored Green Bay 45-27.

[autotag]Otega Oweh[/autotag] led the way for the Sooners with 12 points, but it was his work at the defensive end that sparked Oklahoma’s huge win. He had seven steals in just 24 minutes of action.

On the evening, Oklahoma shot 52% from the field. Even though they continued to struggle from three, it didn’t matter as their defensive pressure provided extra possessions and they remain incredibly efficient from inside the three-point arch.

The Sooners turned 20 Green Bay turnovers into 27 points and Oklahoma had 44 points in the paint on the evening.

In addition to Oweh’s big game, [autotag]John Hugley[/autotag] (11) and [autotag]Rivaldo Soares[/autotag] (13) scored in double-figures off the bench.

For the first time since the second game of the season, [autotag]Javian McCollum[/autotag] failed to reach double-digit points. He scored nine points on 3 of 8 shooting and was 1 of 3 from three. Though he didn’t have a lot of points, he was incredibly effective as a passer, recording eight assists.

Now at 10-0, the Oklahoma Sooners are one of just four unbeaten teams remaining in Division I.

Porter Moser has his team playing great basketball at both ends of the floor because of their athleticism and tenacity. Their aggressiveness helps the Sooners get to the rim to get high-percentage shots and on defense to be able to create turnovers.

The 34-point win is the second-largest margin of victory for the Sooners this season. They beat Mississippi Valley State by 39 in the second game of the season.

They’re next big test comes when they travel to Charlotte to take on the UNC Tar Heels in the Jumpman Invitational. The Tar Heels are coming off of a four-point loss to Kentucky on Saturday and sit at 7-3 on the season.

UNC serves as the Sooners’ last big nonconference test with three games remaining before Big 12 play begins.

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