No.7 Tar Heels take on rival Wolfpack
NCAA Basketball Betting Lines
01/26/2012 - Chapel Hill, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Instate rivals collide in ACC action in Chapel Hill this evening, as the seventh-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels welcome the NC State Wolfpack to the Smith Center.
The Tar Heels were handed their worst loss in the Roy Williams' era with a 90-57 rout at the hands of Florida State back on January 14th. North Carolina was able to rebound from that however, with an 82-68 victory at Virginia Tech, posting the 10th win in the last 11 games and moving to 3-1 in league play.
Mark Gottfried's first season in Raleigh has been a successful one to this point. The Wolfpack enter this contest on a three-game win streak and have won nine of their last 10 overall. NC State moved to 4-1 in the ACC with last weekend's 78-73 victory at Miami-Florida.
This marks the 220th all-time meeting between these rivals. UNC holds a 144-75 series advantage and has won 10 straight and 16 of the last 17 meetings. The 10-game win streak is the longest in the series for North Carolina since a similar span from 1967-70. The Tar Heels' only longer win streak was 11 games from 1934-38.
The Wolfpack come into Chapel Hill as one of the better offensive teams in the ACC, ranking third at 76.9 ppg, while shooting a respectable .477 from the floor. All five starters are averaging double figures, led by Scott Wood's 13.3 ppg. Wood, who is shooting a hefty .453 from three-point range (53- of-117) has been perfect at the free-throw line this year, converting all 48 of his opportunities. C.J. Leslie (12.8 ppg, 6.2 rpg) and Richard Howell (11.9 ppg, 9.4 rpg) are a potent duo down low. Lorenzo Brown (12.4 ppg, 6.9 apg) and C.J. Williams (12.0 ppg) complete the quintet. Wood knocked down four three- pointers and went 7-of-7 from the charity stripe in leading NC State with 21 points in the win over Miami. DeShawn Painter came off the bench to pour in 18 points, while Leslie and Williams finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
The Wolfpack certainly have some offensive firepower, but getting into a shootout with the Tar Heels can't be a sound gameplan. UNC leads the nation in scoring at a hefty 85.1 ppg and boasts of the fifth-best scoring margin at +17.8. The Tar Heels rely on a dominant frontcourt that rivals any in the country. Sophomore forward Harrison Barnes headlines the trio and can score both inside and out, averaging 17.4 ppg and shooting 43.6 percent from behind the arc. Junior forward John Henson does his work down low, averaging a double-double with 14.5 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. Center Tyler Zeller has been equally productive in the paint, averaging a near double-double of at 14.4 points and 9.3 rebounds per outing. The backcourt consisted of point guard Kendall Marshall (9.5 apg) and Dexter Strickland (7.5 ppg), but Strickland went down last week with a season-ending knee injury. Expect youngsters Reggie Bullock (8.4 ppg) and P.J. Hairston (7.5 ppg) to see increased minutes. Barnes poured in a game-high 27 points in the win over Virginia Tech last time out. Henson finished with 16 points and 16 boards, while Zeller had a double-double as well, with 14 points and 11 caroms.
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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK
NFL Football Trash TalkTrash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.