January has been a busy month for North Carolina sports. These are the five things that I have learned from the month.
1.The Carolina Panthers Are Not Far Away
Despite their 8-9-1 record on the season, the Panthers really pulled things together once the team put the emphasis on speed over experience at the secondary positions. By the end of the experience, the Panthers held the Cardinals to record lows in the Wild Card round. Sure they could not beat Seattle, but that was due to some unrepeatable throws by Russell Wilson and one too many turnovers.
BuffaLowDown
2.Kemba Walker was waiting to be unleashed, before he got hurt
January was the month when Al Jefferson was hurt. The Hornets actually pulled together and won more games than they lost over that period. The missing offense was created by Walker, who averaged close to thirty points a game for something like a week. However that effort might have led to his injury. The Hornets have been playing better team ball, but they are starting to have too few players.
3.The North Carolina Tar Heels basketball secured some close conference victories also on team play.
The Tar Heels went through a stretch of close victories and close defeat in their games against Louisville, NC State, and the loss against Notre Dame. The Heels look more functional now than they did last year. Big games from Marcus Paige were important against Louisville, NC State, and Syracuse, but he has not been alone. The Tar Heel bench has proven to be pretty deep, and it will continue to be tested as injuries have mounted at the point guard position.
Ball Durham
4.Change is inevitable in College Football
There was some movements on the coaching staffs at North Carolina, Duke, and East Carolina. East Carolina and Duke had their offensive coordinators poached by bigger schools. North Carolina brought in Gene Chizik to build the defense that they now know they must have to succeed in the Coastal Division. Signing Day is just around the corner.
5.1K for K
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski reached two milestones for the month. He made it to 1,000 career victories, a first for a Mens’ Division 1 coach. He is still tinkering with his current team though, and he also kicked his first player off the Duke squad in Rasheed Sulaimon. Duke is discovering that it needs big efforts from everybody to beat big time competition. It cannot simply rely on the three super freshmen. Everybody is looking forward to Duke’s upcoming game against Virginia.