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• McGrath enters his eighth season on the Carolina bench,
and 12th beside Roy Williams. At UNC, McGrath assists in
recruiting and player development, and is responsible for the team
camp and coach's clinics. He also serves as head coach of the
North Carolina junior varsity team.
• McGrath has helped guide the Tar Heels to two national
championships and three Final Four appearances in his tenure at
UNC.
• During his playing days, McGrath was an integral member of a
Kansas team which won four straight Big 8 or Big 12 titles, two Big
12 Championships and amassed a 123-17 record in four
seasons. McGrath was a two-time Academic All-Big 12
selection.
NCDS: C.B. McGrath, Asst. Coach - North Carolina
The ACC Championship all comes down to one game!
I am sitting at my desk waiting for the long anticipated second meeting of Carolina versus Duke tonight. Yes, this is what we do in anticipation of big games - we still spend a majority of the day in the office. I would like to be spending the day outside with the kids or tailgating with friends but for this game tonight I wouldn’t trade spots with anybody. This one has all the makings of being a big time UNC-Duke battle. It is senior night for us and we are playing for the outright ACC championship. We are both 13-2 in the conference, each of us taking slightly different routes. We have been involved in a bunch of close games where big shots or big stops led us to victory. On the other hand Duke has made it look a little easier with fewer close games. However, this one is for all the marbles. We like our chances and how we have come together throughout the season.
I wrote my last entry before our first meeting with Duke. That was our last loss. We played very well in the first half and were leading by 14 at halftime. We were the aggressors the entire first half but Duke came out and were the aggressors in the second half and won the game. Since then we have won six in a row and three of those victories were two-point wins. Harrison Barnes made the game winning shot at Florida State to steal a road win leading up to the Duke game.
We are still not playing our best basketball but are playing well enough to be successful. We would like to start making a higher percentage of our shots from the floor, especially from the three point line. We need a breakout game to really open up the flood gates. We have capable shooters but everyone needs to see the ball go in the hoop to have supreme confidence.
John Henson, Tyler Zeller, Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall are having great conference season for us. John is leading the conference in blocked shots and is third in rebounding. He is averaging a double-double in 15 conference games. Tyler Zeller is second in the conference in field goal percentage and is our leading scorer. Harrison has really picked up his production and made more than a handful of big-time shots for us. He has handled all the pressure put upon him since he started playing for us. Kendall Marshall has stepped into the starting point guard role and is leading the ACC in assists. He is a great floor general and does a wonderful job of getting our team shots.
We are down to playing 8 guys in our rotation, which is surprising for a Carolina/Roy Williams coached team. Due to different circumstances they are the only capable bodies we can put on the court for now. Leslie McDonald and Dexter Strickland have been playing hard as the only other perimeter players. Dexter is starting to feel more comfortable with the ball in his hands when Kendall comes out of the game and he likes the challenge of guarding the opponents best perimeter scorer. Leslie has been coming off the bench giving us some firepower. We need him to make shots when he gets in the game. Justin Knox and Justin Watts have been playing valuable minutes for us as well. We need everyone to continue to get better and play more confident to really do some damage in the big dance.
I can’t say enough how proud we are of our team. We have been through a lot in the last 10 months. We have five scholarship guys that are no longer able to play and Reggie Bullock is the most recent to be out for the season. He is going to have surgery on his knee this week. Even with all the changes our guys have tried to play the way we want on both ends of the court. It took a while for them to figure out some things but it is because they are so young, with little college basketball experience. They have persevered and put themselves in position to get a ring tonight. We know they deserve it. They have represented the program and university the right way – the Carolina way!
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