Marcus Paige Leads North Carolina Over Maryland

When the public address announcer at the Dean Smith Center read off, “No. 0, Rasheed Sulaimon” during starting lineup introductions on Tuesday night, it was clear North Carolina fans hadn’t forgotten.

13 Boston College (3-9, 0-8 ACC): BC has its first winless season in ACC play, becoming the 14 team since 1992 to finish 0-8 in conference. How about this play?

North Carolina is 16th nationally in yards gained at better than 494 a game.

The Tar Heels’ football program, which before this season had been swimming in the mediocrity pool since Mack Brown left to coach Texas in 1997, is dominating the air waves.

“There’s a lot of explosive play-makers” on UNC’s offense, Venables said.

In the big picture, that has translated to fewer big plays surrendered. Defensive end Shaq Lawson leads the country in tackles for loss. Sure, they haven’t beaten anyone, but no one will have beaten them either.

When you go into enemy territory against a top-10, and a possible No. 1 seed tourney seed, work your way back from a 13-point deficit, and lose because the home team shoots the ball almost 70 percent from beyond the arc, it is okay.

Each and every week we have picked against the spread for Clemson football games.

“I would say that everybody does know that we’re out there, but if you want to get on that, I’d appreciate it. That would be awesome”, Fedora said. “But probably not to the same level” as 2014. When completely whole, the North Carolina Tar Heels are certainly among them.

North Carolina will definitely give Clemson a good fight, as the Tigers haven’t faced an offense this talented since hosting Florida State nearly a whole month ago.

Nov 28, 2015; Columbia, SC, USA; Clemson Tigers quarterback Deshaun Watson (4) reacts after scoring a touchdown during the second half against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Williams-Brice Stadium.

“We made some mistakes”, coach Larry Fedora said this week. “We’re very similar in a lot of ways – both of us have a dynamic quarterback, and we’ve got excellent receivers and tight ends”. I still hold the belief that if this team can stay more disciplined on defense and cut down on the turnovers, they will be a problem for everyone. There have been many talks of them even being able to sneak into the playoff with a victory over Clemson.

They swarm zone-reads, can load the box and impose their will on an offensive line.

160.8: This is the number of yards the Clemson defense allows on the ground. That means Clemson must win the game by six points or more to beat the spread.

The Tigers’ problems could come from lack of focus: It’s final three opponents in Syracuse, Wake Forest and SC were a combined 10-26 this season.

Ohio State and Stanford have been in or near the top 10 since the CFP Selection Committee started its rankings, but North Carolina – at 11-1 with an ACC Coastal Division title – has only recently joined the conversation.

“Ever since then they’ve been on fire”, said Lawson, Clemson’s junior lineman. In the second, with Trimble making shot after shot and with Maryland time and again attempting to turn the momentum in its favor, the Tar Heels kept calm and repeatedly responded.

Paige said he felt good after going through a couple of days of full practice. “So it’s not a big challenge for us”.

“That’s exactly what the crowd wanted me to do is make it a personal vendetta and get me out of my game”, Sulaimon said, “so I just tried to totally invest in our team and whatever the team needed me to do to help us win tonight”.