The Tar Heels are on fire!

Let's hope this post doesn't jinx the Heels, but I can't help but give them a good and loud shout out for tearing it up in recent games. Perhaps I should've titled the post, "Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington are on FIRE!"

The Heels most recently defeated Maryland last night, 108-91, the Heels' first victory over the Terrapins since 2006. (And I should mention that Gary Williams is my second favorite coach in all of college basketball, but I still have no problem with the Heels beating his team!) Ellington scored a total of 34 points - seven of those points scored in less than one minute, and 21 of them via three-pointers. He also managed nine rebounds. Yowza!

While the Florida State game might not have been one of Ellington's best, he still scored 14 points and had two rebounds and one assist. On January 31st he scored 14 points against NC State, with six rebounds and two assists. Not too shabby.

Now on to Ty Lawson. He's only 5'11, but he's one of the "biggest" players in college ball right now. His game-winning three-point shot against Florida State has been replayed over and over since the January 28th matchup.

My sport was swimming, so shots like Lawson's last second save remind me of Jason Lezak's phenomenal anchor leg of the 2008 US Men's gold-medal winning 4x100 freestyle relay at the Beijing Olympics. Unforgettable. I must've watched that race at least 25 times.

Against Florida State, Lawson led the Heels in scoring with 21 points total. He also scored 16 against the Wolfpack and 21 against Maryland. He scored three three-pointers in the first half against Maryland, which put UNC ahead by at least 10 for the rest of the game. Thank you Ty for keeping this one out of the nail-biter zone!

I by no means intend to forsake the talents of Tyler Hansbrough or Danny Green, I just can't help but want to shine the light on Lawson and Ellington for now.

Next game: Saturday, February 7th at 4 p.m. vs. Virginia at home. GO HEELS!