Basketball teams aim for stronger ?nishes

The 2011-12 North Carolina men’s basketball season came to a close as its leader and point guard was sidelined with an injury.

The 2012-13 squad is nearing the year’s end with a similar story, though this point guard’s injury isn’t threatening to end a season.

UNC entered March as one of the NCAA Tournament favorites, but Kendall Marshall injured his wrist in the Tar Heels’ second-round game against Creighton.

The injury left him unable to play against Ohio and Kansas.

“We were damn ugly. That’s what we were,” coach Roy Williams said after beating Ohio. “We were ugly because we didn’t have Kendall. And hopefully one game under our belt will help us not be as ugly tomorrow.”

Though Stilman White performed admirably in his stead, the Marshall-less Tar Heels couldn’t keep pace with the Jayhawks and fell 80-67.

Marshall, along with Harrison Barnes, John Henson and Tyler Zeller, left UNC for the NBA after the season. Each of them went in the first 17 picks in of the draft.

Before the start of the new season, Williams had surgery to remove a tumor on one of his kidneys. A biospy proved the tumor was benign and no further surgery was required, despite the presence of a second tumor on his other kidney.

A new crop of Tar Heels are off to a 6-2 start in the 2012-13 season. Five newcomers are joined by Dexter Strickland and Leslie McDonald, who returned from ACL injuries suffered last season.

“They’ve been adapting very well,” James Michael McAdoo said about his new teammates before the season started. “It’s a process that started this summer, with the new NCAA rules. They got all that freshman garbage out of their system, so now they’re really working hard in practice now and coming into their own.”

Freshman point guard Marcus Paige sat out Saturday’s game with Alabama-Birmingham with a shoulder injury, but X-rays are negative.

The women’s team ended its 2011-12 season with disappointment as well, but one that was arguably more bitter. Though slated to host first-round NCAA Tournament games, the Tar Heels (20-11) did not make the field of 64.

After hearing that news, UNC then declined an invitation to the WNIT.

But this year, UNC opened the season playing in the preseason WNIT, and UNC charged all the way to the final game where it beat Iowa 77-64.

The only blemish on its 7-1 record is a loss to Tennessee.

“They’re competing really, really hard,” coach Sylvia Hatchell said after beating Iowa. “They really get after people. We’re going to play harder than anyone else for 40 minutes … and that’s what’s going to make this team hard to beat.”

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