College Hoops Roundup: Marcus Paige Injured, St. John's Sucks, No. 1 Recruit Tears ACL
One of these days y’all will listen to me when it comes to college basketball. Wednesday, November 4, 2015 was not a good day for those who are fans of St. John’s and North Carolina. There’s not much else to say without jumping right into the news, so let’s start with North Carolina.
Senior guard and preseason All-American Marcus Paige will be missing at least 3-4 weeks due to a fractured finger, or scientifically he fractured his third metacarpal on his right hand. This isn’t too shocking as Paige is injury-prone and has been his entire career. He battled plantar fasciitis last year and had surgery on his right ankle to remove bone spurs at the end of last season.
This is why I can’t trust this team to win it all. Combined with Daggum Roy Williams being an average coach, Paige is often too injured to make it through the entire year and before anyone jumps on my ass about it, yes almost every college basketball player is banged up at some point through the year. The fact is North Carolina needs Paige on the floor.
Without Paige, the Tar Heels will have to likely start Nate Britt and Joel Berry in the backcourt. The problem is Nate Britt fucking sucks. There’s no other way to put it. He’s not a good basketball player, especially for a team that is supposed to be the No. 1 team in the country. Britt simply doesn’t do anything good. He’s a career five PPG scorer, shoots 37 percent from the floor and turns the ball over as much as he assists. I can’t stress it enough THAT’S NOT A GOOD PLAYER.
There’s no depth at guard for UNC without Paige as Stillman White will have to see some minutes. Hell, they might have to call up DaddyDixie to see if he has eligibility for a couple of games. Luckily for the Tar Heels, the schedule is fairly weak with games against Temple, Fairfield, Wofford, Northern Iowa and Northwestern before the December 1 game against Maryland, which I suspect will be Paige’s first game back.
Just mark down November 5, 2015 as the day Reags told you not to buy North Carolina as a national title team.
Now there’s a lot of Stoolies that are St. John’s fans. Brace yourself guys, the Red Storm fucking suck. For everyone that chirped at me during my previews for saying they will finish last in the Big East, the Johnnies lost to a Division II team by 32 points yesterday in an exhibition game. Let me say that again. St. John’s, with Chris Mullin as a head coach, lost at home to St. Thomas Aquinas College by 32 Goddamn points.
News got even worse on Thursday for the college basketball world when No. 1 recruit Harry Giles tore his ACL. It’s his second major knee injury as the other one happened two years ago. Reports are coming out from all over the place that it happened during a game that John Calipari was watching, as Giles who was on the brink of making his college announcement next week. Giles has since moved the announcement up to Friday at noon on SportsCenter. The No. 1 player, who plays for Oak Hill this year, is expected to choose between North Carolina, Wake Forest, Duke and Kentucky. Brutal news for a kid who can play any position on the floor and who Seth Greenberg has said reminds him of LeBron.
It was an ugly day for college basketball, but the regular season is just eight days away. We’re almost there.
Follow me for all your college hoops talk @barstoolreags
h/t CBSSports.com for the picture