Hit up TarheelDaily, or scroll on down to the article. If you want to discuss my opinions, email me at bret.dougherty@onebox.com. I also appear on WXYC FM 89.3 Chapel Hill for Sunday Night SportsRap, Sundays 9-10PM and for SoulGrooves on Tuesdays 6-8AM. Enjoy the article.....BD .

Pushing it Upcourt! 5 Point Guard Battles to Watch!

Dug deep into the shelves of WXYC to play some solid pieces to wake up the masses around the Hill this past week.......Pulled Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage", which I think may be the right theme for the next few months......

I guess that tune led me to finally push forward some of my thoughts on the upcoming path for Carolina basketball over the first half of the season. Remember, this is a transformation year. The program is not a finished product yet....Be patient...Be patient...This year you're going to have to think small ball and a lot of marathon time for the four major pieces and the rest of the rotation. You better like the "Nellie" ball that comes out of Dallas people...That means mismatches to create opportunities for Carolina.

However, one position that Carolina fans will be able to bank on for solid match-ups is the point..Raymond Felton, fresh, solid, and guaranteed...The pride of Latta, South Carolina is top-shelf material, and he's probably the best point at Carolina since #12. Enjoy this time. With the minutes he's going to have to log and his All-American status, there are going to be some incredible battles at the point in the upcoming year. So, if you're a point guard fan, you better get a napkin to wipe them chops...Here are five nasty duels that would be better played between bouts at the Blue Horizon on Tuesday nights.

Dec. 2 - Illinois- Dee Brown- Rematch....Live from Greensboro Coliseum...This is going to be a good one... Analyze last year's duel how you want, you can say Felton had a bad game, you can say Brian Cook made the difference. Dee Brown, the kid from Proviso East H.S., skewered "TheTruth" last year at Assembly Hall, and he was a big part of that Illinois win.

Dee Brown was really one of the few "true" classic point guards that Felton faced last year, and he is the only guy who I thought outplayed Felton straight-up last year for a whole game. Brown has that Chicago inner city tough, and he didn't back down to the reputation that the "Truth" was carrying from the summer camps and the Pre-Season NIT that UNC had won a few days earlier. Personally, I think Brown knew that he had taken Felton's best during H.S. camp tours from the previous summer. That confidence helped him force Felton into eight turnovers.

Last year's game should have let all the yokels out there know that Raymond had some work to accomplish before he even contemplated the thought of the NBA. However, this year's match-up is going to be different. On a neutral court in Greensboro...classic location...Felton may be a little more loose for this game, which could be good. Watch out for Brown's speed because he can lock a guy up quick. Yet, Illinois has a new coach and system. The question will be how quick can Brown adjust to the new program? This is a true point guard match-up, and a real good duel. Last year was like Duran-Leonard I in Montreal. This year could end up like a No Mas Duran-Leonard II...I'll take Sugar Ray...I actually like the sound of that...

Dec. 20-. Wake Forest- Chris Paul - A lot of you heads out there have been waiting for this match-up for a long time. You didn't really think Paul was going to come to Carolina to split time with Raymond... Did you?...Unfortunately, this game may occur a little too early to get all of the juice out of this one. The game is in December, and Paul may not be ripe enough in Skip Prosser's system to get the full potential out of his first duel with Felton. Hopefully, when they go head-to-head again on Feb. 7, we'll see the full show.

I like Felton in this one because he's already been around the block once in the ACC. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get to see these two go head-to-head another five or six times. The speed is going to be fun to watch. Let's tack up the playbill next to McInnis/Childress, Smith/Ammaker, and Phelps/Anderson...Felton/Paul, a monster movie designed like Frazier/Ali...Have fun with this one...

Jan. 3... Kentucky... Cliff Hawkins - Man, I want this game for Carolina bad...The last time Carolina Basketball went to Lexington was one of the most embarrassing games that I was ever forced to watch. Just brutal....I like this match-up because I think Hawkins can really penetrate and dish. I can't wait to see the footwork that's going to be exchanged between the two of them.

Maybe, I'm just amped up because I think you're going to see an unbelievable performance at Rupp Arena from Felton with this game being on national TV during your Bowl weekend. That's why I'll take #2 over the long haul by a wide margin. However, tone down your jawin' between the cubicles a bit...It's at Lexington...

Jan. 11...Georgia Tech- Will Bynum - Alright y'all, you want a "sleeper" newcomer to the ACC mix, well you got one with Will "The Thrill" Bynum's arrival at Georgia Tech. Lute Olsen slept on him at Arizona, and he jumped ship to Atlanta. How Paul Hewitt landed him? I don't know. But if Will "The Thrill" plays at the level that I think he can, you're in for a treat in early January.

Forget all of that prefabricated AND1 and Slam magazine crap, Bynum has a rep on the West Side of Chicago that any baller would drool over. The good thing is that Bynum knows how to play the game right. Bynum is quick, thick, and built Chicago Public School League tough.... At his Public School games they security wand the principal before entering the gym...Believe me, the pride of the ABLA Project Homes is not going to be fazed by playing in the ACC or playing against Felton.

This is a good example for you of how a strong public school kid can be hidden away because few insiders want to cross the parking lots to get to their games, and the public schools don't have the loot to travel to the big tournaments and get their kids noticed. It's a shame because a prospect can become lost in the shuffle from lack of publicity.

I was waiting for Bynum to blow up at Arizona. However, Lute Olsen chose the loyalty route, and he stuck with Jason Gardner at the point because of Gardner's sophomore Final Four performance and stellar reputation. A lot of people in Chicago think Lute was hiding "The Thrill" so he wouldn't leave early...Instead Lute used him to lock guys down...I saw Bynum put Stanford's Casey Jacobsen in a freezer with a face-up defensive performance at Maples Pavilion. After Bynum's shut-down, I still can't believe Jacobsen was taken in the first round by the Suns that same year.

Because of his transfer, Bynum is not eligible until mid-December. He should be ready for the solid match-up by this January date. This is my litmus test for Raymond Felton. If Felton beats up Bynum, my respect will rise to a whole new level. Check in with me in early January. I'll be in my crevice at the Smith Center deep in concentration for this one...This one will be real good..real good...

Jan. 17- UCONN-Taliek Brown- Man, this game is circled on the calendar...Damn, what a game this one is going to be.....National TV on CBS, the whole nine...Well, Brown and Felton could be a great match-up, but we might not get what we want to see because of zones. We may even get some Felton on All-American, Ben Gordon, which would be real nice. I personally think Felton is head and shoulders better than Brown. However, if they match up, I'm interested to see how Brown's experience plays out on this one.

I've always liked Brown. I'm glad that I stuck to my belief that he would be the best college player from among the three guards that came out of the NYC in 2000 -- between Brown, Seton Hall's Andre Barrett, and St. Johns's Omar "Fayetteville" Cook. This is going to be a wild game at the Smith Center. UCONN is loaded, and remember what I said about "Nellie Ball" concerning mismatches. They're going to be created by Coach Williams all over the court during this game. Felton's performance last year in the this game was legendary. Can the Gods send us another game like that one again...

So, there are five match ups for you to watch during the "Maiden Voyage" launch this year. Five match-ups that are balled up into a fist to get that head ringin' a bit over the next few weeks. I'll have a few more match-ups coming to you soon.....So, stay tuned.....

Cotton,

BD

Bret Dougherty is a UNC-Chapel Hill alum and current graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill. Bret is a co-host of WXYC SportsRap (9 PM Sundays on FM 89.3 & www.wxyc.org). He also has a SoulGroove music show on Wednesday mornings from 6-8 AM on WXYC. His area of study is "The Revitalization of Public Spaces".

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