I doubt we will see the rope a dope performance we saw in early December when Carolina was down as much as 16 points at home to the Seminoles and then changed the game completely by making a few changes DEFENSIVELY and stormed back and grasped Victory from Defeat.
For you young bucks and fans I will give you a quick history lesson as champion George Foreman put up his heavy weight boxing champion of the world belt against an aging but still dangerous Mohammed Ali.
Many people have said Ali had quick hands which lead to quick shots but many also said was a master of psyching out his numerous opponents.
For some reason Foreman agreed to fight Ali outside at midnight in hot and humid Zaire South Africa.
Heavy money was being bet on Foreman because he was crushing opponents at a record pace in early rounds but similar to Mt T IN Rocky III he thought nothing about the heat and fatigue as he just wanted to end the Ali legend by throwing heavy blows to the body which only landed against Ali’s protective arms and elbows.
Eventually Ali just laid on the ropes taunting Foreman to beat on him which he did but throwing all those bombs in the intense heat took a heavy toll on Foreman and he began to drop his arms in fatigue
Like a pissed off Cobra Ali sensed this and came off the ropes and began a serious of jabs, upper crosses, hooks and straight on the money punches that knocked the champion to the canvass where he would never recover before Ali has shocked the world and all of the so called experts but becoming champion because basically of his smarts of using the rope a dope.
So in a nutshell when Carolina hosted Florida State in their first ACC battle the Seminoles really took it to the Tar Heels in the first half scoring at will and it looked worse than Custer at Little Big Horn.
The ABCers and you know who you are were jumping for joy thinking to themselves that “I told you that Coach Davis was over his head when in came to coaching Carolina “ but then those same I told you so couch coaches ran right smack into their Waterloo as Coach Davis had his own rope a dope idea as he had his team go into a full court press and that move pretty much caught FSU with their Seminole pants down
Inserting Trimble Carolina went small with a three guard defensive attack and Florida State just completely fell apart.,Their guards could not get over half court and when they did they committed turnover after turnover as UNC slowly got back into the game.
FSU called several timeouts but none of them helped as Carolina continued to make steals and deflect passes and more importantly starting to make shots. Carolina had somehow got off the canvass and ropes and thru a knockout of their own in front of a loud and happy crowd and as the final bell went off had won a impressive win.
I am sure after being caught off guard and losing that big lead on the road the FSU coaching staff and players have worked on how to beat a full court press but I would not be surprised if Coach Davis and staff have another trick to try on FSU when the time is right.
Well let’s hope so as FSU is really big, talented and actually go 12 deep. Will the contest be as memorable as the famous Rumble in the Jungle between Foreman vs Ali 50 years ago I don’t know but we can all hope.
You are more than welcome over the history lesson
northcarolina.rivals.com
