NEWS » hat season made him a local legend.Clev

North Carolina is looking for some help for a repeat appearance in the ACC Championship Game, but the Tar Heels first order of business is to win their three remaining conference games so they can gain the advantage should Virginia Tech stumble in any of its three remaining ACC contests.That starts Saturday when the 18th-ranked Tar Heels (6-2, 4-1 ACC) host Georgia Tech (5-3, 2-3) at 12:30 p.m. ET (ACC Network) at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C.North Carolina and Virginia Tech are currently tied at the top of the Coastal Division standings but the Hokies hold the tiebreaker by virtue of their 34-3 beat-down of the Tar Heels on a dark and stormy afternoon brought on by Hurricane Matthew.The Hokies lost the next week at Syracuse, but have since beaten Miami and Pittsburgh to remain in control of the race. Virginia Tech travels to Duke this week and has games against Georgia Tech and Virginia left on its conference card along with a non-conference game against Notre Dame.Meanwhile, after the visit from the Yellow Jackets, North Carolina will be facing Duke on the road and North Carolina State at home among its remaining league foes with a non-conference affair against The Citadel, an FCS opponent, tucked in there at home.Of course, nothing should be taken for granted at this point of what has been a typically crazy college football season.Georgia Tech may be out of the division race but is showing some signs of life with wins it its last two games. Quarterback Justin Thomas is rounding back into 2014 form for the Yellow Jackets.Over the last two weeks the senior has looked more like the guy in control of the nations top running attack instead of the one who was frustrated and flustered in 2015. Last week against Duke, Thomas rushed for 195 yards and two touchdowns and threw for 264 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-35 win for the Yellow Jackets.You have to look at Justin Thomas and say he might have had his finest hour, Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. He played like a senior. Thats what I told him after the game.Thomas own coach was a bit more reserved.I thought he played very well, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said. He made some plays.The Yellow Jackets also present the usual problems for opposing defenses with their triple-option, run-oriented attack. The offense demands a disciplined approach from a defense.Its a lot of attention to detail, because you dont see this offense a lot throughout the year, North Carolina cornerback Des Lawrence said. Its almost foreign to you, so you have to revamp your thinking of how youre going to attack this team.Its switching gears and being able to be mentally focused on what you have to do.The challenge comes at a time when the Tar Heels defense seems to be rounding into form as well. In the two games before last weeks break, North Carolina kept Miami at bay for a 20-13 win, and then two weeks ago it held Virginia to just 253 yards of total offense and 14 points in a three-touchdown win.Each and every week, we were able to find some improvement defensively, whether it was within a unit or in one aspect or not, we were able to find some of that and you were able to see them growing, Tar Heels coach Larry Fedora. I think theyre playing with some confidence, and their confidence has grown over the last couple of weeks, and theyre just playing much better football.And the offense keeps on rolling.Quarterback Mitch Trubisky has performed at an all-conference level. He has completed 71.2 percent of his passes with only two interceptions (both in the Virginia Tech loss) against 18 touchdown tosses.Even with the loss of Mack Hollins (four touchdown receptions) to a season-ending knee injury, the receiving corps is deep. Ryan Switzer has 66 catches for 678 yards, Bug Howard has 36 for 538 and Austin Proehl 27 for 378.Elijah Hood also is back to give the running game a jolt. He rushed for 107 yards against Virginia in his second game back from an injury that had cost him half of one game and all of another.Cheap Braves Jerseys China . The 20-year-old Pelicans big man glanced up and smiled widely at the well-wishers -- a fitting end to a day he wont soon forget. Davis responded to his selection earlier in the day as a Western Conference All-Star with 26 points and 10 rebounds, and the New Orleans Pelicans overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 98-91 on Friday night. Cheap MLB Jerseys . With Parker having a quiet game for once, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw provided the scoring as France won its first major basketball title by beating Lithuania 80-66 on Sunday. It was a victory that ended a decade of frustration for Parker and a talented French generation, which lost the final against Spain two years ago and took bronze in 2005. http://www.cheapbravesjerseys.com/ . Paul Pierce couldnt believe he missed at the end. Young scored a season-high 26 points to spark a huge effort from the leagues most productive bench, and Los Angeles beat the Brooklyn Nets 99-94 on Wednesday night after blowing a 27-point lead. Cheap Atlanta Braves Jerseys .C. - The Carolina Hurricanes have placed backup goalie Anton Khudobin on injured reserve with an unspecified lower-body injury. Cheap Chipper Jones Jersey . From filmmaker Nanette Burstein (On the Ropes), The Price of Gold revisits the saga that rocked the figure skating world ahead of the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic Winter Games: the assault on Nancy Kerrigan, and the plot that led its way back to her rival Tonya Harding.SAN FRANCISCO -- Nate Thurmond, the tenacious defensive center who played with Wilt Chamberlain and was an iconic figure in two cities, died Saturday after a short battle with leukemia. He was 74.The Golden State Warriors announced the death of one of the teams most respected players less than a month after they lost the NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games. Both franchises previously retired the Akron, Ohio, natives No. 42.Thurmond played 11 of his 14 seasons with the Warriors and retired after the 1976-1977 season, one year after leading the Miracle Cavaliers to an improbable trip to the Eastern Conference finals.Without a doubt, he is one of the most beloved figures to ever wear a Warriors uniform, Golden State owner Joe Lacob said.Current Cavalier and Akron native LeBron James said on Twitter: Knowing u played in the same rec league as me growing up gave me hope of making it out! Thanks!The 6-foot-11 Thurmond was voted as one of the best 50 players in NBA history and is considered among the most dominating centers in the game. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985.Nate Thurmond was a giant of his era and one of the greatest players in the history of our game, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement.Thurmonds play and numbers werent flashy, but he earned the respect of his peers and knowledgeable basketball fans for his consistency, defense and strength.Looking back, he was as ferocious as any player in the history of the game on the court, but one of the kindest and nicest souls in his everyday life, former teammate and coach Al Attles said.Thurmond recorded the first official quadruple-double in NBA history as a Chicago Bull when he had 22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists and 12 blocked shots against the Atlanta Hawks in 1974. He is one of only four players to grab more than 40 rebounds in a game.Thurmond starred at Bowling Green, averaging 17.8 points and 17.0 rebounds in three seasons. He was selected third overall by the Warriors in the 1963 draft.Thurmond apprenticed under Hall of Fame ccenter Wilt Chamberlain until the Warriors traded Chamberlain to the Philadelphia 76ers in the middle of the 1964-65 season.dddddddddddd Thurmond went on to average 15 points and 15 rebounds during his career and still holds the Warriors franchise records for career rebounds and minutes.We have lost an incredible person and someone whom I admired as much as any player I ever went to battle against on any level, Hall of Famer Jerry West said. Nate Thurmond was, without a doubt, one of the fiercest competitors that I played against during my entire career. He played with unbelievable intensity and was simply a man among boys on most nights, especially on the defensive end.The Warriors traded Thurmond to the Bulls prior to the 1974-75 season. The Bulls dealt him after 13 games the next season to his hometown Cavaliers, where he closed out his career in style.He played a key role in the Cavaliers most memorable season before James. They beat the Washington Bullets in seven games to get to the 1976 Eastern Conference finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics in six games, but Thurmonds leadership that season made him a local legend.Cleveland teammate Campy Russell said Saturday that the Cavaliers franchise will always love and respect him as a true Cavalier legend.Though he played less than two seasons for the Cavaliers at the end of his career, his jersey number was the first retired by the team.After the seven-time All-Star selection retired, he worked for the Warriors as a community liaison and broadcast analyst until his illness sidelined him earlier this year.Nate brought the same passion to his longtime community-relations role with the Golden State Warriors, who benefited from his deep knowledge of the game and warmth and kindness to everyone he encountered for more than 30 years, Silver said in his statement.Thurmond also opened a popular barbecue restaurant in San Francisco called Big Nates BBQ, which he sold in 2011. 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