Rashad giving Crazies ammunition?
North Carolina visits Duke next week, as every man, woman, child and domesticated animal between Bayboro and Boone is well aware. Cameron is dangerous territory for lightning-rod players who don't play for the home team. Which is to say J.J. Redick is treated well by the Crazies; Rashad McCants and Julius Hodge ... not so well.
So McCants probably didn't do himself any favors by making that throat-slash gesture on national TV in the second half of Thursday night's UNC win over N.C. State. As Roy Williams noted in the preseason, Duke students are sure to have a field day with his media-day "jail sentence" comments. Now this.
The message boards were pretty active Friday about where the gesture falls on the scale of poor taste. General consensus: not as offensive as Taron Downey's throat slash, but too offensive to be seen in public.
I won't enter that debate, but I will say this: It's hard to find the slightest shortcoming in the way the Tar Heels are playing right now, but at least three questions remain (I'm sure I'm forgetting something) when sizing them up as an NCAA-title contender:
1) Can they win in a tough road environment? 0-1 under those circumstances so far.
2) How will they handle a close finish? Smallest margin of victory so far is 7 points, at Indiana; lost by 11 and 13.
3) Will McCants have a meltdown? He's not as tightly wound as many seem to think, but he can be an unpredictable, at times combustible, personality. The Heels want him to remain unselfish, healthy and happy. And no more throat slashes.