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North Carolina is not yet in control of its future when it comes to a return appearance in the ACC Championship Game as Virginia Tech holds the tiebreaker over the Tar Heels if those two teams end up tied at the top of the Coastal Division standings at the end of the regular season.But the No. 22 Tar Heels are sitting in a much better position heading into Saturdays game against Virginia at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Va., (3 p.m. ET, RSN) than they were a week ago when they were bound for Miami coming off the big loss to the Hokies.The win over the Hurricanes put North Carolina (5-2, 3-1 ACC) alone in first place in the division when the Hokies lost at Syracuse to fall to 2-1 in league play.Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, however, their 20-13 victory over the Hurricanes came with a price.They lost wide receiver Mack Hollins to a broken collarbone and the senior will miss the rest of the season after having surgery. Hollins led North Carolina in touchdown catches with four among his 16 receptions. His 19.3 yards per catch average was tops among receivers with more than one catch.Fortunately for the Tar Heels, they do have depth at the position. Wide receiver Ryan Switzer has 58 catches for 606 yards, Bug Howard 29 for 429 and Austin Proehl 24 for 302. Running backs T.J. Logan and Elijah Hood have a combined 34 catches for 229 yards.We still got some guys that can stretch the field vertically, North Carolina coach Larry Fedora said. That doesnt overly concern me.Well miss Macks ability to do it. Thats probably the thing he does best, but weve got some guys who can get behind people.The Tar Heels, who have won six straight over Virginia, have gone through what arguably is the toughest part of their schedule with their four remaining conference games against teams with a combined 3-8 league mark. In addition to Virginias 1-1 conference record, Georgia Tech is 1/3 in league play, Duke 0-3 and North Carolina State 1-1. North Carolina also has a non-conference affair against The Citadel.None of the conference games figures to be pushovers, though the Tar Heels likely will be favored in all four.If they are able to run the table, they still need Virginia Tech to lose at least one more time to get to the ACC title game. North Carolina already has beaten Pittsburgh (5-2, 2-1).Virginia (2-4, 1-1) could be an interesting matchup. The Cavaliers began the season by losing their first three games (Richmond, Oregon, Connecticut) but notched a win over Central Michigan before opening conference play by beating Duke 24-10. They lost a high-scoring 45-31 affair to Pittsburgh last week.I like my team, first-year coach Bronco Mendenhall said. I like how hard they try and how theyve embraced the culture. And were moving up the scale of the effort and intent to position mastery and execution.Thats basically where our team is right now. So were becoming better in terms of our position mastery and playing our spots. Execution is not holding yet long enough from beginning to end in all three phases to have the outcomes that we would like.But more and more plays are looking how we would like them to be.Cavaliers quarterback Kurt Benkert, a transfer from East Carolina, has passed for 421, 336, and 278 yards the last three games but has seven interceptions against 14 touchdown passes for the season.The Cavaliers have a two-back approach to the rushing game with Taquan Mizzell rushing for a team-best 355 yards and Albert Reid 346.Defensively, the Cavaliers had some success at times stopping the run, holding Central Michigan to 93 yards rushing and Duke to 106, but gave up 209 yards to Pittsburgh their last outing and 301 to Oregon early in the season.Were still missing more plays in open field than what I would like, Mendenhall said. But were starting to make more than what we had before. So a work in progress.The series, which North Carolina leads 63-53-4, began in 1892 and is billed as the oldest rivalry in the South. Cheap Hockey Jerseys China . Defencemen Drew Doughty, Shea Weber and forward Ryan Getzlaf also scored for the Canadians, who started their gold-medal defence 2-0. Goalie Roberto Luongo, getting the call in place of Game 1 starter Carey Price, was solid when needed in making 23 saves for the shutout. Cheap Hockey Jerseys Authentic . -- James Young couldnt wait to apply those tweaks to his jump shot, and the first one he made against UT Arlington told him it could be a good night. https://www.fakehockeyjerseys.com/ .C. United of Major League Soccer. United chose the defender in the second round of the 2013 MLS re-entry draft. Cheap Hockey Jerseys . Hargreaves began his career in 2008 with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and has played with the Edmonton Eskimos and last season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Hockey Jerseys Black Friday . After a lengthy wait, persistent rain finally forced the postponement of the Nationals game against the Miami Marlins on Saturday night. The teams, and a few thousand fans, waited nearly four hours from the 7:05 scheduled start time before an announcement was made shortly before 11 p. Before we get to Damian Lillards expectations for his Portland Trail Blazers this season, we need his reflection on his hopes for last years team, the one everyone thought was headed to lotteryville after losing LaMarcus Aldridge, Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum and Robin Lopez.Make the playoffs, Lillard said. Last year I said we were going to make the playoffs, and we did that.Ok, so maybe it wasnt as bold a proclamation as Lillard makes it out to be. On media day last year his first reaction when the playoffs topic was raised was, I dont see why not. Then he added qualifiers, as if wary of producing a headline for a story he wasnt sure he could write.Im not sitting here saying that, Were going to make the playoffs, Lillard said that day. I would like to, and I think thats what our goal is, but its not as far-fetched as some people would make it seem.At least he isnt going around bragging that he knew the Trail Blazers would be in the second round of the playoffs, which is where they found themselves against the Golden State Warriors after bouncing back from a 2-0 deficit in the opening series while the Clippers dealt with injuries to Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.He has earned the right for us to store his 2016-17 expectations in the reality room. Hes neither selling his team short through artificial modesty, nor ordering law enforcement overtime pay to block off the championship parade route.This year I want to get to the Western Conference finals and give ourselves a chance to get to the [NBA] Finals, Lillard said. I think its possible.It is, especially if the Trail Blazers wind up away from the Golden State Warriors side of the Western Conference playoff bracket. The Oklahoma City Thunder are weakened from the loss of Kevin Durant. The Clippers have yet to prove that they can get past the second round. The San Antonio Spurs are, if not necessarily worse, different without Tim Duncan. Besides, there havent been many points in time over the past 20 years when the Trail Blazers could say theyve won as many playoff series as the Spurs over the past two seasons.Unlike last year, the Blazers brought their core back, even if it was a very expensive way to stay the same. While other teams, even the heavily stocked Warriors, need a discovery period, thee Trail Blazers already found out what they needed to know in last seasons playoffs.ddddddddddddWe learned we had some fight in us, Lillard said. We wanted it.He doesnt consider the Clippers series a fluke. He notes the Clippers were at full strength when the Trail Blazers beat them in Game 3, and Portland had the lead when Paul and Griffin went down in Game 4. And speaking of having the lead, did you know that after the Warriors controlled Game 1 of the second round, the Blazers held the lead for 137 minutes to the Warriors 61 minutes the rest of the series? They just couldnt close out games the way the Warriors did.We couldve easily laid down, even against Golden State, Lillard said. We couldve said: All right, we got out of the first round ... this [Warriors] team lost nine games. We could have laid down, but we didnt.The Trail Blazers could get credit for that last year. Not just credit, but hefty contracts for returners C.J. McCollum, Allen Crabbe,?Meyers Leonard?and?Moe Harkless, and an extension for coach Terry Stotts. All that cash means no more credit. Teams dont commit a third of a billion dollars in new contracts to be content winning five playoff games again.Two things bode well for the Blazers. First, their best player is getting better. Lillard is only 26, on the cusp of his prime, and in his fifth season he says the game is slowing down for him, making more sense, even getting easier. Second, the NBA is coming around to the Trail Blazers style of play. They used to be criticized for being perimeter-oriented, then were forced to grow even more so when Aldridge left for San Antonio. But the league as a whole shoots more 3-pointers now, and the Trail Blazers are better at it than most teams; their .370 three-point shooting percentage tied for fourth best in the NBA last season.Stotts is trying to present this season as a continuation of last season, rather than a separate entity. Retaining so much of the roster allows him to do so. His point guard sees it the same way.Lillard also sees this team playing deep into May. We never talk about vision as one of Lillards best attributes. Maybe thats about to change. ' ' '