Our Take

Chapel Thrill, Wolfpack power and Xavier Legette's skin care routine in the sports moments of the week

For the second time ever, both North Carolina and NC State are headed to the College World Series. Plus, the latest on the NBA and NHL Finals, Caitlin Clark back in the news and more!

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By
Clark Gerber
, WRAL Sports contributor

The internet is a big place. Unless you're 100% plugged in all the time (and let's be clear, that is NOT recommended), you're going to miss some stuff.

Let us do that work. You can be a well-adjusted human being and still catch all the best sports moments of the week, with a quick review ...

North Carolina comes up clutch again, advances to College World Series

You'd be hard-pressed to find a more entertaining path to the College World Series than North Carolina just went through.

Following last week's late-game heroics in the Chapel Hill Regional, the Tar Heels one-upped themselves in the Super Regional as they swept West Virginia in two games.

UNC trailed the Mountaineers 6-5 heading into the 9th inning of Game 1 on Friday night, but simply refused to say "die."

Freshman catcher Luke Stevenson led off the frame with a towering solo home run to center that tied the game.
Then, when it seemed like we were headed for extra innings, Vance Honeycutt showed why he's going to be a first-round MLB draft pick and launched a walk-off two-run blast to give Carolina the win.

Honeycutt's moon ball was his 25th of the season, which tied a single-season school record, but it didn't take long for him to break it.

That's because Honeycutt, on the very first pitch of Game 2, smoked another homer to left field and instantly gave UNC a one-run lead.

When's the last time anybody hit two home runs on back-to-back pitches in a series -- one to end a game, and one to lead off the other?

Game 2 proved to be a pitcher's duel, which came down to a nerve-racking eight-out save for sophomore reliever Dalton Pence.

The Gastonia native faced a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the ninth inning, but found a way to induce a game-ending groundout (and field his position) to end the series and send the Tar Heels to Omaha for the first time since 2018.
North Carolina is set to face ACC rival Virginia to kick off the College World Series on Friday afternoon.

I, for one, can't wait to see what kind of late-game dramatics they come up with next.

NC State takes down Georgia, punches ticket to Omaha

While UNC is stealing headlines with their new-found love of nail-biters, NC State has embraced the blow out on their road to Omaha.

The Wolfpack jumped all over Georgia in Game 1 of the Athens Super Regional on Saturday, striking for an 11-run second inning and bludgeoning the Bulldogs, 18-1. It was the largest NCAA Tournament win in school history.

UGA answered back on Sunday with an 11-2 victory of their own, setting up a winner-take-all Game 3 on Monday night.

After trailing early, NC State got a 2-run home run from Garrett Pennington to tie the game in the third inning, then benefited from some Bulldog sloppiness to take the lead for good in the 4th.
The Pack coasted to another relatively sweat-free win, 8-5, punching their own ticket to the College World Series and continuing an unreal 3-month stretch for their deserving fan base.
Two Final Four trips and a College World Series? They're the third school ever to do that.
This is uncharted territory for NC State and they have to feel pretty good about winning it all, especially if the top of their lineup keeps raking like this.

Eli Serrano, Garrett Pennington, Alec Makarewicz and Jacob Cozart combined to go 19/47 (.404 average) with 13 RBI, 11 runs scored and eight of the team's nine home runs in the Super Regional.

This after they combined for 10 RBI and 13 runs in the Regional Round.

The Wolfpack face their toughest test yet taking on No. 2 national seed Kentucky on Saturday (this year's CWS field features only ACC and SEC schools for the first time ever), but the way they're playing right now, they should feel like favorites no matter who's in the other dugout.

Celtics, Panthers rolling toward championships?

The NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final certainly don't look like they were worth the wait ... at least not yet.

The Boston Celtics and Florida Panthers have looked fairly dominant so far, and look to be rolling toward a championship with 2-0 series leads.

In a series full of big names, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday have looked like the most important players for Boston through two games.

Wild stat: Holiday's 38 points without a turnover is the second most ever through two games of the NBA Finals. The only player who did better? Michael Jordan.

Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving obviously have the talent to get Dallas back into this series, but I can't say I like their chances given the fact that Jayson Tatum hasn't even played well yet.

I'm revising my earlier Finals pick and switching to Celtics in 5.

The Edmonton Oilers face a similar problem as the Stanley Cup Final shifts north of the border for Games 3 and 4.

His name is Sergei Bobrovsky.
The Florida Panthers goaltender has been incredible to start the series, saving 50 out of 51 shots over the first two games.
He's playing so well that it appears to be getting into the heads of the Oilers players, who are starting to resort to questionably dirty tactics to flip the series around.
(Warren Foegele's hit on Eetu Luostarinen -- two former Hurricanes -- was especially nasty.)

The individual brilliance of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl was supposed to be Edmonton's saving grace and so far neither have been much of a factor.

I think that changes a little over the next couple games, but it's clear to me that Florida is the better all-around group.

I'm sticking with my pick last week -- Panthers in 6.

Caitlin Clark left off Team USA roster

Another week, another "think piece" flash point for Caitlin Clark.

I opted out of the Caitlin Clark discourse last week but, although it's still kind of icky, I feel obligated to write about it this week because I have something to say.

Caitlin Clark was not an Olympic snub.

Seriously, go look at that roster again and tell me whose spot Clark should have taken.

Better yet, go look at the other players who were left off the roster (I see you Arike Ogunbowale). There are several who are more accomplished and better players right now than Caitlin Clark. Period.

And while I understand the argument that USA Women's Basketball should have shoe-horned Clark in for the attention, I completely disagree and think it's misguided for several reasons:

  1. Even if Clark was on the roster, she probably wasn't going to play very much, which would have been a major storyline and a distraction.
  2. Along those same lines, several WNBA players already seem to resent Caitlin Clark for her status as a media darling. You think that was going to get better if the rookie was gift-wrapped a roster spot?
  3. Caitlin Clark has been playing basketball basically non-stop since November. Long-term, I think it's best that she gets a break.
  4. There are other marketable players on this team. A'ja Wilson, for example, is terrific. If women's basketball wants to reach its potential in the U.S., it needs to be more than just Caitlin Clark. She will get her turn. But right now, I think it's better for the sport to focus on the players who are most deserving in 2024. That's what the Olympics are about.
Caitlin Clark herself seems to understand this concept. And credit to her, because the large majority of this circus surrounding her is not her fault.

Clemson star wows in Super Regionals

Clemson will not be playing in the College World Series this year, but they may have introduced the masses to a future star.

Sophomore outfielder Cam Cannarella blessed us with one of the better two-inning sequences you will ever see from one player on a baseball diamond, and you simply have to see it.

It began in the top of the ninth inning, with the Tigers trailing by 3 runs and on the brink of elimination. Cannarella stepped to the plate with two runners on and smacked a 3-run home run to tie the game and temporarily save the season.
Just moments later, Cannarella somehow one-upped himself in the bottom of the 10th, racing back to make an incredible Willie Mays-like catch to take away an extra base hit and, once again, temporarily save the season.
Unfortunately for Clemson, they couldn't take advantage of these heroics as Florida ended up with a walk-off winner in the 13th.

Silver lining: Cannarella will be back next season and will no doubt deliver a slew of other awesome highlights.

Panthers rookies star in NFL prank video

Xavier Legette hasn't played a down yet for the Carolina Panthers, but he's already a treasure who must be protected at all costs.

Legette, and fellow rookie Ja'Tavion Sanders, were featured in an NFL rookie prank video this week.

Most of it was pretty funny, including Sanders doing his best dinosaur sounds, but Legette, no question, stole the show.

I'm formally requested the extended director's cut of him talking about his skin care routine with Cetaphil.

You're welcome.

We'll see you next week.