Tar Heels Prepared to Play Without Marshall

Many people feel North Carolina's title hopes were placed on life support when point guard Kendall Marshall fractured a bone in his wrist against Creighton in the round of 32.  Marshall is not the Tar Heels' best player, he is simply their most important.

Marshall is the quarterback of a high flying, uptempo offense.  He is a reliable ball handler, great distributor, and his scoring has steadily improved over the course of the season.  Marshall has surgery on Monday to insert a screw in his wrist.  Today Marshall had the cast removed and is now wearing a removable splint.

His status for Friday's sweet 16 matchup against Ohio University is completely up in the air.  North Carolina coach Roy Williams has reiterated that he has no way of knowing if Marshall will be able to go in St. Louis.  Williams has also stated his team will be prepared to play without Marshall.

The Marshall loss would be softened if back-up point guard Dexter Strickland didn't tear his ACL in January.  Williams will use senior Justin Watts and freshman Stillman White as ball handlers.

[ESPN]