h 10.9 ppg. North Carolina is much more offensive in nature

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Carolina Hurricanes hope they now have the leadership tandem in place to turn the franchise around. Bill Peters was introduced Friday as the Hurricanes new coach, the first big hire made by new Carolina general manager Ron Francis. Now its up to Peters to prove it was a shrewd move. Carolina has made three coaching changes since 2006 and has only one playoff appearance to show for it. "When I did my due diligence and went to look at rosters ... were not far off," Peters said. "I think theres lots of pieces here and its up to us and our coaching staff ... to max our group out." A few hours after Peters formal introduction, the Hurricanes made another addition to their management team, hiring 44-year-old Ricky Olczyk -- the younger brother of former NHL coach and current NBC Sports analyst Ed Olczyk -- as an assistant general manager. The younger Olczyk spent six years as Edmontons assistant GM and was the Oilers NHL liaison for all collective bargaining agreement matters. Peters replaces Kirk Muller, who was fired last month -- a week into Francis tenure as GM -- and went 80-80-27 in three seasons with no playoff berths. Instead of an established NHL head coach or a popular ex-player, Francis went with Peters -- a 48-year-old Detroit Red Wings assistant who has never been an NHL head coach but was in demand this off-season. Peters said he interviewed for two other jobs and Francis says he spoke to 10 candidates during "a pretty extensive search," narrowing that to a three-man short list before deciding on Peters and giving him a three-year contract. "You have to take the time to go through it and make sure you get the right guy," Francis said, "and thats what we did." What dazzled Francis was Peters attention to detail: He penned a booklet breaking down the team and brought it to his first interview with them, and his second one included a PowerPoint presentation, Francis said. "Hes extremely, extremely detailed," Francis said. "Hes going to communicate with our players. Our players are going to know where he stands, and theres no little detail that (will) be overlooked." From the outside, his challenge looks daunting: Making the Hurricanes a consistent playoff team. Muller couldnt do it in three years. Neither could Paul Maurice, at least during his second stint with the team. Even Peter Laviolette -- the only Carolina coach to hoist the Stanley Cup -- couldnt get the Hurricanes back to the post-season. Now Peters gets his chance to try to revive a club that has missed the playoffs in seven of the eight years since the Hurricanes won their only Stanley Cup in 2006. The lone post-season berth since that Cup run came in 2009, when the Hurricanes reached the Eastern Conference final in the first year of Maurices second term as coach. Peters plan is to address three glaring problems from last season: Starting games strong, producing more on the power play and winning more often at PNC Arena. Carolina was the leagues third-worst team with the man advantage and was just 18-17-6 at home. "Weve got to become a harder team to play against here in Raleigh," Peters said. His hiring caps about two months of turbulence in the Hurricanes organization. Francis, a Hall of Fame player who has been both an assistant coach and an assistant GM with Carolina, was moved up a rung on the organizations ladder and his mentor, Jim Rutherford, stepped aside after two decades -- and eventually wound up bolting to Pittsburgh to take over as the Penguins GM. Francis first big move came a week later when he fired Muller and put the players on notice that the responsibility for turning the team around is on them, too. After a 46-day search in which some recognizable names were floated, Francis plucked Peters from Mike Babcocks staff with the Red Wings. He spent the past three years working primarily with the Red Wings defencemen and penalty killers. Before joining the Red Wings staff, he coached Rockford of the AHL from 2008-11 and guiding that team to consecutive 40-win seasons. Eight of his Rockford players helped Chicago win the Cup in either 2010 or 2013, and he also coached Spokane (Washington) of the Western Hockey League for three seasons. "This is a guy that knows coaching," Francis said. Wholesale Air Jordan . Even that couldnt slow them down against the New Orleans Hornets. 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Patrick Deslisle-Houde and David Rose each scored in the second to give the fourth-seeded Redmen a 3-1 lead after Jean-Philippe Mathieu scored in the first.Chapel Hill, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - After suffering their first loss of the season, the Virginia Cavaliers continue a three-game gauntlet through the ACC, as they take on the North Carolina Tar Heels in a key conference showdown at the Dean E. Smith Center on Monday. Tony Bennetts Cavaliers won their first 19 games of the season and have once again distinguished themselves as one of the best teams in the country. The win streak though came to an end on Saturday, as the team dropped a 69-63 decision to then fourth-ranked Duke in Charlottesville. With the loss, Virginia slips to 7-1 in conference play, still good for the top spot in the league standings. Virginia will close out a tough three-game stretch with Louisville on Feb. 7. Roy Williams Tar Heels are right there among the top teams in the league, thanks to dominant play from mid-December until late January. North Carolina had to travel to Louisville this past weekend, and fell to the Cardinals, 78-68 in overtime, ending a six-game win streak. The loss dropped UNC to 7-2 in the ACC. North Carolina has a firm handle on the all-time series with Virginia, owning a sizable 128-51 advantage. The Tar Heels are an impressive 65-6 in the series in Chapel Hill, including a 23-3 mark at the Smith Center. Someone finally broke through the Virginia defense and it was the Duke Blue Devils, who went on a 16-5 run in the waning moments of the game to hand the Cavaliers their first loss of the season. Duke was able to shoot 50.9 percent from the floor, while Virginia delivered on just 41.3 percent. Malcolm Brogdon led the way in defeat with 17 points. Justin Anderson was the only other Cavalier to finish in double figures, chipping in with 11. Dukes ability to score at an efficient rate may be the norm for the Blue Devils, but for Virginias defense, that represents aan anomaly.dddddddddddd. The Cavaliers are one of the top defensive teams in the entire nation as they yield just 50.2 ppg (tops in the nation), while holding foes to just .350 shooting (second nationally). The team is also holding strong in terms of rebounding, with a +10.3 margin (third nationally). Despite netting a modest 68.0 ppg, there is some scoring balance, with three Cavaliers currently in double figures. Anderson leads the way with 13.8 ppg. He is followed closely by Brogdon at 13.5 ppg, with Anthony Gill completing the trio with 10.9 ppg. North Carolina is much more offensive in nature. The Tar Heels are netting 79.5 ppg (16th nationally), while converting a healthy 46.6 percent from the floor. UNC has also shown its strength on the glass, with a +9.6 rebounding margin (fifth nationally). There is scoring depth with four of the teams five starters in double figures. Marcus Paige leads the way in the backcourt, as the star guard tops the team in both scoring (14.2 ppg) and assists (4.2 apg). Kennedy Meeks (12.8 ppg, 8.1 rpg) and Brice Johnson (11.8 ppg, 8.0 rpg) are a potent frontcourt tandem. Justin Jackson (10.0 ppg) and J.P. Tokoto (9.0 ppg) give the squad a couple more options. The Tar Heels dominated first-half play against Louisville over the weekend, as they took a 36-25 lead into halftime, limiting the hometown Cardinals to an ugly 25.9 percent shooting over the first 20 minutes of play. However, Louisville battle back in the second half to tie things up and then went 4- of-5 from the floor in overtime and 9-of-13 from the charity stripe to pull away for the 10-point win. Paige led four Tar Heels in double figures in the loss with 15 points. Tokoto added 11 and Jackson and Nate Britt each tacked on 10 for UNC, which only got 11 points combined from Meeks (9) and Johnson (2). ' ' '