Domination

Remember when Georgia Tech made it to the championship game in 2004? I think most considered it a fluke because the next year, no one was picking them to be a national title contender, let alone win the ACC. But that team had a lot of talent and had a good chance to be a threat: Jarrett Jack was a sophomore, Luke Schenscher, Will Bynum, and Isma’il Muhammad were all juniors, and Mario West was a freshman (This was in the 2003-2004 season). They had a lot of talent, but it was a fluke because they finished the next year 19-11, with an 8-8 record in the ACC. Granted, they did oust North Carolina from the ACC tournament, but that was probably their lone highlight of the year.

It is an understatement to say that things have been better for GA Tech, but I loved watching this particular game. I thought everything looked sharp. Sure I could nit-pick and such, but when you win an ACC game by 30 (I don’t care who your competition is), you should be happy and I am. Imagine if Thaddeus Young and Javaris Crittenton were still around for the Yellow Jackets. Scary, huh? They would be juniors on this team and I can guarantee they would be a lot better than their current 1-13 record now.

But needless to say, they aren’t there anymore and GA Tech could have used them. Without further ado, I present my likes and dislikes.

Things I liked:
-The Bigs. They had 30 of the 46 points at half. They were active on the boards and tipping rebounds to each other. For the game they finished with 46 of the team’s 104 points, which I like.
*Deon Thompson – I liked how he was aggressive with his shot early. He only shot 4 of 10, but he was aggressive and was looking for his shot and didn’t try to do it all on his own. I thought the shots he took were good and within the flow of the game.
*Ed Davis – I think Ed is an underrated passer. He works the high-low pass exceptionally well. He had 3 assists in today’s game and no turnovers. I could go on about how good this kid is going to be, but I’ll save that for a later day.
*Tyler Zeller – Looked good on offense. Still looked shaky on defense. He was aggressive on the offensive boards and that jump hook from 10 feet out looked awesome!
*Tyler Hansbrough – Hansbrough really set the tone after Maurice Miller fouled him and laid him out early in the game. After that, he had 28 points and 10 rebounds. Typical work-man like effort from the man we call Psycho-T. Compared to the Maryland game, he only had one more shot against GA Tech, but was 10 of 13 as compared to 4 of 12. I thought the guards were looking for him early and often. I feel that if the big men are involved early, it opens more up as the game continues. I also liked that he was bringing the ball up the court. That is one of the most unique feelings as a fan (Yeah go, but don’t turn it over!). Congratulations to #50 with setting the NCAA record for most free throws made.

-The Defense. Even though Georgia Tech shot 44% for the game, I thought the defense was pretty solid. North Carolina had 12 steals and forced 18 turnovers. I thought the team did a great job of playing help defense, especially in the post as they double teamed quite a bit. GA Tech shot 43% in the first half, but 5 of 10 from 3-point land, which kept them in the game as long as they were.

-Rebounding. As mentioned earlier, rebounding looked good from the big men and the guards were doing a good job keeping the ball alive by tipping. Wayne had another good rebounding game with 7.

-Assists. Maryland game total assists – 5. GA Tech game total assists – 26. Ty had 11 and no field goals. If you tell me we will win by 30 without Lawson making a shot from the field, I probably won’t believe you, but he played great, even without scoring. He’s been fun to watch this season.

Things I didn’t like:
Wasn’t a lot because I thought it was a good game overall, but here are some thoughts.

-Players getting hit in the air. We know what happened to Zeller this year. Hanbrough 2 years ago. Well, with Hansbrough getting laid out early in the game and then when Wayne went down hard in the 2nd half, it just concerns me. I don’t like watching the games, specifically fast breaks, and wondering if they are going to be able to walk after the play is over. When Wayne went down, I thought it was over and our backcourt shrunk again, but thankfully he was ok. Sure you could argue that Ellington shouldn’t be going in for a fast break lay-up when they’re up by 25, but I’m pretty certain that UNC runs a fast break offense. The defender was not going after the ball (usually you try and block a shot with one hand, not two) and was just trying to hit someone. Go play football if that’s how you want to play. I know they talked about this on Gameday last week and that Jay Bilas also wrote an article, so hopefully this will get some attention before it is too late. (For the record, I don’t think the Zeller foul was a dirty play)

-It was one of Tyler Hansbrough’s last games at the Dean Dome. Only one more remains. It’s sad to think about. We have been spoiled as a fan base to watch him. He has set so many records at UNC, which will stand for a long time. Enjoy him while you can.

Defensive Heel

I would like to address the one thing that will seemly always get blamed for a Tar Heel loss. The dreaded defense. In the eyes of most fans, the defense is awful. Who is to blame for this mess?

I guess the first person to point a finger at would be Coach Roy Williams. It is his fault that UNC is what I would consider an average defensive team. He obviously does not spend enough time on defense because he is always running the fast break. He never even works on the half court offense in practice. "Run and gun" he guffaws in his typical manner, wearing his warm up pants, collared shirt and sweater vest. No clipboard in sight.

It is also Roy's fault because of the players he recruits. Think of all the offensive players he has recruited to UNC. Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green, Marvin Williams, Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson. Think of his Kansas days with Paul Pierce, Kirk Hinrich, Raef Lafrentz. He recruits very few defensive players.

Let's take it a step farther and blame the players. They think that Roy is a joke because of what he wears at practice. They don't listen to him at all because they are all thinking about their millions in waiting. They think they can just show up and win.

If you can't tell, the sarcasm is pretty thick throughout this post. Roy has committed to defense. We all know the story of him taking the rims off and having a defensive practice. We have heard the stories of the beginning of this year where he did 12 minutes of offense and the rest of the time was spent on defense. I want to make it clear that I rarely question Roy. He brought the program back from 8-21. Please remember that. That season was tough to watch for all of us. It was Roy that taught a bunch of selfish players to buy into the team concept to win a National Championship. It is Roy who brought us Psycho-T, whom we all love. It was Roy who instituted Late Night and it is Roy who has put us into contention for a deep tourny run since he arrived on campus. Now you might be thinking that he could recruit defensive-minded players, but ask yourself this: Would you really want to watch a bunch of Marcus Ginyard's and Jackie Manuel's running around out there? I like these guys, but I don't watch the games for defense. I like the 100 point games. I like the blowouts. So in my opinion, I think Roy does fine recruiting. I think it is his goal to get one solid defensive player in a recruiting class who will stay for four years, and that happened with Manuel (yes, I know Roy did not recruit him) and that will happen with Ginyard (five, if you want to be technical).

Everyone seems to be throwing a huge fit about how opposing point guards have hit 3o on the Heels and Ty Lawson has come under a lot of criticism for it, especially after the 0-2 start in ACC play. We have seen how the game changes when Ty digs deep and plays defense and how it changes the flow of the game. I'm confident he will do that as crunch time gets closer. Remember how Raymond Felton took a lot of heat after Chris Duhon drove on him to score the winning layup at the Dean Dome? Remember it was also Felton who came up with the game-clinching steal against Illinois.

HAVE FAITH IN OUR HEELS!

Fear the Venezuelan?

Fear the turtle. I'll admit it, when Maryland won in 2002, I thought this was a pretty clever saying. I mean, who fears a turtle (unless it's a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle)?

Well the Venezeuelan is the one I fear. Greivis Vasquez dominated North Carolina, scoring his teams first 16 points. It was almost a foreshadowing of things to come. His stat line for the night: 35 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists, 2 steals, and 3 blocks. Definitely a stat stuff right there. But look at the match up problem. Sure, he's a 6'6" point guard, so the only one who really matches up with him height wise is Danny Green. I know various people were on him at different times. Bobby, Wayne, Ty, and Danny all took shots at him, but he did whatever he wanted. I will give him credit. He probably played the best game he will ever play in his life. Sure we can question the defense like we have all season, but this is partly why the ACC is so tough to win; because of players like Vasquez. When he was yelling at the crowd by the first or second T.V. timeout and flashing his jersey, I said to myself, "Man, he's gonna look like a real dork after we win this game." But Vasquez came through and played well. So hats off to him. But I still don't like you!

Another area I would like to talk about is the officiating. I don't normally like to fault officials; they are human, humans make mistakes, therefore referees will make mistakes. Well these officials certainly made a big one. With 1:35 left in the game, Hansbrough inbounded the ball to Lawson, who was instantly pushed over by Sean Mosley (related to Sugar Shane Mosley?), who immediately threw up his hands saying he didn't foul, which he clearly did. So big no call there. Very next play, Ty and Hansbrough on a fast break, Ty dumps it of to #50, who is then called for an offensive foul. Was it an offensive? I don't know what the exact definition is off the top of my head, but it was close. What I didn't like was the guy who clobbered Hansbrough while he was being undercut, which seems to be a common occurrence with Tyler now - not getting the foul calls, just getting mugged. I don't even want to comment on the last play in overtime, but I feel the officials really didn't help the Heels cause on Saturday.

What I didn't like from the game:

-Officiating

-Maryland fans chanting DUI while Lawson was on the line. Duke already did it so you're copying them.

-Bench Scoring: UNC-5 MU - 41. Ouch

-Not getting #50 enough touches. He took 12 shots, making 4 of them. Obviously not a great shooting night for him(but it's hard when their post players hang on you). But this has been my concern the last few games is that we seem to think we are Duke and can shoot a bazillion 3's now. When you have the reigning NPOY, why do you not get him the ball more often?

What I did like:

-Rebounding guards. Frasor had 7. Danny had 9. Wayne had 4. Wayne has particularly been rebounding well with games of 7, 9, 7, 10 and a few others.

-Deon had a pretty good game with 13 and 7. Last few games, he has been contributing well, in my mind anyway.

-This loss is in February, not March. I always like having a loss in February to keep the team focused. I think that in 2005, without the loss in the ACC tourny, they would not have won the championship. I feel this could be one of those games. Sure, a 2 game cushion in the ACC would have been amazing, but they can take care of business the rest of the way. If we won this game and continued winning until the championship, then that would have been 23 straight wins. That's a lot and hard to do. I'll take this loss as a learning experience and even though I feel we should have won, I believe this will work on in the long run.

-We shot horribly and still had a chance to win it. I felt the same way after the Wake game. Wake - 35% FG. UM - 38%. Result. Lost both games by 3 with a chance to tie at the end of the game. My mind says average defense in those games, so if average defense can keep us in games when we shoot badly, then I hope we stay really hot in March.

Introduction

I'm starting a blog! I would have never ever thought I would ever start a blog, but here I am, typing away. I have been reading blogs about North Carolina basketball this past season, so that is where my inspiration is coming from.

I mostly want to start this blog to get my own thoughts out there in the realms of cyber space. I would like to express my thoughts on players, games, coaching, and North Carolina basketball specificially. That is not to say that I won't mention other Tar Heel sports, but mostly, this is a basketball blog. It is my goal to provide some different points of view to whatever is going on from UNC basketball.

As far as my background, I am a devoted follower. I have watched since 1998, and have watched closely since 2002. I do not live in North Carolina, but try and get as much information about them and catch as many games as I can. But like most other fans, I live for March. Yes, I will watch games in November, December, January, and February, but the one thing I hope for every March is a six game win streak. I hope to update as much as I can, but this is, as the same time, a experiment for me as well. I hope you enjoy it.