Triumphant Tar Heel

Even the National Writers Agree With Me

2010-07-29T20:59:00.004-04:00

When I did Tyler Zeller's season in review, I stated that he must remain healthy for the Heels to be competitive. Apparently Jeff Goodman agrees because he writes a small piece on the health of Zeller for the upcoming season.

It is interesting to note that the Heels went 2-9 in Zeller's absence, which is very poor, but looking at some of the scores of those games, I only feel like the outcome would have changed in two games, had Zeller been able to play. This would cause UNC to be 4-7 over those 11 games, which probably stills puts them out of the NCAA tournament, but it is a dream.

Another interesting note is that Tyler Zeller was never really injured before his career at UNC, but that goes to show you the physicality of the next level and the demand on the body. Even with all the muscle Zeller gained, he still was hurt this past year. I do feel like he will come back strong though!

Season in Review: Will Graves

2010-07-25T19:57:00.006-04:00

This past year, we finally saw some of that sharp shooter rumor that had followed Will Graves around since he arrived on campus. Graves started at the three spot all year except for a handful of games where he was injured. The issues that followed him last year and ended up getting him suspended, didn't rear their head and haunt him this year. Graves had some monster games for the Heels this year where he was launching threes and draining them. Graves was even a great team player by playing the four spot at times this year when the Heels were a little thin in the post or when they went small, therefore showing off his versatility.

What I didn't like:

1. Inconsistency. As mentioned above, Graves did have some monster games this past year. In the NIT final against Dayton, Graves had 25 points, but he also had a three game stretch against BC, GA Tech, and NC State where he only totaled 16 points in those three games. If you look at the stats, this pattern happened quite often. Graves, as a senior needs to step up and be more consistent for the baby Heels.

2. Defense. Graves hasn't. been exceptional on the defensive end. He just needs to buckle down and start defending, especially since he will be needed to play some in the four spot again this year.

What I liked:

1. Shooting. Graves was one of the few Tar Heels who could stretch the opposing defense with the three point shot. Although I would like his consistency to improve, he did shoot at a 37% clip, but it seemed when he had his good nights, he was unstoppable and then when he had his bad nights, he wasn't a threat at all, which would explain the inconsistency.

2. Rebounding. Despite his size, Graves isn't a bad rebounder. He gets 5 a game and that was only in 25 minutes. He only had 1 double-double, but had quite a few 8 and 9 rebound games. Granted, he had to rebound because the Heels got thin in the post as the season progressed, but he did a commendable job and proved that he's just not a shooter.

Will Graves is going to be the leader of this team, which is scary, but I hope he can pull through for this year's team. Although he doesn't need to be the leading scorer (I think Harrison Barnes will inherit that), he does need to be consistent for the Heels. I'm not sure if Graves will even start next year, but he needs to accept his role and perform that role to the best of his abilities.

Season in Review: Tyler Zeller

2010-07-22T19:16:00.003-04:00

The Big Z got hurt again. I'm not sure if this is a sign of things to come, but hopefully not. He played well before he got hurt and returned to action quickly and was still able to contribute through the Heels' late NIT run. I like the stats from Zeller in just limited minutes of 9 points and 5 rebounds and am hopeful he is ready to be the main man for the Heels this upcoming season.

What I didn't like:

1. Playing time. As the only true center on the Tar Heels roster, I am a little surprised he only played 17 minutes per game. I am not one to openly question Roy Williams' decisions, I do wonder why Zeller didn't play more like 25 minutes per game. He seemed to do everything that Williams required, although his defense isn't what I would classify as amazing, but not terrible.

2. Injury. Big Z was making progress and was hurt again, but thankfully, unlike last season where he seemed sluggish when he returned, this go-around he bounced back quickly and still did well and didn't seem lost while he was out there. Oh the difference a year makes.

What I liked:

1. Skills. Tyler Zeller is a skilled big man and runs the floor well. He needs to keep improving because I am expecting him to play either the main man or second fiddle to Harrison Barnes. Remember in Zeller's first game as a Tar Heel, he lead the team in scoring with 18 points. We've seen flashes, similar to flashes we saw throughout Deon Thompson's career, but hopefully, Zeller can deliver!

2. Accepting his role. Even though I felt Zeller deserved more minutes, no indication was made that he was unhappy with his role on the team. He did what was expected of him and should look to build on that success.

I can't stress enough how important Tyler Zeller will be next year, but even if he is not a great score, just his presence alone will be important. I say that because of the lack of post man the Heels will have available. He needs to stay injury free and I think the rest will take care of itself for Tyler Zeller.

Season in Review: Ed Davis

2010-07-22T18:56:00.005-04:00

Oh Steady Eddie wasn't very steady for the Heels this past year. He was more like "I don't really care about being Steady Eddie." If you look at his stats of 13 points and nearly 10 boards a game, you may think that was pretty good, but the sky was the limit for this kid and he seemed to have gotten stuck in the terminal at the airport. His blocks peer game were good and his FG% was awesome, but he could have been so amazing, but he is now been drafted by the Toronto Raptors. Good luck in Canada, eh?

I'm not going to elaborate on things I liked and didn't like because it has been awhile and Davis can no longer improve on things at UNC because of that whole Canadian thing now.

Back!

2010-07-22T18:51:00.002-04:00

I apologize for my lack of blogging about North Carolina for the most 2 months. I think that because UNC did not do so hot this past year, I lost a desire, but with the hype of this upcoming season, I have decided to put in some more effort on the UNC news and insight. Here we go - again!

Season in Review: Justin Watts

2010-05-19T16:40:00.001-04:00

I didn’t expect Watts to do much of anything this year and for some of the season, he didn’t, but at times, especially early on in the season. He didn’t blow you away with his numbers, but he was able to step in when some of the guards were injured and play to the best of his abilities and that’s all we can ask. There have been some transfer rumors around Watts at times, and I like him enough to keep him on the bench as an option.

What I didn’t like:
1. Skill. Although I like Watts, I wish he could be better than what he is. But in his defense, he did well in his limited minutes. Shooting percentages are pretty good, but also a little skewed because he almost always played in garbage time.

What I liked:
1. Effort. He tries hard and that’s all we can ask. I don’t expect him to go out and score 12 points per game. He does his best to do what the team needs - an excellent example of a team player.

Watts, again is a good option to have. I think he could get better, but he does what he does and that’s what we ask him to do.

Season in Review: Larry Drew II

2010-05-18T20:51:00.002-04:00

Oh Drew 2. Larry Drew did ok by me this year. He did what he had to do and he did it in the face of adversity quite a few times. As the most scrutinized position in basketball and at UNC, Drew held his own against the naysayers time and time again. It looked like it took him most of the season, but towards the end of the year, he asserted himself as a strong point guard. No, he is not Ty Lawson, but he was needed to run the team and he did a decent job of it. Sure, he needs to improve, but he was the quarterback of a young, weak offensive team. Next year, surrounding him with more talent will only improve his ability.

What I didn’t like:
1. Assertiveness. He didn’t always have the urgency, the mojo, the swagger. He seemed a little to laid back to run the point. He did get better, but teams can often read the point guards language and if the point guard isn’t able to focus or get his team focused, you end up with a record like UNC had this year.
2. Shot selection. Sometimes, he just tried to pull one out or win it all in one shot. He didn’t shoot a lot, but sometimes, he was way off the mark.

What I liked:
1. Holding his head up. Who didn’t crucify Drew at some point this year? I know I did by saying that Kendall Marshall would probably be starting next year. Drew was dissected at the point guard spot and though he knew people didn’t think he was doing a good job, he listened to his coach and kept playing and towards the end of the season, people seemed to change their mind a bit.

2. Improvement. What I wanted Drew to improve on last year – his shooting percentage and his assist to turnover ratio – both improved, especially the shooting percentage. His regular field goals need to improve still as he only shot 40%, but his 3 point percentage was respectable, which it needed to be in order for defenses to not load the paint with defenders. Although his assist-to-turnover ratio wasn’t awesome, it did improve throughout the year.

Drew II has committed to North Carolina, amidst transfer rumors and fans being upset at him. I am also committed to Larry Drew. He isn’t the worst PG in UNC history (insert Adam Boone), but he is who he is – a pass first, verily dependable option.

Wear Twins are Out

2010-05-17T21:06:00.002-04:00

So, David and Travis Wear decided they didn’t want to be Tar Heels anymore. Looking at the big picture for their two roles, I can’t say that they were going to be more than role players anyway, but they could have done some shocking. I feel the ceiling had already peaked with them and they weren’t going to get much better, but they did surprise me with how much playing time they actually received throughout the year.

They are heading back west, which I’m sure is hard on twins being away from their family, but where they go doesn’t really matter to me because now we have no frontcourt depth. We’re looking at Tyler Zeller and John Henson as the bigs and Will Graves playing the 4 occasionally. With Harrison Barnes coming in, I feel he could play the 4 occasionally, but the need for another big man is very pressing right now.

Coach Williams has been on the recruiting trail a bit, trying to find some unsigned big man, who can fit the system. The hard part is though you don’t want to just throw a scholarship to a player who has the ability of Byron Sanders. North Carolina actually had a player named Justin Knox visit recently and according to Knox’s uncle, was offered a scholarship by UNC. This is a potentially good situation we could be in if Knox does sign because he only had one year of eligibility left. He played 3 years for Alabama and finished his degree in 3, so he can transfer and still play in the 2010-2011 season because of being a graduate transfer. If he does sign, you don’t lose a potential scholarship player in the future because he’s only a one year rental. It looks like a win-win for everybody. Knox is also visiting Georgia Tech.

Knox isn’t going to wow anyone, but he does seem to fit the system and could really be a big help because we have no frontcourt depth and can’t afford a timely Tyler Zeller injury again. Knox was interested in going to another SEC school, but Alabama said no way, Jose’. We’ll see how this situation plays out.

Season in Review: John Henson

2010-05-06T17:29:00.001-04:00

I like John Henson. He seems to be a special talent and although he wasn’t as awesome as I thought he was going to be, he did come around late in the season. Part of that was because of injuries, part of it was moving to a more comfortable position on the court. He’s just so lanky. Imagine what he will do when he puts some muscle on his body.

What I didn’t like:

1. Lack of muscle. This hurt quite a bit during the season for two obvious reasons. Henson was unable to guard big post players because they would simply out muscle him. Henson tried hard, but he just didn’t have it. Another reason is that if he puts on some muscle, he might be able to finish plays a bit more. Most opponents could foul him and Henson wouldn’t be able to put the ball in the hoop a-la Tyler Hansbrough. Hopefully he can add some weight this summer. Work him with Jonas!
2. Overhyping. Similar to how the Heels were overhyped, John Henson, as much as I like him, was overhyped. People were talking about how he was the next Kevin Durant. Not so much. Henson has the potential to be a really special player with his unique size and skill set, but he still was some work to do.

What I liked:

1. Shotblocking. Henson is a nice guy to have as your help defender. He is a truly talent shot blocker and decent rebounder too. I think Henson will make up for the departure of Ed Davis pretty well because he can just come out of nowhere and block shots.

2. Ability. Henson is a freak of basketball art. One thing I like about him is his ability to put the ball on the floor a little bit. We saw him stretch the floor a few times in the NIT and it generally led to a baseline dunk. It would be nice if he could add an outside shot to his offensive arsenal in order to take pressure of the other interior players.

Hopefully this next season, Henson will become what Ed Davis was supposed to be for us this year – a real force. He needs to work on his shooting, but I judging from some of his twitter comments, I believe he’s a real worker and will continue to hone in on his game.

Season in Review: Leslie McDonald

2010-04-13T19:37:00.000-04:00

I believe when Leslie McDonald was first recruited, he was touted as Jackie Manuel with a jump shot. I can’t say that he was Manuel with a shot all the time. In fact, I would say he had more of a shot than he had of Jackie Manuel. If McDonald was a defensive threat, I didn’t see it, but perhaps it would be more evident with more playing time. With Marcus Ginyard as the primary defensive stopper, McDonald was unable to see the floor much.

What I didn’t like:
1. Defense. I just didn’t see it and maybe it will be better as he matures as a player and gets some more time. He didn’t play a lot, so it’s hard to get in a grove and rhythm, but if he comes off the bench, he has to be able to come in and give all his energy because he doesn’t get a lot of playing time, so he has to give it all.

What I liked:
1. Contributions. When McDonald did play, he would actually be an offensive threat from my perspective. He would typically be good for a few buckets if he got over 10 minutes and even had a few games where he cracked double digits.

I like McDonald and think he will do well with more experience. I consider him a good option off the bench, even though his shooting percentages need to improve. I hope the defensive does become more evident, because we all know what opposing guards tend to do against UNC.

Bye Bye Ed Davis

2010-04-12T17:40:00.003-04:00

Ed Davis is heading pro, which I thought would happen anyway, but now it's official. He is projected to be a first round pick Terry Davis said the potential NBA lockout weighed heavily on his son's decision. Davis did say that he would finish out his degree in the future, but gave no indication as to when that would happen.

Here's what Roy Williams said about Davis's leaving early:

"Ed is a wonderful young man who I am proud to have coached. He was having a very productive season before suffering a broken wrist. He helped us win a national championship as a freshman and his injuries this past year were certainly an obstacle in us returning to the NCAA Tournament. We wish him great success and look forward to supporting him and following his professional career."

The old injury bug popping in again. Most fans know that Davis missed the final 13 games on the season with a broken wrist, but also, he missed some time earlier (I believe against Wake Forest), with a hamstring injury.

I would have been nice to see Davis develop more as an offensive threat. One could consider him the defensive Brandon Wright, as Wright was more developed on the offensive end and Davis the defensive side.

Chemistry wise, I think the departure will improve the team. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but Davis does not seem like a team player that Carolina needs. One example that comes to mind is when UNC won the 09 Championship, Davis was in his warm-ups with a towel created to be a hood. During postgame celebrations, he was rather non-expressive. Maybe he was upset about not playing as much, but that was something I noticed about Davis. Next year, you might as well pencil Tyler Zeller and John Henson as the starters with Travis and David Wear playing back up. David is still out until at least June with his hip injury and may not even be able to play next year. Stay tuned on that one.

Season in Review: Dexter Strickland

2010-04-11T18:07:00.001-04:00

As I did last year, I will review each scholarship player numerically with the underclassman going first and building up to the seniors. So first up on the list is Dexter Strickland.

Dexter showed some flashes of being a good player and was somewhat forced to play out of position for the majority of the season by being the backup point guard. Next year, it will be nice to see him slide over to shooting guard and see if he fares better.

What didn’t like:
1. Inconsistency. Some games he would have a double figure scoring, but others, he would barely show up in the stat book. I would like Strickland to be able to establish himself more as a consistent player.

2. Shooting %. Strickland shot 43% from the field, 29% from 3, and 69% from the free throw line. As the shooting guard, you have to be able to shoot and Strickland was not always effective from a shooter’s perspective. In his defense, he did play some point guard, but the percentage needs to be brought up.

What I liked:
1. Drive. One thing I especially liked about Strickland was it seemed he was the only Tar Heel fully capable of creating his own shot. That comes with being the backup point guard and shooting guard at the same time, but at times, he was the only Tar Heel who would drive to the basket and see what happened. He was aggressive and I like an attacking guard. Next year, he should be better able to attack from the wing.

2. Willingness. Strickland showed some leadership potential by willing to play 2 positions. That means he has to learn the plays for two positions and handle setting up the offense and guarding one of the other team’s best players (because what guard hasn’t gone off the Tar Heels before?) Credit should be given to Strickland for being able to step up into a role that is a little out of his comfort zone.

I like having Strickland come off the bench. He can be the Danny Green with the spark and energy and leader of the second squad. He’ll improve, and I look forward to watching him develop into a better overall player.

The Sun Will Come Out

2010-04-10T14:21:00.003-04:00

Yes, the sun still rose after Duke was labeled national champions. It hurts, but they did win. It's hard as a Tar Heel fan to see your arch rival win, especially when your team wasn't in the Dance to defend it's title. We went from the highest of highs to a low. Probably not the lowest of lows, but a low nonetheless.

But take heart because we have some young studs in the stable to build around and there is hope coming. Some of the early top 25 polls for next year have UNC ranked anywhere from 10 to 20. First, those polls are way to premature because who knows what's going to happen between now and the NBA draft, but I'm not going to be a sucker for the hype next year. I firmly believe that UNC can be good, but they have to earn that ranking before I give it to them. I gave them the ranking this year and we ended up in the NIT. I'm looking forward to it though.

As far as some future blog postings, I will be doing player-by-player reviews soon and also some book reviews for you to take a look at. Thanks for reading!

Addition by Subtration

2010-04-05T17:50:00.001-04:00

One of the biggest offseason questions will be whether or not Ed Davis does go pro. At the beginning of this year, I would have said that was a bad idea, but that’s when I thought Ed Davis was going to be an 18 and 11 guy every night. Since Davis was not like that and then was injured, I’m not convinced he would be willing to stick around and risk another injury. Most mock drafts have him as a top 10 pick. In fact, I can’t think of one that doesn’t have him as a top 10 pick.

If Davis did leave, I don’t think it would be the end of the world. In fact, I think this team would be better for a few reasons:

1) I don’t think Davis is a true team player. He doesn’t strike me as a team oriented guy. Not to say that he is a selfish guy who demands the ball all the time, but that fact that he doesn’t seem to put a lot of work into his game and that can hurt team chemistry because people see that he doesn’t work very hard and is still getting playing time. Ed Davis is a talent, but it seems like he is Ty Lawson as a freshman, where Lawson was not allowed to start because he kept messing around. Ed Davis is not a trickster like Lawson, but he just seems to not put the effort in, similar to how Lawson was, when he just got by on talent and not being a complete player.

2) If Davis leaves, I think that would open the door for Tyler Zeller to emerge as a main threat on offense. Zeller is obviously more offensive minded than Davis, but with John Henson on the weak side, Zeller could probably get away with more than he normally could because of Henson’s shot blocking ability. I was very impressed with Zeller as he came back from injury and really picked up where he left off. He was good for 9 points and 5 boards a night, which is good as your 6th man and I think if he starts, those numbers are only going to go up with more minutes and shot opportunities.

3. With Davis gone, the line-up would probably be Zeller at center, Henson at the power forward, Harrison Barnes at the other forward, with Will Graves, Dexter Strickland, Larry Drew II, or Kendall Marshall in the backcourt (which will probably remain a question mark until we get closer to the season. But the front court would still be strong with the 2 above bigs and the Wear twins playing the backup role. I believe if we needed to go small, Barnes could slide over to the 4 because of his height.

This is all speculation at this point, but if Davis does opt for the NBA, I don’t consider it a huge loss and the pieces will fall back into place soon enough. My honest hope is that he does go pro, but we’ll see what happens.

Never Again

2010-04-03T18:33:00.004-04:00

That's what John Henson said after the NIT Championship lost. Meaning, never again will the Tar Heels be back in the NIT because that's not where they belong. They should be playing on Thursdays or Fridays, not Tuesdays.

At the beginning of March, I didn't know if I wanted the Heels in the NIT. I was hoping they would just to keep playing. But after the play that we saw the second half of the season, I was less excited about the possibilities of playing in the NIT because I did not want to get embarrassed, but the NIT was beneficial for a few reasons.

1. It gave young players more game experience as well as a post-season atmosphere, even though it was the NIT. 2. We get to see John Henson play more because to me, he was the lone bright spot for this team.

Dayton played well and were a tough team. One of the more defensive minded teams. They kept stepping up when UNC would narrow the lead down to 2, and nail a back breaking 3 pointer. Boo Dayton Flyers. Oh well.

This team certainly exceeded my expectations in the NIT and made the record more respectable, but one must ask, where was this all year? This year's team did beat Ohio State, who had the amazing Evan Turner. They also beat Michigan State who is currently playing in the Final Four. They lost by 1 to one of the top teams all year in Kentucky. Injuries played a part with a number of players missing time, but the turnovers never helped and once the losses started coming, the confidence is dwindled, if there at all.

Next year, should be brighter, but I don't want to say we'll be back in the Final Four. I think next year's team can, but I thought the same about this year's team as well. There are a number of other pieces that will need to fall in before we can truly speculate. One big question is whether Ed Davis will be back next year or not. Another is whether John Henson can actually gain some weight. We'll see soon enough.

It will be sad to see Deon Thompson and Marcus Ginyard go out the way they did, but I believe they should have stepped up more. Maybe they were just role players who were forced to be stars, similar to Kris Lang and Jason Capel. It is hard to image that a chunky freshman named Deon Thompson would become the NCAA leader in games played, but it can just be added to his pretty good player, just not a superstar. I wish them the best as they continue in life.

Well, it's Looking Really Ugly

2010-03-10T17:27:00.004-05:00

The lack of blogging has been because of the lack of heart displayed by the UNC basketball team. I figure, if they don't get hyped to play games, why should I get hyped about blogging? How's that little zinger?

With the ACC tournament close-at-hand and other bubble teams looking to make it in the dance, even if UNC made an amazing run to the ACC title game, it probably wouldn't be enough and the selection committee would probably be doing UNC a favor by not including them because they would just not show any heart and get ousted in the first round.

The tip of the iceberg for me was the Duke game recently. A 32 point beat-down against their arch rival. I stopped watching when the score was 48-21 because we have not scorers, who can score that many points and we have no defense to stop the Duke scoring. This game was a polar opposite teams playing. One hard-nosed team versus a team that is just waiting for someone to pull the plug on them.

To top it all off, when the all ACC teams were announced, there wasn't even a hint of a North Carolina player anywhere. For the first time in the school's history. EVER. And there shouldn't have been because no one played like it.

Then word comes out from Marcus Ginyard, via Adam Lucas that all these problems started in the pre-season and it's a wonder that this team made it to .500 on the season. Players didn't care about each other; didn't listen to their coach. The list goes on and on.

With all that said, it is important to keep in mind that until a winner is crowned in Indianapolis, North Carolina is still the defending. We seem to have forgotten that little fact. Though times are tough in the present, draw from the past and look forward to the future.

This is Truely Depressing

2010-02-22T15:27:00.004-05:00

Not only can UNC not win any games that we have grown accustomed to them winning, but we can't even stay remotely healthy even while losing. Tyler Zeller returned from injury to play 16 minutes and chip in 9 points and 7 boards, so I hope he is ready to up his play because it looks like David Wear is not going to play against Florida State. Travis Wear might return, but it is uncertain.

Either way, are you surprised? This season has not gone well and I know players are already talking about what they are going to improve on this summer. A little disheartening, but it is reality because this team will not make the NCAA tournament. It's bubble popped and we will not have a chance to add more banners this year (barring a miraculous run in the ACC tournament, which I have no faith in because of the team I have seen since the beginning of January).

I would just like to point out that every opposing team, especially in the ACC is loving this Tar Heels team because they can return the favor that UNC has done to them for the past 3 years, but even the last 5 years. To all of them, I can only say, enjoy while you can. This team is not dead forever and they should check out this piece from ESPN. It talks about how losing won't break Roy Williams and will drive him farther and I agree completely. He may be tearing his gray hair out coaching this year, but if you think this season won't burn a fire under him to bring in better players, coach harder, recruit harder, then you better watch and learn. We'll be back, so foes - enjoy it while you can.

Point Guard of the Future?

2010-02-14T20:46:00.005-05:00

In watching the Duke/UNC game, I couldn't help notice how many unforced errors there were in the game (shocking, I know). But it seemed a good majority of the turnovers came from the point guard, Larry Drew II.

I like Larry Drew II and think he has done a serviceable job as the point guard for this year's team, but I'm not sure if he isn't just the second coming of Quentin Thomas. Many times this season, we have seen Drew drive the lane and try to have an amazing pass, but only for the rock to end up in the hands of the opposing team, which is why I question him as the point guard of next year's team.

I'll be honest, I don't pay close attention to recruits until they arrive on campus, but with the struggles this year's team has had, it's hard not to focus on next year's class a bit more than in the past. UNC is bringing in Kendall Marshall, a 6'3" PG, who is rated a 4 star recruit and is the 32nd ranked player in his class, but the the 9th overall PG.

For comparison's sake, Larry Drew II was the 71st rated player, and the 10th overall PG in his class.

In reading about Marshall, he is said to be the best passer in the class, according to ESPNU. Here is what rivals says about Marshall:

With a superb basketball IQ, Marshall plays with surprising poise and at a deceptive pace. He sets up for a burst that is just fast enough to beat his man and controlled enough for him to read the situation with precision. The leftly also has a more-than-reliable jumper and has a knack for delivering the pass with timing whether it is off his penetration in the half court or a
pass up the court in transition. Improving his explosiveness and improving on the defensive side of the ball are his next challenges.

Here's what Rivals said about Drew during his senior year of high school:

With a good mind for the game, Drew has a knack for running a team and finding an open man. Perhaps the best thing he does, however is shoot the ball from behind the arc. His foot speed and overall athleticism is an area for concern as a high-major prospect although.

Now, on paper it appears that Drew is the better shooter, which is most likely accurate and Marshall is faster and a better passer. But next year, Drew will have 2 years under Roy Williams' system, but the turnovers can be such a team-killer, especially when you are a team that's built for making runs.

I don't know who will start next year, but I posted this to pose the question of what could possibly happen next year. Personally, I like a pass-first point guard and while Drew has shown that at times, I'm not sure it translates as well as Marshall's game could in the UNC system. We'll see what happens. It could be worth noting that this situation could play out similar to Bobby Frasor and Ty Lawson during Lawson's freshman year. That year Frasor started the first 6 games and then Coach Williams took the reigns off of Lawson and the rest is ACC Player of the Year history.

Holy Moses, They Won!

2010-02-14T20:36:00.002-05:00

I was beginning to doubt if we would ever see the win column move up again, but it did, despite the mountain of injuries that is plaguing this team currently. Ed Davis is essentially out for the season with a broken wrist, shortening our post rotation down even farther (Remember when big men seemed to be everywhere for this team?).

But John Henson filled in nicely as a hybrid post player and actually looked pretty comfortable there, despite not having enough bulk. I thought he played a great game and it will be fun to watch him play next year with more weight on him.

The defense was good and the turnovers were few. NC State is not ACC title material, but they are a rival, and they are an ACC team, and they were a win for this team that desperately needed one. Adam Lucas said it was refreshing to walk into the victor's locker room after what seemed like an eternity since the team's last victory.

Solid contributions all around, which is what this team probably needed and probably will need if they hope to win anymore games. Go Heels - even in the down times.

Well, at Least They Tried Hard

2010-02-11T15:34:00.003-05:00

Imagine what our record could be if we had the same kind of intensity all season, as we did against Duke. I don't think it would be 13-11 and 2-7 in the ACC. But what the game came down to in my mind was a lack of a go-to scorer/leader in the last few minutes. It was an ugly game throughout, with both teams putting their noses close to the grindstone and digging in on defense, but Duke stopped being ugly with around 5 minutes left, when Jon Scheyer, Kyler Singler, and Nolan Smith took over the game. UNC does not have that luxury. Even if they did, they would probably be injured on the bench because that's how the season has gone.

The last few minutes were chaos for North Carolina, as they would dribble down the court, down by 8 and jack up a 3 pointer. Yes, they needed to score, but they could at least work the ball around for an open shot. And we should have tried to go with our go-to scorer, who is still MIA because we don't have one. We probably won't until next season, and even then, I'm not totally sure who is is going to be.

In reading postgame comments, it's obvious the players felt focused, but they all said the same thing: that it dropped in the last 8 minutes of the game. A few of the players also brought up the fact that if they played like this all season, they wouldn't be sitting close to the cellar of the ACC standings.

I thought John Henson played well and is giving up glimpses of what he will be like in the future. When he first showed up on campus, I thought he would be a one-and-done player, but I see that as highly unlikely. The defense was there and the effort was there, just not the execution tonight.

So where do we go from here? Well, we might be 3 or 4 more victories in the ACC, but I'm starting to look ahead to next year. I still support the team and will continue to watch and blog, but the NIT is calling and UNC is looking like they are on the guest list, which I never thought would happen under Roy Williams. Next year's class will help with depth on the wings and in the backcourt and should be special (but a lot of people said that about this year's class).

On a side note, Tyler Hansbrough had his #50 retired last night. I almost felt like the awe of Psycho-T would bring us to victory and perhaps Coach K would die of a heart attack when he saw him, but not last night. Anyway, Hansbrough certainly deserved the honor and I can't wait to go see his jersey up in the rafters someday.

About That

2010-02-03T15:16:00.004-05:00

If Roy Williams doesn't have anything to say, how can I? What can I say that hasn't already been said on this blog, other blogs, message boards, and every national sports media outlet? The Tar Heels aren't doing so hot and no one is really sure why. Turnovers, defense, Marcus Ginyard, no guards, outside shots aren't falling, injuries, weak post players, intensity are all reasons that have been thrown around and no doubt, all of them have played a part in UNC's struggles this year.

We're on the bubble and in need of some big wins in the next few games to avoid NIT talk. I never thought we would see the NIT again with Williams at the helm, but I guess crazier things have happened in the college basketball world.

I don't know what it boils down too. And I don't think it's precisely one problem, but several problems. I do know that the problem is not the coach because Williams has taken the blame for his team's performance for awhile, but they players have to take up and take responsibility for their play. They keep talking about wanting it more and intensity, but talk is cheap at this point. We have seen Williams play zone, which I can only remember him doing in the 05 title game to keep Raymond Felton out of foul trouble. He has called timeouts to try to stop runs, but nothing has worked. I don't play Ol' Roy at all for this year's lack of success. Injuries haven't helped, as a healthy Tyler Zeller would have helped when Ed Davis was out, but it happens. We can only hope as fans, that something clicks soon in the player's heads and the W's start acomin'.

Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen

2010-01-24T16:10:00.003-05:00

I'm having a hard time coping with this team right now because I thought they would be better. I expected the team to be competitive and at times they have been, but not for a while 40 minutes. Yes, we've been hit with some injuries, but that comes with any team.

3 losses in a row is new territory for we the fans because we have been absolutely spoiled by Roy Williams and his staff and the players he has brought in. There are still quite a number of teams who would love to have our problems.

There is some talk that our team is NIT bound and I can't say I quite agree yet. There is still a lot of basketball to play and our Strength of Schedule has been pretty solid this year with the top 35 teams in the nation. Yes, the Heels do need to take care of some business to avoid bubble talk, but I'm confident they will rebound here. They have to, right?

That One Stung

2010-01-17T17:29:00.003-05:00

I thought they were going to win. I had my title all picked out. It was going to read "That's what I'm talking about." It just felt like they were going to win, despite the Mr. Hyde first half, the Dr. Jekyll second half comeback seemed like it was made for this team.

The team played with a sense of urgency in the second half. If they could play like that for a whole game, instead of one half, we could be sitting at 14-4 instead of 12-6. So far this season, every chance to become optimistic is resulted with another poor performance and another reason to remain down in the dumps about this team. I still believe that this team can turn things around, but sometimes I need to see it in order to believe it too. I'm not seeing it. I see glimpses, but not enough to put it together. Not enough ownership; not enough leadership; not enough urgency.

Will Graves played the game of his life and we finally see the shooting that we have heard about for a number of years. I hope it can continue.

If it's any consolation, last year's team was 1-2 in the ACC, beginning with 2 opening losses, so it's possible. But reality is that last year's team won the NCAA Tournament, which is highly unlikely at this point. Ed Davis, Deon Thompson, and Marcus Ginyard said they wanted to have their own championship ring, but most of their actions suggest otherwise.

Eye of the Tigers

2010-01-14T17:29:00.004-05:00

I didn't know if we were up to Clemson this time around. Something felt off to me and low and behold, we have a blow-out loss to Clemson. I didn't get to watch the game and that makes me glad because I think I would have been pretty upset watching the turnover machine that is North Carolina.

I thought of an analogy today about this year's team. I would consider them to be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde this year. Dr. Jekyll would be the North Carolina team that was present against Michigan State and the second half versus Va Tech. The Mr. Hyde version is the one we have seen a good portion of the season and unfortunately, seems to be taking over Jekyll's play.

Coach Williams blamed the loss on himself in his postgame quotes, saying he did a poor job of coaching. Sure, he could have done things better, but he's not the one out there who can't pass the ball inbounds or throws it over somebody's head. 26 Turnovers. 26! 17 from the starters - the experienced players! I think it's getting inexcusable now and something has to change.

Adam Lucas wrote in his postgame article about the team lacking focus. If you read the post-game comments, the message is similar from the players. I think this statement from a freshman, Dexter Strickland, stood out to me the most:

"It's thinking too much. It's being scared to make a mistake. When you play cautious you're more likely to make a mistake."

I played soccer in college and I remember when I started worrying about making mistakes, that's when I made the most mistakes or played the most cautious. When I didn't think about everything that I could be doing and just tried to make a play is when I had the most success. I'm not saying that Williams should throw caution out the door and let the horses loose, but somebody needs to step up and bit and take some leadership. We have seen a bit of this factor or just going out and making something out of nothing from Dexter Strickland some, but he does still make freshman mistakes and cause turnovers. I think this could be the perfect situation to throw John Henson into so that he can become a better player.

In doing this, North Carolina might establish itself a go-to scorer, someone who gets the last shot because as of right now, the guy who gets the last shot on the team for me is probably Larry Drew II or Strickland, but only because of their ability to break people down off the dribble. I'm not saying this should turn into chaos, but it is something to think about. Make the players stop thinking and start doing. If I had an answer for this situation, I'm sure a lot of coaches would ask me how, but I don't. This season that was filled with potential and hype is suddenly shrinking and becoming a harsh reality. Boo reality, boo!

Go Team

2010-01-12T21:07:00.003-05:00

Well, we are guarteend not to go winless in ACC play now. Virginia Tech is a tough team and they may not be Top 25, but they have played North Carolina tough lately. I did have my doubts, especially thinking we wouldn't have Marcus Ginyard and possibily without Will Graves and Leslie McDonald. But they all played and I think it's a good thing because they don't have too many games together.

Hopefully this game can be a confidence builder for the team. the crowd was good and I thought the team looked good for the most part. I thought the team was patient against the Va Tech zone, moving the ball around and looking for the open man instead of forcing shots. Some balanced scoring to fill up the box score. Ed Davis continues to impress and do well. He needs to stay another year for my sake. Team him and Harrison Barnes together....oh golly.

Defense looked pretty good too and the team really clamped down on Malcolm Deleaney in the second half. And we threw 4 different defenders at him. That might be what we need to do in order to prevent these scoring guards from having big nights. We'll see.

Execution

2010-01-05T21:16:00.002-05:00

We lack it. Hardcore. Very hardcore. Marcus Ginyard and Will Graves certainly would have helped in the C of C game, but they were held out and though the hill was a little steeper to climb, North Carolina should not have lost this game. But they did and there is no use crying over it now. It's a loss and we can get over it and move on. It is however a little tough because we exepcted so much more from this team by now.

We thought Ed Davis would be awesome and he has been. That dunk he threw down after the little pump fake was pretty nasty. Marcus Ginyard was supposed to be David Noel II and he hasn't been quite that good. He has been better than the Marcus of old, at least on the offensive end, but I'm not quite sold on defense. But I would have rather taken his defense on Goudelock than Deon Thompson, but obviously that's not how the basketball world wanted it. Larry Drew II has been better than most expected, but still has mental lapses and bad judgement and John, Henson, who was supposed to be Kevin Durant, has done nothing but block shots. We were over-hyped to begin with, and it's coming into play now. I wouldn't say we were losing to College of Charlestown over-hyped, but that's why they play the game.

What this loss comes down to is a lack of leadership and execution. Coach Williams pinned the leadership aspect on himself and maybe part of that is true, but the team was down two upperclassman starters. Logic dictates that someone else speaks up or steps up. From the execution side of the argument, they are a young team and are trying to worry about the right plays and defensive sets, let alone late game clock management. They simply haven't practiced it much and when looking at this game on the schedule, the coaches probably figured they wouldn't need to worry about practicing these types of situations right now against this caliber of a team. Well, lesson learned.

I'm not blaming this on any one individual, but the team and I'm just not sure what to think anymore. The lofty expectations seemed achievable and some of these goals are still out there, but I hope these young players know that in ACC play, you have to bring it every night or you're going to walk out of the gym with the C of C loss feeling a lot. Go Heels! Please!

Put Me in Coach

2009-12-31T16:57:00.002-05:00

Because I am ready to play. Albany should not have been allowed to end the game on a 23-2 run. Yes, we did have some walks-ons in there, but that's no excuse for the rotation players to want to try and throw alley-oops and no look passes for 4 straight possessions. I don't have much to say, but I don't think we can keep coming up with excuses for this team. First it was youth, then turnovers, then not manning up, then it was not finishing teams off.

Adam Lucas brought up this point in his post-game article and I think it has some merit. He compares this team to the 2003-2004 team, which had to buy into Roy Williams' system and figure out what was expected of them and I can see it. This team seems to be struggling with following orders and focusing based on Williams comments, but I'm not sure. I'm not there and I can only get so much from print media.

Leslie McDonald played well in the absence of Marcus Ginyard and Justin Watts. It would be great if he could use this game as a spring board and produce more when he is on the court, but time will tell. Until next time...

Well, I've Seen Better

2009-12-29T15:38:00.003-05:00

I watched most of this game, but in the second half, with North Carolina up by 13 and me struggling to stay awake, I went to bed because I was for sure they were on the verge of pushing the Scarlet Knights over the edge. Well, the Heels still won, but the Knights really never went over the edge and I think it's safe to say this team lacks a killer instinct.

I say this because, Rutgers - thought they are a good team, should not have gotten the lead down to 4. I would probably accept 10 or 12, but not 4. This year's squad cannot stay with their foot on the gas pedal and that's because they get out of control and throw turnovers away like they are t-shirts for the fans. I remember a few minutes before halftime that we had three straight turnovers, which led to easy buckets. There was no real pressure on these turnovers, just careless, lazy plays. If these kind of plays keep happening, it could be a long ACC season.

Now, we do have some good things from this game. And we have to fact facts about this game. Good things are that it was a balanced scoring effort, Ed Davis is a double-double machine, and Dexter Strickland is going to be really good. Facts are that they won without senior leader Marcus Ginyard, and that they are disappointed with themselves and Roy is pretty ticked off too.

If you read, the postgame comments, it's obvious that the previous sentence is resounding in the North Carolina locker room, but perhaps, from Twitter is one of the best quotes of this day:

@eddavis32 Bout to get something to eat and head to this 2nd practice. They say college is the best years of your life.

I'm confident things will change in the very near future.

Hooked by the Horns

2009-12-20T14:42:00.006-05:00

Golly. Gee. Whiz. I waited awhile to let this one set in and talk about it on here because I was greatly disappointed, but now that emotions have settled down, I can better rationalize this game.

Let's look at some of the positives from this game. UNC was down by 17 before battling back to get it to 4. Once again, we have battled back after putting ourselves in a whole, which they also did against Kentucky. So, it's nice to see this team not give up, even against a mostly burnt-orange crowd.

Second positive is the fact that Ed Davis is such a beast. I was very impressed with his ability to control his body while in the air and then finish the play with a bucket, with some contact sometimes. The same could be said about Tyler Zeller, as combined, the two sophomores were 16-21 from the field. It's nice to see them be effective when they get the ball. This will be a good front court next year if Davis stays and while Zeller may not be a super strong defender, I believe he will get better and you might be surprised that he is averaging just under a block per game.

A final positive is that Dexter Strickland knows when the team needs someone to just make something happen. Yes, he did force a shot before the end of the first half and that caused Texas to get two baskets in the last 15 seconds, but he sometimes just lowers his head and barrels his way to the hoop. He had a few nice drives where he just drove hard and finished. I also really liked him in the backcourt with Larry Drew II. I thought that was a very effective backcourt while they were in the game together.

Now for some negatives. I know the argument has been made that our big men have the tendency to be soft and sometimes I think that argument is valid. For the life of me, I'm not sure why Deon Thompson thought he was Michael Jordan circa 1998, trying all these fade aways and runner-like shots in the lane, but he's 6'9," 245. He should not be fading away from contact, but rather going into the contact. Ed Davis did well for his weight, but seemed like his hands lacked a bit.

Another negative is Marcus Ginyard. Early in the second half, I was really questioning him as the 5th year senior leader. Then he did hit a few shots to help widdle away at the lead, but his lack of defense is what amazed me. This is Marcus, the shutdown man, who seemed to struggle greatly. His lateral movement seemed slow. Part of this could be his foot is causing him pain, because he was probably going into the game, but I must say I was disappointed with his effort. He had a number of careless turnovers and I just hope that if some of this is related to his foot, that he can take a few of these easier holiday games off and rest his foot up.

A final negative is the defense and I'm going to include the rebounding on this section too. I have never seen a team score so many points against UNC in the manner that Texas did. They scored 103 points and only shot 41% and that's because they had 26 offensive rebounds and I have no idea how many second chance points, but I thought it was just ridiculous how often Texas ended up with the ball down in the paint after a missed shot. I know Dexter Pittman is a big boy, but there is no excuse for not putting a body on him. I was always taught that if you can get your butt on a guy, you do it and it seemed like North Carolina was content to try and outjump Texas on the boards. I hope Tyler Hansbrough comes back to Chapel Hill this summer and teaches the Heels how to box out because if they continue to do what they did against Texas, it will be a long season.

Now Texas is #2 in the land for a reason and they are a good team. They showed that yesterday, but I think if North Carolina can correct some of these mistakes, they could easily be a good team. Roy said that this Texas team could be the best Texas team Rick Barnes has had, so obviously, this team is good because Texas has had Final Four teams under Rick Barnes. The schedule has been tough, Coach Williams himself has said he was a little over ambitious in scheduling all these games with this young team, but hopefully in the long run, it makes the Heels better. At least we can say that we have played people, which is usually what some of these experts say when UNC rattles off 15 games in a row at the beginning of the season.

A final thought and I will leave you. This is North Carolina's 3rd loss on the year. Last year, the Heels' third loss did not come until February 21nd against Maryland. The year before was against Kansas on April 5th. In 2006-2007, the third loss was on February 3rd against North Carolina State. and in 2005-2006 was on January 14th, versus Miami. I would say this year's Heels have more talent that the 05-06 Heels, but they didn't have the schedule that this year's squad has. The season is far from over and it could be possible that the worse of the schedule is over. Yes, ACC play is tough, but there aren't 5 teams in the ACC ranked in the top 18 in the country. Anyone can admit, we have been pretty spoiled over the last few years and this year is just a bit frustrating because of the success that the past Heels teams have had. We'll be ok, I promise.

Decade Dominance

2009-12-16T20:25:00.003-05:00

Boom! Decade of Dominance is over. Sports Illustrated is doing their decade recap of different sports and in the process, they named Tyler Hansbrough player of the decade and Coach Williams coach of the decade.

I can't say this is a huge surprise as no other player put together quite a storied career or stay in school for four years, or won a national player of the year, or set the ACC scoring record, or won a national championship. Hansbrough is absolutely deserving and I can think of no other player in the running, let alone deserving to win.

Williams is a bit of different story because it depends on how you want to base this on; whether it is on national titles, final four appearances, NCAA tournament appearances, program success. I do think Williams is deserving because he did go to 5 final fours, won 2 national titles, and has been a recruiting genius. Sure, Billy Donavon won 2 titles with Florida, but fell on the national stage for a year or two after the titles. I'm not in anyway saying that Williams is not deserving, but I can see critics arguing this more than the player of the decade.

Interesting enough, Michigan State was voted team of the decade because they made the tournament every year and won a national title as well as a number of Final Fours.

And another piece of information from this is biggest bust of the decade and it goes to Shavlik Randolph, shocking that we have another Duke failure.

Slow week again, but it should pick up again soon. Go Heels!

Ho Hum

2009-12-13T16:32:00.004-05:00

Well, at least UNC got a tougher practice out of the way. Seriously, Presbyterian had no business being on the floor with North Carolina and Coach Williams said in his post-game comments that they had had some bad practices and challenged the players to get more out of this game then in practice the last few days.

Not a lot can be said about this game. With Marcus Ginyard out, as well as Dexter Strickland, the backcourt was even smaller, but players who normally don't play much stepped into some bigger shoes and was able to get the job done. I was pleased with John Henson's effort in the box score and hope this is a sign of things to come.

With Texas looming on Saturday, I hope the Heels come to play and that Ginyard and Strickland are good to go. Strickland apparently felt better last night then he did yesterday morning, so I would expect him to go at Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Ginyard's foot problem is supposedly unreleated to last year's injury, but only time will tell.

Just a Reminder

2009-12-03T20:48:00.001-05:00

UNC has beaten Michigan State 3 times in a year.

Challenge Answered

2009-12-02T21:08:00.004-05:00

Well, I was proven wrong and boy, am I happy to be wrong! This was easily the statement game of the young season.

I look at this game as a tale of two halves and two teams: potential team vs inexperienced team. The first half was amazing and proves that this team can hang with anyone in the country. Michigan State was picked to win the Big Ten and was supposed to be one of the front runners for the national title in April. But after a Dexter Strickland dagger at the end of the half, there stood the young Heels up 16 points, proving that North Carolina has the potential and ability to play with anyone. This game was especially encouraging with some big games looming against Kentucky and Texas. Neither one of these is a guaranteed win, because we have the second half to talk about.

The second half represented the inexperienced team. I say inexperienced because of the silly mistakes like not getting back on transition defense, missing free throws, and Deon Thompson for three?!?! Part of this inexperienced is the fact that MUS is a good team as noted above and you knew they would make a run at some point and North Carolina could not shoot 64% for the whole game. The whole half wasn't awful, just a little sloppy because UNC started off strong, pushing the lead up to 19 points before the sloppiness began.

Things I didn't like:
1. Transition defense. I can't recall a team beating North Carolina down the court for easy buckets. Sure, a team will get an occasional basket, but MSU was doing more times in this game than I can recall all last year.

2. Turnovers. Yes, shocking, but it wasn't the number of turnovers, but it was the fact that of the 17 turnovers, 14 were from the starters, the more experienced of the team, but also Michigan State had 15 steals off of those 17 turnovers. I can handle the turnovers, but lets not give up the ball off steals.

Things I liked:
1. Freshman domination. If the freshman were waiting to show up, they picked a good time. I was very pleased with all of them. Even if Dexter Strickland was the only one who scored over two points, they all contributed in some way, with John Henson blocking 4 shots - all coming out of nowhere, and The Wear Twins chipping in with solid defense. Dexter Strickland was awesome. He was aggressive, poised, and played some solid defense.

2. Super Sophomores. The freshman were good, but the sophomores were outstanding. Larry Drew II, in his last two games has almost made me forget about Ty Lawson. Ok, not quite, but he has been pretty Ty Lawson-like. He is shooting the ball with confidence and finding open teammates for easy buckets. Ed Davis played how every major broadcaster thought he would and showed more of his potential and why he was projected as a top 5 pick in the draft. I still think Deon Thompson is the man for this team, but Ed Davis is a pretty good sidekick.

Overall, great game for the Heels and we see what they can be. Hopefully, they can keep up the pace.

UNChallenged

2009-12-01T16:46:00.003-05:00

That's a nice picture and it's hard to believe that it was nearly 8 months ago, but it has been and tonight is the rematch in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge against the National runner-up, Michigan State Spartans and your North Carolina Tar Heels.

To be honest, this doesn't seem like a rematch to me. North Carolina's roster has undergone an overhaul because of the departures. MSU has lost some too, but not as much.

But before we dive into too much pre-game babble, lets be sure to congratulate Coach Williams on win #600. I wish him many more because I like him around. It seemed like his 500th win was just 2 seasons ago, when it was probably more like 3 and that's quite an accomplishment for the old guy. I only say old because he looks funny with his sling on out there in his defensive stance.

Back to the game at hand and I'm just not feeling too good about this game. Quite a number of ranked opponents in the next few games and I don't think this young Heels squad are up to the task just yet, but they could surprise me because they have before.

Two obvious advantages that the Heels do have is that the game is in Chapel Thrill, so the crowd will be behind them and be cranking at tip-off time. The other advantage is our front court, as will almost always be the advantage for this year's team. UNC, if able to establish themselves in the paint and on the boards, may be able to run away with this game.

So we'll see. As I write this, I starting to feel better about the Tar Heels chances. We haven't lost as ACC/Big Ten Challenge since 06 and the ACC has never lost, so we'll look to keep the streak alive.

It's Been A While

2009-11-25T20:33:00.003-05:00

Since we had a Tyler Hansbrough post and thankfully, Seth Davis decided he would write a nice piece about the great Heel ever and nominate him for Sportsman of the Year that SI does every year. So check it out. It's basically a recount of his career - mostly highlights and it's about the Legend known as Tyler Hansbrough.

Just for an NBA update on the man, he's doing quite well despite the fact that he's not supposed to be that good at that level. He's averaging 8.8 points per game and 4.5 rebounds in 17 minutes a night. He's not shooting the ball that well from the field or the line, but I can't think of any rookie in the association that does well shooting his first year. I think he could make a run at an all Rookie Team as the season progresses, but we'll see.

Overrated

2009-11-21T08:56:00.004-05:00

Maybe. A little bit. That's what North Carolina is.

That is not to say they don't have the potential to be a top 5 team, but the panel was wrong giving it to them this early in the season. I was wrong for getting to caught up in the hype. This team will have some learning experiences and I know the Syracuse game will be one of them.

I live in the Syracuse area and have never truly liked the Orange, even a little bit. I was cheering for Kansas in the 2003 championship game and I was about the only one in my school, church, and probably in New York. I have been dreaming of playing Syracuse for years now and it almost happened last year, until the 'Cuse ran into a good Oklahoma team in the Sweet Sixteen. Well, the SU-UNC matchup finally happened and I didn't like the result. I only watched the second half and that was the wrong half to watch. This game brought up bad memories of the Kansas game because the collapse at the beginning of the second half was really, really bad.

North Carolina couldn't hit a shot, turned the ball over carelessly, and SU hit everything like they were throwing rocks in the ocean, which led to a 20 point lead for the Orange. I wasn't panicing at this point because there was still a lot of time left and I really thought we had it after one of the Wear's hit a three pointer to bring it within 8, but SU answered with Wesley Johnson, who played really well, and North Carolina had no answer for him.

Is all lost? No, but we will probably drop to #8 in the polls, which is fine because we should be ranked somewhere in the 10-20 range right now because we are not a top 5 team. The pollsters looked at the success that the 05-06 team had and judged them on that and that's not fair to these current edition of the Heels because John Henson, the high profile freshman who has been less than impressive to me, who is our high recruit, is not Tyler Hansbrough, who was the high recruit that could compare to him.

Things I didn't like:
1. To start the first half, we shot 2 airball three pointers, which really summarized how the next 10 minutes went - south. SU will sit in their 2-3 zone until Jim Boeheim dies. UNC needed to work the ball around more and take better shots because we can't outshoot teams.

2. John Henson has been a big disappointment to me. Maybe he's just getting used to playing on the perimeter, but he has not had that "wow" factor that Marcus Ginyard talked about. He's had some nice dunks, but I think that's where all of his points have come from. If I was 6'10" I could dunk too.

Things I liked:
1. Tough early season loss. I don't like losing, but with the way the schedule is set-up. I would rather lose the first game of the ranked set of opponents and then fix the mistakes and play better against Michigan State, Kentucky, and Texas. Earlier this week, I read that Roy said he might have over-scheduled his young team and I agree wholeheartedly now. It looked good on paper, but so did the Heels.

2. Wear Twins. They are easily my favorites on this year's team. Maybe it's because of the Tyler Hansbrough-like work ethic, or maybe it's because they are smart players. I really doubted these guys coming into the season because all the experts said they would be lucky if they saw any court time, so I took that as a possibility of a red shirt for them, but I am ever so thankful that didn't happen because it wouldn't be good. They provide a nice shot in the arm off the bench and it's a treat watching them play. Hopefully, I'll be able to tell them apart before the season is over.

Ol' Roy Has Done It Again

2009-11-13T16:51:00.002-05:00

The man is simply on fire. Harrison Barnes has committed to North Carolina and God said that it was good! Roy Williams did not really start recruiting this young man until after the national championship. And he snagged him - mostly by showing off his championship rings and saying "we get these at North Carolina, so can you." Barnes, along with fellow letter-of-intent signers, Reggie Bullock and Kendall Marshall, are ranked #1, #11, and #21 in this year's class and that's really good news for North Carolina fans. It's even going to be more exciting, watching this year's team grow, and then throw in these three exceptional athletes. It's a good day to be a Tar Heel.

So Was That One

2009-11-12T20:01:00.004-05:00

Easy. Maybe too easy, but it's not like the Heels can't use this extra practices out there to get used to each other. I didn't watch much of the game, so I don't have too many observations to relay to you readers out there. I think the defense was pretty good again, especially during that run towards the end of the first half.

Turnovers were lower, but still could be better. The whole team did a nice job working the ball around with a jaw-dropping 29 total assists. Will Graves was the only regular rotation player to not register an assist. One assist I was particularly impressed with was when one of the Wear twins was double-teamed in the post and he made a nice little dump pass to Tyler Zeller for the two handed flush. Those Wear twins are impressive to me so far this year.

Defensively, the blocked shots are awesome. If an opposing frontcourt ever dominates this team, then they all need to eat their Wheaties or something because they are so big. Same thing with the rebounds, but I expect the rebounding margin to lessen with better competition.

Free throw shooting has been solid for 2 games, which is great, especially from Deon Thompson and Ed Davis because they are weak from the line, but so far so good.

It's hard to know this team very well yet with all the sporadic minutes so far this season. Marcus Ginyard led the team with 23 minutes played and all the rotational players logged at least 10 minutes. Dexter Strickland also had a nice bounce back game after Monday's disaster.

I am very impressed with Tyler Zeller's play, as well as Justin Watts. I know Zeller will play quite a bit this year and will probably be the first Heel off the bench, so I expect his play to stay steady. Watts is a question mark to me. I'm not sure if Coach Williams is playing him as much because he expects him to be a regular player, or if he's trying to build confidence in Watts, or if he is just trying to throw different line-ups out there and seeing what happens. I know last year, Watts usually only played at the end of routs, and there was a reason for that. I was very nervous watching him play in tight games, but if he can continue to keep up his energy play, I will feel more relaxed watching him play, but one must understand as the competition improves, the pressure may get to him. We'll see, but hopefully he can be a nice surprise.

Well, That Was Easy

2009-11-10T21:06:00.002-05:00

Maybe Isaiah Thomas should have kept pleading to play Ohio State. Honestly, though it didn’t matter who they played, they were going to lose. This game turned out like a lot of us thought it would, with the Heels blowing out FIU, Deon Thompson doing a lot of the heavy lifting, and some careless turnovers by the team.

If this game were mid-season, I might be upset, but I’d like to think that I’m a little more mature than that. 26 turnovers are very unlikeable, but 4 were from the end of the bench in the last few minutes. Not to say that 22 is all that much better, but first, this team has only had 16 practices together, with an apparently new offense; 5 of these players are freshman, playing in their first college game on the grandest stage in college basketball.

I think there are a lot of positives to this game: first, it was a win, which is always a good thing. Secondly, I thought the defense played very well. 10 Steals and 8 blocks are pretty good, even against a weaker team. Half of those blocks came from Ed Davis and opponents will definitely be wary when they drive the lane with him in the game. Although there were no major scoring threats on the other team, I thought the perimeter defense was solid as well, especially considering the fact that the big guys had to shuffle their feet a bit guarding some smaller, quicker players.

Things I liked:

1. Deon Thompson. I thought he had a great game and if he can a consistent force for this year’s team, then we are talking All-ACC first team and possibly player of the year because I’m still not sold on Kyle Singler winning it. Roy said he didn’t need to be Tyler Hansbrough, but it didn’t look too much different. I’d like to see him finish with contact a bit more, but we’ll see. I am also pleased with his free throws because that has been a weak point for him in the past. Isaiah Thomas said that Thompson was as good as any big man in the NBA right now. I wouldn’t go that far, but he looked sharp and I hope it continues.

2. Larry Drew II. Pretty good game from the Ty Lawson clone. Actually, he wasn’t even close to Lawson and that’s fine because he doesn’t need to be. I think a good statement game for him to show that he can fill the point guard shoes. He hit a three pointer to prove that he can and had some nice dishes and only 2 turnovers. I especially liked his little drive and dish to Thompson in the second half and the little scoop layup he had. Pretty snazzy stuff.

3. Throw backs uniforms. I can’t say that they looked that good in the 50’s, but I think they look pretty nice in the modern day style. Really wouldn’t mind seeing them again in the future.

4. Bench play. Specifically, the 2 sophomores off the bench, Justin Watts and Tyler Zeller. I was blown away by how well Watts played and he looked as if he had improved quite a bit from his first year. His dunk in garbage time was pretty sick too, but he played very well and hope he can continue and give the backcourt a little boost every once in awhile.

Things I didn’t like:

1. Turnovers. As I said earlier, if this were mid-season, I would be a bit more upset, but I’m not. I would like to see the Heels limit the turnovers more, but it could have been worse – somehow.

2. 3 point shooting. I know, the two biggest question marks coming into this season, but this was the number of three pointers taken. The Heels were really sinking them at the beginning, but then cooled off quite a bit. Let’s not fall in love with the 3 ball early because nobody has proven they can deliver.

Overall, not bad for the Heels. Lots of room for potential improvement, especially with some big games looming in the next 2 months. Welcome back Marcus Ginyard. You did a fine David Noel impression.

Carolina Catch-Up

2009-11-08T07:55:00.003-05:00

Sorry, wanted to do some posts last week, but other responsibilities limited me to do this and now I'm paying the price because I can't find something I wanted to comment on. It was from Tar Heel Blue and one thought from the article that stuck out to me was the fact that North Carolina will be searching for a go-to-guy this year.

Last year's team had 3 players, who we knew could take over the game at any time. Tyler Hansbrough was the returning scorer; we knew Wayne Ellington could get hot from 3 land and start filling up the box score; and there was Ty Lawson, who was faster than a lighting bug. This year, we have Marcus Ginyard, a fifth year senior, but has never been called to carry a team. Deon Thompson returns after averaging a respectable 10.6 points per game last, but never really showed the ability to take over a game. Ed Davis had a few double digit games, but nothing that makes you think that he is going to throw down 20 and 12 every night. Tyler Zeller scored 17 points in his debut, but was never the same after missing so many games. And Will Graves is Will Graves. I have been relying on the fact that this year's team will probably be very balanced in scoring, but the fact of the matter is that we will need someone who can take over games in crunch time. My feeling is that it will be one of the seniors, who is asked to put on their big-boy shoes in late game situations. Remember in the 06-07 season, that team was also very young with a few upperclassman and that team struggled to close out games, which often ended up costing them in the end. Hopefully a repeat will not happen this year.

North Carolina has played in two exhibition games this year, but the first one was a secret one, which is some NCAA rule that I don't quite understand. The first was against Vanderbilt and was described as ugly. The second was against Belmont Abbey and you can read the recap here. If you look at the box score, you'll see that Thompson had 23 points, so he could be considered the go-to guy, right? Well, UNC had a superior height advantage with no one from Belmont over 6'8", but I highly doubt that Thompson will always go 11-12 from the field. I don't want to take a lot of things from this scrimmage because it is just a glorified practice as Roy Williams said about the Vandy game, but a few things stick out. The Wear twins looked good in their minutes. The rebounding margin was great, but it should be for as tall as we are. The block shots are amazing, particularly John Henson. Marcus Ginyard didn't have a great game, but filled up the box score, so it appears he is ready to be a do-all. Larry Drew had 8 assists, which I like, but the three turnovers need to be eliminated. Hopefully they were just lazy passes that can easily be corrected, because once the competitions kicks up, Drew must handle the ball with great poise.

The good news is that the defense is there and that should improve all year, we just might not see as many games in the 100's as we have grown accustomed to seeing.

Season starts tomorrow!!

Check This

2009-11-03T17:06:00.004-05:00

Holy lots of information. I was checking out some of the Tar Heel sites today and came across this one from Tar Heel Fan Blog. It's from some observers who watch practice after Roy's Coaching Clinic and there is a ton of analysis about the current Tar Heel team. I'll post the whole piece below and then have some comments about it.

A work in progress.

Those are the words from Roy Williams himself. After spending two practices watching the Tar Heels, I would agree. Let’s just say that it’s a good thing the Final Four isn’t any time soon. This team has a chance to be very, very good. Up front, they’re huge. And they all run. And they all handle the ball extremely well. And…….you get the picture. I’ll elaborate more on the personnel in a bit, but the strength of this year’s team will be the 6 guys in the front court. If those six play well, UNC could have a terrific year.

Going in to this season, there are some assumptions I think we’re all making. First, shooting the ball will be a problem. Second, it’s unclear how effective Larry Drew will be as the starting point guard. Third, while Deon Thompson has shown nice promise as a low post threat, the Tar Heels will have to develop a true replacement for Tyler Hansbrough on offense. Fourth, despite their youth the Heels look to be a good defensive team.

Before going in to specifics, here a few overall observations. Marcus Ginyard looks good. Defensively, he’s everywhere. He’s tone, he’s lost a little weight, and he can really guard the ball. The five rookies are all no-nonsense guys. They all take basketball seriously and it shows. Roy Williams is catering to Will Graves (I’ll elaborate in a bit). Larry Drew has the tools to be a top-flight point guard, but his experience level is so low that his maturation may take a while (like, the whole season).

So, after a sort of pessimistic start to this email let’s talk about some things UNC will be good at this year. Rebounding should be a major plus for the Heels. The Big 6 and Ginyard will be a formidable board group (these six consist of Deon Thompson, Ed Davis, Tyler Zeller, and freshmen John Henson, David Wear, and Travis Wear). More importantly, the Tar Heel coaching staff is emphasizing crashing the glass. During the sessions of the clinic on Saturday, both Roy and C.B. McGrath talked about how critical rebounding will be to UNC’s success. The other clear advantage Carolina will have over virtually every team it plays this year may come as a surprise. The Heels should be the best ball-handling team on the floor every night. Typically a young team will kick the ball all over the gym for a while. In 2005, I was almost depressed leaving the clinic weekend after watching Bobby Frasor, Danny Green, Hansbrough, and Ginyard throw the ball in to the third row for two days. Thankfully I didn’t have to suffer through the same thing this year.

Ok, let’s dive in to some specifics. The best place to start is with the new offense that Roy is installing. Let me say that again. The University of North Carolina Men ’s basketball team is going to use an offense it has never used in my lifetime (or before, I imagine). The genesis of this new offense came a few weeks ago during the staff’s annual retreat. Each year the basketball staff gets out of the office just before practice starts to discuss the upcoming season. This year’s retreat focused on trying to figure out what to do with all the new bodies. Answer: They have no idea (this is almost the exact quote from Roy ). But, one thing that came out of the retreat was the realization that there are no proven low post scorers on this team. Sure, Ed Davis could be awesome. And Deon Thompson could come on big-time. Tyler Zeller may be improved too. But none of those guys is Hansbrough. It was the most glaring issue I saw in the two practices – a slew of big guys who can’t finish in traffic. Hansbrough made his living carrying people to the bucket, and then to the foul line. To paraphrase a line from Rick Pitino, Tyler Hansbrough ain’t walking through that door. Somehow, some way, Carolina is going to have to get consistent production from it’s stable of big guys.

Roy and his staff figure the best way to do that is to play to the strength of its post players. Without question, the greatest strength of this group is their ability to handle the basketball. So, when you have good ball-handling post guys what do you do? You let them handle the ball. And that’s exactly what Roy is going to do with the new offense. Instead of trying to slam the ball in to the post to players that aren’t able to finish with defenders draped all over them, he’s going to bring those big guys out away from the basket. In the new offense – which is still driven by Carolina ’s age-old motion offense principles – the post guys will start at the foul line extended. The three perimeter players will be in roughly the same places they have been. The goal is to open up the lane to allow cutters and drivers. This should create fantastic passing opportunities for UNC’s big folks. In particular, the Wears, Zeller and Henson are superb passers. Henson and the Wears are equally as good off the dribble too. Frankly, it was stunning to see the Wears handle the ball like guards. Those are two big dudes, but they can really handle the rock. They aren’t going to blow past any guards or win any Cousy awards, but I doubt there are any big guys in the country who pass and dribble as effectively as they do.

A hidden benefit of the new “open” offense (that’s its name) is the offensive rebounding advantage it should give the Heels. It’s one thing for the defense to check out a guy in limited space near or under the goal. It’s an entirely different thing for a defensive big to have to guard away from the bucket and then turn to box out 15 feet from where the ball will end up. Most big guys will just turn and follow the ball, giving no thought to putting a body on Carolina ’s bigs. For Davis , Henson, and the Wears (especially the Wears) that will be trouble for the opposition.
Another plus for the new offense centers on the ability of UNC’s big guys to knock down the mid-range jumper. Henson, Zeller, and David Wear are extremely good shooters near the foul line. In fact, David Wear could be a huge threat from 3 if he’s left alone. That big boy can really shoot. If he’s open, he’s gonna knock down a slew of 3’s. As you can probably tell, I’m a big fan of this type of offense. Larry Drew should thrive. He won’t have to be depended on to feed the post. Instead, he can concentrate on what he does best – drive and dish. If Drew had to run a set play each time down it would be a long year for all of us. Clearly, Roy has figured that out too.
It’s not a definite (according to Roy ) that the Heels will stick with this new offense. But, my gut is that he likes it enough already to keep it. They worked on it both days in practice and the players very much like being able to operate with increased space through the lane. So what wonderful things will this offense bring? I would get used to seeing lots of face-up jumpers by post guys, lots of drive-and-dish buckets, and (hopefully) lots of follow slams. What you aren’t likely to see too much of is what we’ve been used to during Roy’s tenure in Chapel Hill – traditional post baskets from a traditional post feed, and early three-point shots created by the secondary break.

The elephant in the room, of course, is the whole “can they shoot?” question. The answer to that depends on who’s shooting and where they’re shooting from. Just to eliminate the suspense – this is a poor perimeter shooting squad. There is no way to candy-coat it – they just can’t shoot. The Heels went about 30 minutes of practice time – both days – without making a jump shot of any kind. Ugly is a word that comes to mind. I guess the best way to say it is that this team is, and will continue to be, offensively challenged at times. The one guy who can shoot is a bit of a head-case – Will Graves. But as with Rasheed Wallace, Vince Carter, Rashad McCants, and Danny Green, the Heels have managed to win a lot of games with head-cases. Unfortunately, Graves is no where near the player those guys were. Yet, amazingly, Roy has him in the starting lineup right now. I have to be honest – I don’t get it. Graves looks improved, but not that much improved. But Roy talked at some length about not giving up on players. He said that while most days he feels like “punching Will Graves in the face with his ring”, he isn’t going to give up on him. Roy even went as far as to say he’s trying to give Graves more confidence. Well, I would think making Graves a starter would accomplish that in spades. The reality, though, is that Graves is not a starter. He just doesn’t bring enough to the table. Defensively, he’s a liability. He doesn’t rebound well (and he should given his size and strength), he doesn’t handle the ball well, and he lacks the savvy of most of the other players. The one thing he can do, and do well at times, is shoot the 3. But he’s no Danny or Wayne. He’s a good reserve to have, but a starter? I don’t think so.

Aside from watching the new offense, two other things were fantastic to watch. First, this could be a special team defensively. To be fair, some of the poor shooting I saw was the result of some good defense. Guys are there on every catch, there were very few blow-bys, and most of the rotations were sound. Given the fact that these were practices 7 and 8, it was remarkable that they would be so sound defensively. Sure, there is a ton of teaching going on and they don’t do everything perfectly on every pass or drive. But, they get after it. After what we’ve seen the last three years, it was refreshing to see a team really go hard on defense. Even Roy had to comment on the lack of defense in previous seasons, specifically last year. When asked by a high school coach how you motivate players, Roy used last year’s gang as an example of needing the players to believe in the importance of what you’re teaching in order for the motivation to kick in. According to Roy , he could sense that his guys just didn’t think they needed to play much D last year. No matter how much he talked about it, they just “stunk”…..until the NCAA tournament. Then, the motivation kicked in and defense mattered. Consequently, Carolina obliterated the field. This year I doubt Roy will have to cajole his team in to playing defense. Last year’s team was the most efficient offensive group I’ve seen in more than 30 years of watching Carolina basketball. This year’s team? Not so much. So…I bet Roy has their attention when he preaches defense. Given what I saw this weekend, I know he does.

Second, I was blown away by just how smart the rookies are. All five of them possess well above average basketball IQ. The best example of this is the lack of making the same mistake repeatedly. I’ll reference the ’05-‘06 group again. That year, they all made the same mistake time after time (after time after time….and they was a fairly smart bunch). This year, all Roy had to do was make the correction and keep moving. There is no way to overstate just how valuable this will be to the Heels as the year progresses. I watched the rookies get on the floor as a group and run through six options of the secondary break, and do it flawlessly. To be able to do this during the FIRST week of practice is incredible. To underscore this a bit more, after the first practice of the year Dexter Strickland came up to Roy and asked how he did and what he needed to work on. Roy was caught off guard, “I’m worried about whether he’ll have his pants on the right way, and he’s asking me what he needs to work on”. I promise you, Ty Lawson and Danny Green weren’t thinking about what they needed to work on after their first practices.
With that, here are player break-downs (beginning with the starters):

Larry Drew – He’s improved, that much is clear. But he’s not a good shooter. He’ll make a few 3’s, but he won’t make many. I think his biggest issue right now is his need to show that he’s the man. If he’ll just blend in he’ll be fine. He showed good ability to get in the lane, and he can finish. As I mentioned above, his best asset is his knack for getting in to the lane and finding the right guy at the right time. I was pleased with one thing: He didn’t turn it over much, and never above the key (where it almost always leads to a layup on the other end). Larry’s real value will come with the pressure he can put on the other team’s guards. He still struggles a bit off the ball, but on the ball he can be a menace.

Marcus Ginyard – Marcus is the same old Marcus. This is both good and bad. Defensively, he’s a beast. He’s good off the ball, he’s a terror when he’s guarding you, and he crashes the glass with authority. I’d be shocked if he isn’t the defensive player of the year in the ACC. Offensively he’s got a ways to go, sadly. He really has no jumper. You can tell he’s worked on it, but you can also tell he’s not all that confident in it. He is, however, a much improved ball-handler. Not that he was ever bad, but he is much more comfortable with the ball in his hands than he ever has been. Technically, he’s the third point guard. But I would not be shocked to see him at PG in late game situations.

Will Graves – (Shaking my head). Part of me understands what Roy is doing here. The Heels need a three point threat, they need an experienced perimeter player, and Graves is one of the few Tar Heels that can score with a defender hanging on him. But..but..but….Graves is just not the answer. Henson or Leslie McDonald are much better options. What scares me is that historically Roy doesn’t change his lineup once the season begins. If Graves starts the first game there is a better than 50-50 chance he’ll be there all year. That worries me.

Deon Thompson – Two good practices. Deon has picked it up a great deal on the glass. And that is no small feat given who he’s competing against for every rebound. He’s in fantastic shape, and his hands have improved too. He still has trouble scoring in traffic, but he has no trouble operating one-on-one away from the basket. The new offense suits him.

Tyler Zeller – You’re reading this correctly – Zeller instead of Davis .. I think this one is temporary. Davis is not in great shape right now, and he had two lackluster practices. Zeller was equally unimpressive too. He is bigger and stronger though, which is a big plus for him. And he can shoot (one of the few Heels that can). But Davis is better, and the whole world knows it. From what I could tell, Roy is sending Ed a subtle message.

Ed Davis – So, how do you follow-up a stellar NCAA tournament that culminated in a clutch title performance? By being demoted. Again, this is going to be temporary. Davis has a better face-up game now, and he’s just as imposing as a shot-blocker as he was last year. By all accounts, Ed has never been a great practice guy. But when the lights come on he’s a monster. Still, he’ll need to pick it up a bit over the next week or so.

John Henson – Big-time player. I could go through a bunch of “Wow” moments with Henson, but there are two that stand out. On two separate occasions he was matched up with a true guard and had to defend them on the perimeter (Ginyard and Graves ). Each time, Henson stripped them both. Stunning, very stunning. Henson is a playmaker, pure and simple. He’ll block a shot, make a steal, attack the glass, or make a fantastic hi-lo feed to create and easy basket. His skill set is wide. If he doesn’t start over Will Graves I’ll be disappointed. Based on what I saw, he’s already earned it. If he does, no one will be able to handle him – he’s a 6’9 guy with the reach of a 7’1 guy, and the skills of a 6’3 guy. Big-time player indeed.

Dexter Strickland – Dex was moving slow. And that’s to be expected. He’s the back-up point guard and he’s trying to learn a lot. Still, he’s a big-time player too. The thing with Strickland – and I noticed this last year when I saw him play in high school – is that he just doesn’t screw up. He doesn’t turn it over, he doesn’t take bad shots, and he doesn’t get beat on defense. And athletically he’s in the near-freak range. His speed, quickness, and “want to” make him a superior defender even as a freshman. His shot can be good, but I’m not sure he’ll be ready to fire until he can get a little more comfortable mentally. Given how smart he is, though, my money says he gets comfortable pretty quick.

Leslie McDonald – Along with the Wears, McDonald was the nicest surprise. Leslie is Marcus Ginyard with solid offensive skills. He can shoot it decently, he can slash with effectiveness, and does a nice job of finishing in traffic. Defensively he can play too. He’s built like Jackie Manuel, and at times I thought Jackie was running around out on the floor. He’s going to get minutes at the 2 and 3. I like this guy a lot.

David and Travis Wear – I debated on whether to separate these guys in this section. No need – they play almost exactly alike. Which is to say, they’re both really good. I can’t get over how skilled they are with the ball in their hands. At 6’9, you’d think they would not be comfortable on the perimeter. Not so. They are going create a bunch of matchup problems for just about every team UNC plays. David is the better shooter, Travis is the better defender. Both of them are willing to bang. If a team wants to press the Heels, there is no doubt these guys will be in the game.

Justin Watts – Justin has really improved. He has a decent shot and he’s not afraid to stick his nose in on defense and on the glass. For a 12th man, Watts is fantastic.

Normally I wouldn’t mention the walk-ons too much. But I have to say, this year’s group is exceptional. Marc Campbell is now a senior and he’s not bad. He has good quickness and knows exactly what to do. The star of this group is a guy they call T.P. (settle down…it’s not that funny). This dude is fast, fast, fast. He had several moments where you had to check his number to make sure it wasn’t Strickland or Drew. If he’s in at the end of some blow-outs he’s going to get some steals and run-outs. With Campbell , Watts , and T.P, the last 2-3 minutes of the run-away wins are going to be fun. Those three guys can flat-out play, and there are two other guys who are pretty good too. I’d say that this is the best group of walk-ons I’ve ever seen at UNC in all my years of going to this clinic.

Time to sum up. This year’s team thinks it can be good. In fact, Roy was all over them during the two days. He wouldn’t be that way if he wasn’t convinced that they could be good too. The Heels must find a way to create offense from defense. The good news is that this shouldn’t be a problem. The perimeter defenders are awfully good. More importantly, with Zeller, Henson, and Davis protecting the basket, the opposition will have a hard time getting easy baskets in the half-court. Some teams may think this is the year to run with the Carolina . That would be a mistake.

Ultimately, UNC is going to see a bunch of zone. Both practices included zone offense segments, which is early for Roy . The Heels don’t need to knock down a bunch of 3’s, but they need one or two a half to go down. Otherwise, the lane will be full of defenders. “Open” will help, but not as much as a timely 3 here and there.

The schedule is not kind to UNC early. There are a ton of tough games right out of the gate. If the Heels can survive and get to January, they’ll be very difficult to beat. As long as Larry Drew is not exposed, and assuming they figure out how to make a jump shot, it’s not far-fetched to believe the Tar Heels could wind up in Indy. Again, the post players will carry this team. If that group will rebound and defend, things will be fine. Best case, 27-4 in the regular season. Worst case, 23-8. Somewhere in between is likely. If you really want to be an optimist, if the Heels manage to make four or five 3’s a game (they averaged just under 7 a game last year, Kenny I had this one wrong), they’ll lose very rarely.

Settle in quick. The season starts two weeks from Monday. Hallelujah.

Yeah, like I said a lot of information. First thought is why is Graves starting over Henson? When I come across situations where I think Roy does not know what he is doing, I remind myself that the guy has won nearly 600 games and has two championship rings. I have won ZERO games and ZERO championships. I really would like Henson to start, but what I like and what Roy likes are obviously different things and I know Williams has his reason for doing so. One fact to keep in mind is that this was early on in the practice schedule, so maybe Williams wanted experience (be it little). Another thought is that Graves would do better over starting rather than coming off the bench. I feel this is just an excuse for players. I know Rashad McCants used it before when playing for North Carolina, but that's my opinion. Even one more thought is the fact that Graves could theoretically stretch the defense farther out and open up more space for the bigs down low, but with the new offense that seems to be in place, I'm not sure if that matters as much.

Secondly, the offense may struggle finding shooters, but isn't one of the traits of a Roy Williams-coached team is the fast break? Plus, if the defense is better, they should be able to force more turnovers, thus leading to easy buckets, right?

Thirdly, if the rookies have as smart of an IQ as the writer stated they did, then hopefully the learning curve throughout the season will be slimmer. I am especially impressed with the Wear twins because I didn't think they would see a lot of minutes - not to say that they are going to get 15 minutes per game, but I really didn't think they would see the floor much at all, and figured one of them could possibly red-shirt because of the plethera of bigs, but it seems they can contribute, so please, let the contributions come forth.

Fourthly, hallelujiah, the season starts Monday and we will see what happens.

Tar Heels Debut at #4

2009-10-29T20:20:00.003-04:00

We all knew they were going to be a top-ranked team, but even I'm surprised that it's #4. Honestly, I was expecting a spot reserved at #5, but I won't complain. The expectations are obviously set high now and hopefully the Heels can deliever. I am also a little surprised that UNC did get one lone first place vote. I am not surprised that they were ranked higher than Duke. That's a given.

John Henson Better Be as Good as Advertised

2009-10-27T20:16:00.006-04:00

Because he just sounds scary with the way everyone is talking about him. At the ACC Operations over the past weekend, Deon Thompson and Marcus Ginyard were asked about the freshman and both gave great reviews for the freshman, but here's what Ginyard said about Henson:

“It’s impossible to watch John Henson play for more than five minutes and not say, ‘Whoa. Wow. Look at that,’ just with his size and athleticism. I continue to say that there are just a number of things that he will do out there on the court that I really don’t know that any other player on the court can do.”

I just can't wait to see this guy on the court. Come on Florida International game-day! But I just hope he is as good as people are talking him up to be.

Also, Scout ran an article about Ginyard, and something I didn't know about him last year was that he was up to 230 in the old weight department. This year, he is down to 205 and has the explosiveness back in his step that was lacking last year. From the article, it sounds like he is progressing into the leadership role nicely and Roy Williams said he is more pleased with Ginyard than anyone else on this year's team.

Duke and UNC Tie?

2009-10-26T20:43:00.003-04:00

Unfortunately, though it is just a preseason poll, it happened at the ACC media conference, where all the coaches from their respective teams, as well as a handful of players attend. During this meeting, the preseason picks are made as far as order of finish, Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and ACC First team.

This year, Duke and UNC were both picked to win the ACC; Duke had more first place votes, but they both had the same number total points. This is the first time in the 41 year history, but it is the fourth year in a row that UNC has been picked to win, so that's a good sign.

When I first read that there was a tie, I couldn't believe. I really still can't believe. I know that UNC has some question marks - the backcourt, the perimeter scoring, and probably defense will be mentioned at time point during the season - but it seems like Duke has many more question marks, but that's why they play the games instead of picking the order.

Kyle Singler was picked as Player of the Year and I know that's the trendy pick among many of the talking heads, but I'm just not 100% sold on him. I do know that Marcus Ginyard will lock him down for 2 games. ROY was nominated to Derrick Favors from Georgia Tech, with John Henson coming in at a distant second.

ACC First-Team consisted of Singler, Trevor Booker from Clemson, Greivis Vasquez from Maryland, Virginia Tech's Malcolm Delaney, and Ed Davis because somebody from UNC had to be on the list - right?

One more thing. Tar Heel Blue has some pictures from the event. If you look through it, you'll see Deon Thompson in a suit and tie. Marcus Ginyard also went to the event, but is not seen in any photos. The rest of the players there are wearing polos from their respective schools. My point comes down to classiness. UNC has it, others don't.

Jackie Manuel has a Posse

2009-10-24T08:55:00.006-04:00

Remember, when that was a big hit? I'm not sure of the exact context of that T-shirt that was made, but I know it caused some issues. Well now I can say that I am part of his posse.

Allow me to give you a little background. Remember in June, when I was non-existent in the blogging world? Yeah, I'm sorry about that, but I have a really good reason. I was married at the end of June and was busy running around with that, so Triumphant Tar Heel took a backseat.

But my wife, knowing that I am huge Tar Heel fan, allowed the two of us to go down to Chapel Hill for a day to visit the Smith Center and the Carolina basketball museum (See why I married her?)! Well, I took lots of pictures, which I will post at different times throughout the year, and we had lunch of Franklin Street. We were looking at some of the shops on the street and I even bought the 2008-2009 season review on DVD. As we were walking towards another shop, I looked at who was walking towards us and it was a really tall individual. As he got closer, I kinda stopped and looked and said "You're Jackie Manuel!"

He didn't say it, but he was basically like "Duh." I talked with him for a minute, asking him how the NBADL was and what he was currently up too. I told him he was the man, shook his hand and asked if I could get a picture with him, so here it it:

So now, I am officially part of Jackie Manuel's posse. It was a really awesome experience, not only meeting him, but touring the museum as well. When I walked away from meeting Manuel, I had goosebumps, and when I walked towards the Smith Center and saw other Tar Heel fans, wearing Tar Heel gear, and talking to me, I felt like I was part of the Carolina family. As I stated earlier, I will post some sweet pictures from the museum and Smith Center throughout the season.

But now for the bad news: I do not have cable or satellite to watch all the games this year. Last year I was able to, but viewing all those channels as a non-necessity, I do not have their availability this year, particularly ESPN, which is where the majority of the games are broadcasted. I will do my best to watch as many games as possible and am looking into watching them via the Internet as much as possible, but have not found any real leads yet. So my insight may not be as good as before, but as I always try to do, I will do my best. Thanks for reading!

Williams: Best Ever?

2009-10-20T20:26:00.003-04:00

Recruiter? Yes. Coach? Possibly. Hersey you cry! Ah, but what if Ol' Roy comes through with another title? That would make it Dean Smith -2; Roy Williams - 3. At the rate that Williams keeps bringing in top 5 classes, it seems a good possibility that Coach Williams will be able to one-up his mentor in the next few years (maybe even this one).

I bring this up because Any Katz had a sit-down interview with the current Tar Heel coach to discuss the possibility of winning another championship. Roy being his typical humble self said that he doesn't like to think in those type of scenarios, and that he and Smith don't belong in the same sentence, but the fact is that this will probably become a reality in the next five years.

Now, please do not think that I am disrespecting Coach Smith in any way shape or form. I have great respect for the man, but probably not the same amount that older fans have for him. That's only because I didn't truly follow until after he was gone, unfortunately. But I think he is a great coach; one of the all-time greats. I love that he put Carolina basketball on the map. I love that he took the Duke/UNC rivalry to another level. I love the fact that he had players thank the passer. Coach Smith did a lot of great things on and off the court and certainly deserves to have his name attached to the home of the Tar Heels, but Ol' Roy is cementing his own legacy as Katz put it.

Coach Williams has said that he will coach as long as his health holds up. Knowing he doesn't have too many pains, besides a bad back (we all know it's because of the stance in the picture above) and suffering from vertigo occasionally, it's reasonable to expect him to coach for 10 more years. Let's say that for those 10 years, he averages a modest 25 wins per year. My multiplication skills tell me that is 250 wins. Add that to his already 594 (Yeah, seems like he just got his 500th a year ago) and that puts him at 844 while Smith sits at 879. Only 35 wins between the two. Since returning to North Carolina, Williams has averaged 29 wins for 6 years. So if he stays on that pace, that puts him at 290 for 10 years and that puts him at 884. Granted, Smith did this all in one school, but one must give credit where credit is due. Credit goes to Williams.

I'm not saying he is better or will be better that Dean Smith because for all we know, he could have a scandal tomorrow and be out of coaching, but I am saying that he is certainly building his resume to rival Smith. I know that he is not trying to out-due his mentor, but he is certainly keeping pace with him. The only question is what will they name after Williams when it's all said and done? Roy's Roof? Williams Court? Hansbrough Indoor Stadium? Oh, sorry!

I'm very thankful for the job Roy Williams has done and will continue to do. He is a real character coach and has made a big impact on lots of players out there.

Late Night Optimism and Concern

2009-10-18T14:16:00.005-04:00

Late Night with Roy has come and gone, and now the season is officially under-way! Hooray! I'm pretty pumped about the upcoming season and I'm sure you are too. For some Late Night festivities, go here to ACC Now and it gives some summaries of what went on, as well as Scout. Scout also has an excellent photo gallery and Tar Heel Blue has not one, but two.

From what I gather, the scrimmage between the White and Blue teams was competitive, but still not a scrimmage and might as well be a pick-up game for as often as those players have played against each other since class has started. But it looks like John Henson is as good as advertised. He had 10 points in the scrimmage and here's what Marcus Ginyard said about him:

"That size and athleticism is just one of those things that's tough to describe; he’s a guy who can do some interesting things out there. We’ve got to let it play out and see what he does, but there’s no question he can be a big help to the team."

That's what I like hearing. I can't wait to see this guy throwing down on Duke a few times a game. He's just a freak of athleticism, which is something that will certainly help out this year quite a bit.

Two concerns that Roy Williams has had is the backcourt - with it's lack of experience and depth, and shooting - with every reliable shooter gone now, but with Will Graves scoring 12 points, including three 3's, he may have answered the question of who is the best shooter for this year's team, a question that Tar Heel Blue asked and discussed in their recent article. In that article, Ginyard is asked who the best shooter is and he said that he would put himself up there. Now, knowing Ginyard as a shooter, that's a bit of a red flag for me. With that said, I have no doubt that he has improved on his shooting, just like Larry Drew and Ed Davis. But Graves is the guy who needs to be the best shooter because that's all we as fans have heard about is his shooting and unfortunately, we haven't seen it in the games. I believe we will this year.

Are You Hungy?

2009-10-12T20:40:00.003-04:00

For more Tar Heel pre-season? It's hard to believe that Late Night with Roy Williams is on Friday, the 16th. I know I am eagerly waiting for it and I know the players have been working on their new skits for the evening of festivities via their Twitter pages. But we have more pre-season previews. One from Tar Heel Blue and the other from the FayObserver.

The one from Tar Heel Blue is quite lengthy, so I would encourage you to read it for yourself. It talks about the returning upper-classman and some of what Roy expects them to do. He did say that Marcus Ginyard would be starting at shooting guard, but would be expected to play up to four different positions. There is also a little preview about the freshman, with John Henson sticking out in my mind because Williams said he would probably be at the 3 spot and would be expected to block a lot of shots. Williams also said that this team could be one of the best shotblocking teams he has ever had. Scary!

The other piece from the Observer is all about Drew. Larry Drew knows he is under a bit of pressure, but understands his role and knows he doesn't have to be the man, but just play in the system and pick his spots. I have full faith in him, as does Roy Williams or he would have probably pushed more for a point guard in the offseason.

The article from the Observer did bring up a great point that I know I have found myself wrapped up in and maybe you have too. I often compare this upcoming team to the 05-06 team, but we expect this year's team to make a run to the Final Four. Lots of expectations for this team, but the 05-06 team didn't have any expectations. I remember Bracketology on ESPN had that team as a 9 seed in the tournament. UNC was picked 6th in the ACC. I'm not saying they can't make a substantial run towards the Final Four, but as Drew proved this past year and many others, on a team that relies on freshman, there will be some ups and downs all season. The 05-06 team might have been fun to watch, but the time they played Duke at UNC was one of those inexperienced games for the freshmen. That team ended up losing 8 games and the year after was torturous as a fan because, again, a team relied on so many young players, that the season had ups and downs and we ended up choking in the Elite 8, plus had enough close loses to last me for quite awhile. So be forewarned, it could be a bit of a struggle this year for this team. I am in no way saying it will be, but it could be. But my predictions are at least an Elite 8 appearance and #1 in the ACC. Go Heels!

What If: Upperclassman returning

2009-10-08T20:42:00.004-04:00

I have been wanting to do this “what if” post for awhile, but just haven’t found or made the time, but now here we go. I remember instantly after North Carolina won the 05 title, I was thinking repeat with all those players coming back and then the incoming freshman class – it was almost guaranteed. But then I remember reading the recap of the championship game on ESPN and there was a link that said “McCants declares for draft.” My world shattered a little bit there, but there was hope because Sean May had said he was coming back and he wanted to repeat, but then he saw his stock go up. But there was Raymond Felton still, who had wanted to leave for awhile, and then he was gone, and then Marvin Williams, but his mom had some medical problems and he was gone. So we were left with a bare cupboard, but it turns out it was ok, but my question is this: what if one or more of the upperclassman had stayed?

It would have been my dream to watch some of these players crush the competition with Tyler Hansbrough and I often imagine that they somehow did, but it will still never become a reality and that’s ok too.

First, we have to think that if one or some of these players stayed, Hansbrough might not have become the force he became. To me, that is reason enough for these players to have left really because Tyler Hansbrough is the model now for being amazing. Those records probably wouldn’t be broken and JJ Redick would still have his ugly mug atop the ACC scoring record and that just wouldn’t be cool with me. Plus, we have won another national title, so that’s perfectly fine with me. I could gladly win a championship every 5 years.

Secondly, if someone had stayed, would it have really mattered? We probably would have been first or second in the ACC, maybe played for the ACC championship and then gotten into at least the Sweet 16, if not farther. What does that matter in the long run? It would be another banner or two, but if it meant that Hansbrough’s numbers have to suffer, then I wouldn’t want it. Plus if you think about team chemistry, I can’t see Rashad McCants getting along with Hansbrough too much. David Noel was the leader of this team and I just can’t see it any other way.

But hypothetically, if someone would have stayed, who would you have wanted? We could have had the potent scorer in McCants; the maestro in Felton; the big man down low with May; or the 6th man, turned superstar with Williams. Oh the possibilities!

If I could have had my pick at the time, I would have wanted Felton because I enjoyed watching him as a point guard, but in all honesty, we needed a big man. The three man rotation that UNC after that year was ok, but it would have been nice to have either May or Williams down low too. Noel, Byron Sanders, and Hansbrough probably doesn’t scare a lot of frontcourts. Ok, Hansbrough probably does, but throw in May or Williams and BOOM! I thought May would have been the most likely to stay and to see him and Hansbrough bump heads in the paint would have gotten old after awhile. Williams would have been interesting to see because we would become the Ed Davis we expect and hope to see. The potential for Marvin during his sophomore year would have been amazing.

So there you have if. Your “what if” scenario that will never happen, but it could have and it would have been ridiculously awesome. But the story still has a happy ending – hoisting another trophy.

Pre-season Goodies

2009-10-06T21:40:00.002-04:00

Sorry, no Twitter updates today, but we are getting closer to the college basketball season and that means preview time around the main sports sites on the World Wide Web.

First up on the agenda is from Fox Sports with an ACC preview. This article touches on a few Tar Heel topics, such as the incoming freshman class, and one of the main story lines of Larry Drew taking over the reigns to the Roy Williams-coached talent train. They say that Drew has plenty of talent around him, but not sure about his talent. My only thought is that it is true about the talent around him, but I think he has enough talent and obviously Coach Williams has enough faith in him to let him lead, so I'm not worried.

Fox Sports also says that North Carolina will finish first in the ACC, which is my feeling as well. They also have no Tar Heel on the ACC first team, which I'm not sure will happen and I find it outrageous that FS is picking Kyle Singler to be Player of the Year. I'm not sure about that and that may be a more default pick then anything else because there doesn't seem to be an outright favorite to win this year.

North Carolina also is highlighted with the three top non-conference games, with the games against Kentucky (with the all-time wins record on the line?), Michigan State, and Texas. Yeah, a big-named schedule this year, plus through in the ACC.

The other pre-season blurb is from Sportsline with their top 26 (yeah, I know), with the Heels coming in at #5. This is what is says:

It seems crazy that a program could lose Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green and still be ranked in the top five. But this is UNC under Roy Williams, and the cupboard is never bare. The only concern is at point guard, where Larry Drew is the option, but only by default.

This is all a credit to Roy Williams ability to recruit. I have full faith in him as a coach and recruiter and realize that the only way UNC could go 8-20 anytime soon would have to be with Williams taking a leave of absence or we have to play only walk-ons for the year. Again the Larry Drew issue comes up, but I've already addressed it, so I won't waste your time by having you read it again.

Zeller Doin' Work

2009-09-30T15:51:00.004-04:00

Sean May had a Twitter post before the alumni game about how the ACC better watch out for Tyler Zeller this year and here's why: he's put on 30 pounds of muscle since arriving in 2008. Imagine if he didn't break his wrist last year and was able to lift for the whole season. Adam Lucas does his pre-season player preview and fills us in on what Zeller has been up to this off season.

Zeller could be a huge wild card this season because we never really saw any of his potential during the year. Yes, we had some flashes but nothing straight-up, jaw-dropping like we did with Ed Davis. But that's what happens when you miss half the season. When Big Z came back, he was a step slow and had to fight for minutes behind Hansbrough, Thompson, and Ed Davis. Minutes were few and far between. It reminded me of the 06-07 season when it was Hansbrough, Brandon Wright, Thompson, and Stepheson. Stepheson usually was the odd man out and this year it was Zeller. Things would have been different if he had not been injured, but such is sports, so we move on.

Lucas also talks about how Zeller has improved his shot, which is splendid because if I remember correctly, he was supposed to extend the defense to take pressure off the low-post guys and maybe even shoot the three ball. If he can do that and make some room for Ed Davis and Deon Thompson, we're looking at possibly the best front court in the country. Then throw in John Henson and then I start getting giddy with thoughts of domination. Then throw in the fact that Zeller is a running big-man and then goosebumps overtake me.

Like I said, wild card. Zeller could come in and give 13 and 8 and we would think he's amazing, but he could come in and put up 6 and 5 and we think, "Well, at least Ed Davis is doing his thing." My guess is we'll see the first Zeller. Maybe not those exact numbers, but Zeller has obviously put some time in this off season and has done and will continue to do work.

Health Update for Marcus Ginyard

2009-09-21T16:44:00.005-04:00

In case you didn't know, Marcus Ginyard has been pain free since April, but Adam Lucas gives us a health update anyway. But it seems in the article that it is more of a shot update for the defensive-minded wingman than anything else.

Now if you follow Marcus Ginyard on Twitter, you might know his health is not the greatest because he just had his wisdom teeth removed last week and now has dry socket. But all signs point that he'll be ok for the start of the season and possibly even Late Night. I have included a picture of him post-operation from his Twitter account below:

Yeah, I remember that feeling. But, back to the article where Ginyard had this quote about his shot (probably before the drugs kicked in).

"My shot feels great right now. I spent a lot of time working on it. In previous summers I've spent time working on it, but there's no question that I've been after it harder this summer than in the past. I've been in the gym every day, and tried to put in enough work that I feel comfortable with it. I don't want to think about it, I just want to let it go. That's what the best shooters do. I want to get confident in it and let it fly."

That sounds good to Heel's fans that have wanted him to improve his outside shot. We all know he was good for layups an putbacks, but an outside shot will certainly take the pressure of Ed Davis, Deon Thompson and Tyler Zeller.

Now considering where Ginyard will play this year, he had this to say:

"I'm just a player. Wing guard, forward, whatever. I just have to play and perform. I know I'm going to guard a tough perimeter player and I'm going to play on the wing. That's my job."

Again, typically the answer we would expect from the new David Noel. He's just going to play and play hard, wherever that is. He's going to be big-time for us this year, I just know it. Go Heels!

Tyler Hansbrough is Superman

2009-09-19T21:11:00.005-04:00

Yes, most of us all knew it, but now he proves it in the new AT & T commercial. I've already watched it like four times already, and I'm sure I'll watch it before the day is over. Here's some background information from the Herald-Sun about the commercial. The article points out an interesting fact that Tyler Hansbrough does not say a word during the commercial, neither is he identified, but he is Psycho-T and does not need to be identified for most people to recognize him. Enjoy the commercial!

On another note, while searching for an intimidating picture of the aforementioned man, it turns out this picture was in Men's Health with the title "The Tar Heel Workout." So I Googled the article and found it. It's a bit old since it talks about the title chances, but it does give a bit more insight into Tar Heel training and how hard Jonas Sahratian works them. It's funny how the article talks about Ed Davis and Tyler Zeller's struggles with the workout.

Job Security

2009-09-09T21:19:00.002-04:00

Remember when North Carolina visited the White House and Jack Wooten has yah close to getting a job in the White House? Well, it seems that ship has sailed as Wooten has now been named Director of Basketball Operations for the Elon Phoenix.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Elon Univserity sounds familiar; who went there? What association is there with Elon University. Well, I can tell you because it sounded familiar to me too. Turns out it was where Wes Miller was an assistant coach last year. I said was as in the past tense because Miller is no longer with the Elon Phoenix, but was hired on to be an assistant coach at High Point University. Wes Miller is getting that coaching experience that will one day land him back at North Carolina. At least, that's what this blogger thinks.

Has a Certain Ring to it

2009-09-06T14:57:00.008-04:00

Championship ring that is. Last night, amidst the Heels domination on the gridiron, the 09 Championship team was given their rings at halftime. Here's a link to a picture of one of them. Tar Heel Blue also has a nice gallery of the ceremony and Tyler Hansbrough's picture is epic. It almost looks like that is the crowning achievement in his life right there.

UPDATE: Found a nice little story about the ring from the News and Observer. This article gives some background on the design of the ring as well as the cost. I can't believe the NCAA sets up such a small amount of money to be used for the rings, but professional sports get thousands of dollars to spend on theirs. Oh well.

Awesome Alumni Awareness

2009-09-05T20:19:00.005-04:00

The 2009 banner dropped last night. I really would have liked to gone to this game. Maybe game should be "game" because it wasn't really a game, but a reunion as ACC Now put it. I guess I just didn't realize the significance and for that I apologize.

I wasn't there; wasn't even in the same state, but thanks to technology, I was pretty close to the action. Big thanks go to Marcus Ginyard and Tar Heel Fan Blog for their Twitter updates. Ginyard was even nice enough to include pictures occasionally (like of MJ's Ferrari - Holy Whoa). Adam Lucas was also giving updates, but I couldn't access them until this afternoon. His are the best, but no offense to the others, but this is what he does for a living is talk about North Carolina basketball. And he also has a pretty good seat at the scorers table.

I'm not going to post all the links to individual articles, but just check out Tar Heel Blue and Scout. Both sites include photo galleries and Tar Heel Blue has highlights of the game and will be posting the tribute videos that were shown before the game next week, so be sure to check them back out.

One thought to close. This is what Roy Williams said after the game ended:

"The reason we have this game tonight is that this is the first part of a yearlong celebration of the 100 years of Carolina Basketball. We're going to do several things, we'll have an old-timers game. We did this because when we have the reunion during the season the NBA players and coaches can't attend. We love the fact that you guys came. This is the best place in the world for college basketball because of these guys right here and you guys up there."

Think about it - this season is going to be special. Yes, we probably all say that every year, but this is going to be 100 years of Carolina basketball. Where else can you have an event like this and draw 21,000 people and get so many great players together? This is Carolina basketball.

So that Alumni Game

2009-09-04T15:42:00.005-04:00

Yeah, I really dropped the ball on the Alumni game that is taking place tonight in Chapel Hill. I guess I just wasn't paying attention to the dates and my calender, so I was pretty screwed up. Sorry about that. There were rumors that this would feature most of the 2005 team versus the 2009 team, but with Tyler Hansbrough's shin injury (thankfully, it didn't happen last year), the teams were set up in a draft-type format, which is probably the best way to do it. Otherwise, where are you going to put Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Jerry Stackhouse, and others? The rosters are as follows:

Blue Team
Shammond Williams
Ed Cota
Ty Lawson
Vince Carter
Dante Calabria
Jawad Williams
Wayne Ellington
Rashad McCants
Brandan Wright
Sean May

White Team
Brendan Haywood
Raymond Felton
Bobby Frasor
Jackie Manuel
Jeff McInnis
Danny Green
Marvin Williams
Rasheed Wallace
Antawn Jamison
Jerry Stackhouse

Looks like some pretty stacked teams, but I can't call a winner because I have no idea. If Hansbrough was playing, I would choose whichever team he is on, but I'll go with one of my other favorite big men in Antawn Jamison. But with Blue team's shooters on the roster, they may just run a Four Corners-type offense and chuck up the three ball - Who knows?

As already mentioned, Hansbrough will not be playing, but will be there and I know he is there because his Twitter feed said so. Other former Heels, who will be there but not play included Julius Peppers, Eric Montross, Hubert Davis, as well as coaches like Larry Brown and George Karl.

The reason for this game is to kick off the 100th year of Carolina basketball - a tradition unlike any other. Another event that will be taking place tonight is for the 2009 banner to be unveiled. It will be a great treat for most of the players on that team to be there when that happens. Typically, I believe most championship banners are raised on the opening night or the Late Night, but this is pretty special event. Lots of great players playing tonight. Here's a preview of the events taking place at 8 P.M. tonight

As mentioned a few posts ago, lots of pickup games have been taking place in the Smith Center and Adam Lucas writes about some of the events that take place here. Someday, I would like to go just to watch some of these games, but we'll see what happens. There are even pictures of some of the games.

Adam Lucas is going to be at the game, giving updates, so if you're one of the unlucky ones that don't have a ticket, click over to Tar Heel Blue and follow there.

After this game, I will post some of my favorite players since I have been a North Carolina fan because I don't think I have shared that and I just love thinking about these players playing together.

Also, how come Joe Forte wasn't invited to this event? He played so well in the NBA.

Coaching Shakeup at UNC

2009-09-03T17:19:00.007-04:00

It's ok; nothing like Roy Williams resigning or being involved in some scandal (Rick Pitino), but I am suprised by this news. As you know, Coach Williams has on his staff Joe Holladay, Steve Robinson, C. B. McGrath, and Jerod Haase, but NCAA rules only allow for 3 assistant coaches. Williams, being the mastermind that he is, had a title of director of basketball operations, which C. B. McGrath and Jerod Haase rotated this position every other year. I also think this position allowed for the director of basketball operations to be involved with coaching the JV team, but not sure.

Well now, Joe Holladay is going to assume this position and will rotate with McGrath and Hasse every year so that one of them is the director of basketball operations every three years. At first, I was shocked by this decision, because I always think of Joe Holladay as a fixture on the bench and has a calming effect on Williams when he gets irate, but there are a few things to consider:

1. Holladay is 61 years old and he probably will not want to coach for too many more years. This leads to the second point, which is

2. Experience. C.B. McGrath has worked with Williams for 10 years, but has only been an assistant coach for 6. Haase has been with Williams for the same amount of time and has only been an assistant for 4 years (best guess - not sure on the exact experience). neither of these assistant coaches have the experience that Holladay has, so why not build them up while Holladay can still be involved with the program.

If you don't think that Holladay won't be involved somehow in the coaching, either offering advice or giving input when Roy asks for it, you're nuts. I think this is a smart move by Williams and will benefit UNC in the long run. Williams said "we have a deeper bench now," so that's probably why the move was made.

As far as what the director of basketball operations does, I think I remember reading a long time ago that it involves planning trips (hotels, meals, travel arrangements, etc) and other things I'm sure.

Not all hope is lost on the bench because Steve Robinson is still there. Remember he was the head coach at Florida State and Tulsa. I hope Robinson never leaves because that will leave a big hole in the bench. At Holladay's current age and his relationship with Roy Williams, it's hard to imagine him ever leaving Williams' staff before retiring. Depending on how McGrath and Haase do in the future, they are possibilities for head coaching positions of their own.

If something does happen in the near future as far as an assistant coach leaving UNC, my best guess (and probably wishful thinking) is that Wes Miller will be in line to eventually replace one of them, but that doesn't look like it will happen for 3 years or so. I'm not worried.

The Information Age

2009-09-02T20:49:00.003-04:00

Technology can be a curse for some, but for this Tar Heel fan, it's pretty sweet right now. Facebook, one of the major social networking sights is very popular and especially popular with college students, at least in my experience. It turns out that even Tar Heels use Facebook and some of them, quite a bit. I am "friends" with some of the North Carolina players and I use the term friend loosely, because there is no way that some of these players would be friends with me. Some of my Tar Heel friends include: Surry Wood, JB Tanner Dewey Burke, Quentin Thomas, Tyler Zeller, Marc Campbell, John Henson, Dexter Strickland, and Leslie McDonald. I used to be friends with Danny Green, but he has since figured he was better off without me as his friend. Wes Miller was also one of my buddies, but has since deleted his account. I've sent messages to Marcus Ginyard commending him for his leadership, but he still has not accepted my friend request. Tyler Hansbrough, Deon Thompson, and Alex Stepheson also must not realize who I am, but Cam Sexton has (Carolina QB - gotta give the football team a shoutout once in awhile).

Anyway, I share all this information because this year's current freshman, Henson, Strickland, and McDonald all update their Facebook status quite a bit. Some of it is pretty random, saying their going to movies or their in class, but sometimes they say they are working out and then they curse Jonas for working them too hard in the weight room. But here is Dexter Strickland's last update:

"Leadership is the ability to persuade others to do what you want them to do because they want to do it...i hope to lead my team to another championship this year as a freshmen...sounds hard but its possible!....UNC i love u!..."

That sounds pretty encouraging to me, coming from a freshman, but one could argue that he hasn't even played a game, which he hasn't yet. But I don't think you can argue that the desire isn't there.

Another social network that is quite popular is Twitter. I joined Twitter maybe 2 months ago and don't spend a lot of time there, but you can follow people and don't really have to worry about them rejected you as their friend. There are a lot of current and former Tar Heels on Twitter. I think Rashad McCants lives on Twitter; Sean May also updates a lot about his workouts in the Smith Center. Marcus Ginyard updates when there is pickup games in the Smith Center, when he is in the ice tub, and when he's getting shots in. Ed Davis and John Henson are also on Twitter, but do not update as frequently. Will Graves and Mike Copeland are also common Twitters and even Roy Williams and Tyler Hansbrough are on Twitter.

Technology has some cons, I would be the first to tell you that, but I think this is pretty cool because it brings me closer to the players and to Tar Heel Basketball.

Dancing Danny Continues . . .

2009-08-26T21:49:00.004-04:00

. . . his career in the NBA. Danny Green signed a 2 year deal with the Cavs this week. I'm pretty pumped for Danny Green. I felt bad for him because I think he thought of himself as a first round pick, and just happened to fall into the 2nd round of the NBA Draft. I don't think that's the way it meant for most GM's, but Green has a guaranteed contract and that probably makes him pretty happy. I do think Green can contribute on the next level and that he was a safe 2nd round pick. I am curious to see what sideline antics he can provide, combined with LeBron and Shaq. Stay tuned.

Great Scott

2009-08-24T21:29:00.003-04:00

Mike Copeland is hooping it up in Scotland. He had been playing in the Eurobasket Summer League in Las Vegas.

He ended up signed a one year deal with the Glasgow Rocks and will get to use a car in addition to his salary. He will also be living with another American player that plays on the team.

I'm happy for Copeland as he is able to pursue something that he wants to do. Mike's optimism comes out in a quote from the article: I'm trying to take a step into the door here," Copeland said. "If I can go to Scotland and play real well, maybe I can get a chance to play in the NBA or someplace else."

While I don't think Copeland will be in the NBA anytime soon, I can see him excelling overseas and moving up in the world of international basketball. I hope he likes Haggis.

High Honors

2009-08-13T20:36:00.002-04:00

Some Carolina basketball players were honor by being named on the ACC Academic Honor Roll. Tyler Hansbrough, Jack Wooten, J.B. Tanner, and Tyler Zeller were all named on the ACC Honor Roll. This I like. I like this party because it is a testament to Roy Williams and his ability to coach high character players. I also like this because too often, the sports world gets caught up in the fact that these are student-athletes. Student comes before the athlete. Now granted, not all of these players are going to school for a college degree perhaps. I believe all these players did or will, but a lot of time, college is just seen as the hurdle that needs to be cleared in order for them to get to the NBA. I'm not saying that every player is like that, or that some North Carolina players are. I'm just talking about players in general. Anyway, congratulations to these players and they deserved to be praised for being able to balance the pressures of the academic world and the the basketball court.

Another note: Today is Tyler Hansbrough Day in Poplar Bluff Missouri. Cool!

Tar Heel Tid-Bits

2009-08-10T19:39:00.008-04:00

Just some random articles and my thoughts on them.

*Dick Vitale put out his top 40 for the 09-10 season. UNC comes in at #8 and Vitale says that they will reload. Yes, UNC will most likely only have to reload now because they are in good shape. I know people have always said that Roy Williams is a great recruiter and a good coach, but I think he is an excellent recruiter and an excellent coach.

*Andy Katz put out his top 25 and has North Carolina at #5. He says this might be too high, but that a Roy Williams coached team doesn't often disappoint. I agree and think that this will be a good year.

*NBA Draft.net is an interesting website. I read it because it does a lot of scouting for me, but I find some of their material ridiculous. Nevertheless, they also produced a top 25 list and they included a projected starting line-up for next year's team. Interesting to note that they do not have Larry Drew II in the starting line-up, but rather, Leslie McDonald and Dexter Strickland, at SG and PG respectively. The only way I see that happening is if Drew gets injured or gets suspended for some very odd reason. I know Williams started Ty Lawson as a freshman for most of that season, but Lawson was a speed demon and I think Ol' Roy was looking at the big picture that Lawson would be better than Bobby Frasor in the future.

This time though, I think Roy will go with experience. I'm not saying that Strickland won't see some time at point, but I do not see him starting unless something crazy happens.

*That NBA Draft.net article got me thinking more about the starting lineup for the upcoming season. I have thought about this before, but I'm just not sure what is going to happen. Maybe there won't be a solid 34 game lineup all the time; maybe Coach Williams will mix it up somewhat. Maybe the 6 starters makes a comeback? I'm not really sure, but here is the lineup that I think will happen:

C - Ed Davis

PF - Deon Thompson

SF - Marcus Ginyard

SG - Leslie McDonald

PG - Larry Drew II

Here's a line-up that I would like to see at some point in the season:

C - Ed Davis

PF - Deon Thompson

SF - John Henson

SG - Marcus Ginyard

PG - Larry Drew II

Not a huge change, but it definitely makes the Heels talllllllll, with 3 players at 6'8" or taller. I'm really excited about Henson's potential this year. Rumor on the streets is that he is one of the three best players Williams has every recruited. That just sounds amazing for fans and awful for foes! Henson was a shooting guard as a junior because he was only 6'4" and then he grew 6 more inches, so he's got the height of a big man and the handles of a guard. I've heard people compare him to Kevin Durant. If he is anything like Kevin Durant was as a freshman then that would be stupendous! I'm going to like Henson; I just hope he sticks around for a while.

You Stay Classy

2009-08-03T18:13:00.001-04:00

There is something my wife noticed this season about North Carolina. She’s somewhat of a sports fan, but not huge, but she will always faithfully watch games with me, even when the games are boring because North Carolina is up by 20. And she does care about North Carolina, so don’t think she watches just to be with me.

But one thing that drives her insane is when coaches or players yell at the refs and don’t stop. Now Roy has yelled at refs, but he does not go off and get a technical just to prove him point (or at least I can’t recall him doing that). But some coaches and players just don’t shut it when it comes to officiating. I have some gripes with officials too, but I can drop it because they can’t hear me yelling through the TV.

The point of this article is class. North Carolina has it; other schools do not. A lot of the classiness has come from Dean Smith, which I appreciate. I didn’t follow North Carolina during the Dean Smith years because I was young, but anyone who is a fan knows that Dean Smith was classy.

North Carolina beams classiness to me. Pointing to the passer is classy because it shows players to recognize that they couldn’t have done anything without the passer. The jerseys are classy because we have two kinds and that’s it, while a team like Oregon has one for every week.

Another classy area that I like is the attire. Players wear coats and ties to and from games. Not all universities do that. Roy Williams always has a suit and tie, except in Maui or when he gets mad and throws his jacket on the ground. I like that. I don’t like Mike Brey, the Notre Dame coach, who wears the jacket, but just a shirt underneath it, and I especially hate the polo with the jacket (Al Skinner). UGLY. I’m glad Coach Williams dresses and has his players dress professionally because North Carolina is a professional institution.

Another reason I appreciate the classiness of North Carolina is that when students or fans start making a chant, like to Clemson “you can’t win here” – yes it brings a smile to my face, but Coach Williams is always quick to get on the mic and tell students to stow it because he won’t put up with it. Also, you won’t see anything like Speedo Man in the stands of the Smith Center making obscene gestures towards players.

You can go to school, but you can’t buy class. That statement is so true and North Carolina has built up its legacy and maintained classiness all around. You don’t hear of academic problems, recruiting violations, or anything like that at North Carolina and I know you won’t as long as Roy Williams is around. So, you stay classy North Carolina.

Top 5 Most Important Players Continued

2009-07-27T18:16:00.003-04:00

1. Marcus Ginyard. I know; put on your surprised face. Marcus Ginyard, to me, is the most important player for the upcoming year because of the fact that he has been in the most big games, has the most starts, and has been the vocal leader for the Tar Heels since his sophomore year. I've said it before, but he needs to be that David Noel player. If Marcus Ginyard can be that type of player, this team will be very successful. He does not need to produce the same stats as Noel (If he can, I'll take it though), but he needs to lead and from what I've read, he's going to fulfill that role and already has that mindset.

Think back to that 05-06 team and realize that they had Q. Thomas, Byron Sanders, Reshawn Terry, Wes Miller, and David Noel returning, plus the freshman class. This upcoming year's team will have Ed Davis, Tyler Zeller, Deon Thompson, Will Graves, Larry Drew II, and Marcus Ginyard and then you add all this year's freshman. Yeah, scary good. The 05-06 team was picked to finish 6th in the ACC. This year's team will probably be picked to win the ACC or at least be second. This could still be a great year for the Heels and I am ever so looking forward to it.

Here's a piece on Marcus Ginyard and this article talks about how he can take on the Noel role and it's very similar to the post I had a week or two ago, but still worth checking out.

Top 5 Most Important Players Continued

2009-07-26T11:49:00.004-04:00

So here are the rest of the top 5:

3. Deon Thompson is who I think is the third most important player for this upcoming season. In the first 12 games of this past season, Deon averaged 14.6 points per game. Now some games were with Tyler Hansbrough and some where not, but that's still a good amount for him to put up. In all 12 games, he scored in double figures, whereas in the last half of the season, he only averaged 8.8 points per game and only scored in double figures in 10 out of the last 26 games. Now a few things to consider here. 1. Deon Thompson was the fifth option on the floor as a starter. 2. Thompson also had the last 2 ACC players of the year on his team. 3. Deon is Deon and sometimes gets down on himself. This year, Deon needs to be the man for this team. I'm not sure if he would be the leading scorer or not on this team, but he needs to be up there because he has two years of starting experience and we all know what he is capable of this. Those first 12 games of last season were awesome to watch; Thompson was abusing people (Remember that dunk he had on Harongody in Maui?). Simple put, Deon Thompson needs to do the things he has shown he can do all season. He cannot be up and down; it is his turn to shine. I strongly believe that Deon can average 15 and 8 for this team, but he has to show it.

2. Larry Drew II is not Raymond Felton or Ty Lawson and right now, he doesn't need to be. He needs to be Larry Drew II. If he can play in his role and not force the issue, but play Roy Williams style and be the floor leader, not necessarily, the team leader, UNC will be successful. What I like about Drew is that he is a pass first guy and I always appreciate that as a fan. Ed Cota was one of my favorite players because he was a pass first (and often pass second) point guard. Now Lawson and Felton are more scorers, but they have had plenty of assists as well. Drew did not shoot well this past year, but from what Roy Williams has said, Drew has improved. But again, he does not have to be a scorer for this team to be successful. If he can limit turnovers and run the offense, he will be fine for us this year. I would also like to see Drew on the defensive end this year because from what I have heard, he's a good defender, but it's hard to see that in 2-3 minute spurts like he received this past year. That won't be an issue this year.

I'll reveal #1 later. It probably won't be a huge shocker, but you still keep reading, right?

Top 5 Most Important Players

2009-07-23T20:47:00.006-04:00

So I have thought and thought and thought about this and I really still don't know. I know my top two are set in stone and there is no way I'm going to change it. Probably my top three are not going to change. So here it is.

5. Leslie McDonald/Dexter Strickland. Yes, I put two players here because one of them will be starting at shooting guard, most likely, and both of them will be given some ball handling responsibilities because Larry Drew cannot play 40 minutes. Also both of these players are important because they will be needed to fill in the void from behind the arc, left by the draftees and graduates. It's very important they these two guards can handle the ball well enough to not have Larry Drew playing 37 minutes a game, mainly because I don't think Drew could handle that many minutes over the course of the season, and shoot the ball well. If these two could hit at 33% or around there, that would be awesome. I thought about throwing Will Graves in here at #5, because he's such a wild card, but I'm thinking that Graves could be the Danny Green spark plug off the bench this upcoming year.

4. Ed Davis. So I put who the scouts have as the best player on the Tar Heels roster at #4. Yes, yes I did. Because I think there are three other players who are more important that Davis, maybe not necessarily better than Davis. But Davis will be important. I think his defensive presence is going to be more important than his offensive presence, but I will take both. His ability to block and alter shots is something that North Carolina has lacked the last few years and he can turn them around. His rebounding is automatic-Sam Perkins style. If Davis goes out and gets 12 and 9, with 2 blocks, I'd be happy, but I think he'll do better than that.

I will reveal the other three over the next few days.

Some More Hype

2009-07-22T17:08:00.002-04:00

I still haven't decided on the most important players for the upcoming year, but I do have more that relates to yesterday's post.

ESPN's Dickie V and Andy Katz put out some hype articles, with Vitales' Rolls Royce team and Katz with his talk of all the returning talent.

First on Dick Vitale's piece, who by the way, I don't think he is pro-Duke or pro-Carolina. I think he gives both equal praise and he's just a really intense person. But he a bazillion players on his teams, with 7 different teams, plus honorable mentions. I see that Kyle Singler is on the first team and Ed Davis is on the sixth team. I also notice that Ed Davis is the only returning player not to average double digits in points, so obviously that's saying something, like believe the hype. I do love how experts always have such varying opinions. Yesterday, Ed Davis was 11th, today he is around the 30th. Hopefully his draft stock doesn't plummet this much. Deon Thompson also made the list, but as an honorable mention, which means he's probably ranked in the 50's on Vitale's system.

Katz, who is probably my favorite analysis, hit the nail right on the head, in my opinion anyway. Here's what he said:

Davis had buzz after his Final Four performance this spring. In this draft, he would have gone in the top five, but how will he handle being the go-to guy in the post? Will he even get that tag with Deon Thompson? Davis needs to show he can deliver for the Tar Heels on a consistent basis. He didn't have the chance this past season because of Tyler Hansbrough. Now he does. Let's see how he handles the pressure.

I think he's right on. He's top five pick because of his projected talent. But it's not like he's going to be handed the post area because Tyler Hansbrough is gone. He has to deal with Deon Thompson, who both have similar offensive games, with Deon extending his range a bit this past season. What if Deon is the man this year? We don't know how it will go down. Also, Davis will be under a lot of pressure. Two mock drafts I have seen for next year have him at #2 and #6. That's a lot of potential money for a 19-20 year old. Hopefully fan, pro scouts, and probably even teammate talk of his game won't weigh him down.

One other note, not related to UNC, but kinda is. Luke Harangody returned for his senior year and it looks like he will have a Tyler Hansbrough-like year in terms of setting all these records for Notre Dame. But I highly doubt he will ride off in the same fashion that Hansbrough did.

Top 10 Players for Next Year

2009-07-21T17:27:00.002-04:00

Fox Sports put out a list of the top 10 returning college basketball players. There are no Tar Heels in the top 10. However, Ed Davis made the honorable mention with the author noting some of Steady Eddy's NCAA tournament games. Most of this list contains people from the Big 12, like Willie Warren and the two-headed monster from Kansas, but two other ACCer's made the list: Kyle Singler at #8, and Al-Farouq Aminu at #3.

My thoughts are mixed about this. First, I think Ed Davis is going to be great next year, but the fact remains that we don't know that. I can project all I want and you can project all you want, but the truth of the matter is, we just don't know. Secondly, I would like to see this list at the midway point of the season, because both Aminu and Singler have played significant minutes for their teams (I'm talking about starting and big game situations) and Davis has not has as much of an opportunity. Yes, he has played in a number of big games already, but he was never counted on as the second or third option like these players have been. Thirdly, I'm pretty sure that every player on this list started at least half the season. Ed Davis made the honorable mention even though he has started less than 3 games in his career. He is impressive.

This article got me thinking about who the most important players are for UNC this year. I thought about it a lot today and kept trying to place them in some sort of order, but I'm not sure yet. I still have some thinking to do, so I will decide tomorrow or Thursday and post it with my thoughts. Thanks for reading.

We have a David Noel Sighting...

2009-07-14T17:26:00.003-04:00

Ok, it's still just Marcus Ginyard, but here's a great piece about Ginyard and his upcoming senior year.

In the article, Marcus talks about his improved jump shot and his confidence being high. He also says he is taking the ball to the basket a lot more.

He also touches on leadership and mentions David Noel. He says he would like to emulate him and take his team farther than Noel was able to lead his Heels.

I don't know about how, but that article made me feel really good and I'm so ready for college basketball season to start up.

Hansbrough Inked

2009-07-10T12:32:00.004-04:00

No, not tattoos (at least that I know of). He has signed his rookie deal with the Pacers.

As the 13th overall pick, he's slotted in the NBA's rookie salary scale to receive about $1.5 million this season and nearly $1.7 million next season, with a $1.8 million option for his third year.

As Roy Williams often says, he's going to make a lot of money and it is very true. Hansbourgh has earned it with his four years of hard work, sweat, and blood.

GQ the Rapper

2009-07-10T12:01:00.004-04:00

Quentin Thomas is trying to become a rapper. I remember reading an article last year about this time about how he was trying to pursue this avenue as a career. He goes by the name of GQ, which the article says was given to him by Mike Copeland. I would have preferred Q, but that's me. It appears as though Q has made some progress as he has a song on the upcoming NBA Live 10. I'm not a huge fan of rap (actually, not at all), but Q was always known for writing poetry during his playing days at UNC and it seems that he is able to use that in his career now. I wish him all the best as he continues this dream of his.

Interview with a Coach

2009-07-10T11:48:00.003-04:00

Sporting News recently did an interview with Roy Williams. You can read the full interview here. If you can't tell Roy Williams is a student of Dean Smith, then you need to be pegged on the head with a tac hammer because Dean was humble and Roy also exuberates humbleness in deferring several times about where he ranks among the greatest coaches, his place on the all time wins list, and being the #2 coach behind not only Dean Smith, but also Phog Allen at Kansas. Williams also mentions that his toughest loss is 97 loss to Arizona (I know for me, it's the UNC/Kansas Final Four game), so hopefully that loss remains his toughest loss.

Roy also mentions about how thick-skinned he is, which you probably need in order to coach at any level. I have defended, and will continue to defend Roy Williams unless he does something complete out of character, which is hard to envision that happening. But it's nice to know that he doesn't get swayed by public opinion and he probably does not read as much as the fans do about his coaching and decisions. As Williams has said before, he does not care too much for technology, so he probably does not read most of the articles out there on the internet about him.

Williams goes on to talk about how big an impact that Tyler Hansbrough has left on the program and coaches alike. I believe that very much so and know that there will not be another player like Tyler Hansbrough in the UNC program. He is amazing and so is Roy Williams.

How Bout Them Tar Heels?

2009-07-07T16:12:00.002-04:00

Sound familiar? It's my Woody Durham impression. It's all over the 2008-2009 DVD that was put out. I recently recieved my copy and must say that it's great to relive the season, even though it's only about 3 months old. Lots of player and coach analysis throughout. I must say as closely as I followed UNC this past season, by reading, writing, watching clips, there wasn't a lot of information that I didn't already know or at least have a little bit of knowledge about. Overall, still a great watch and I know I'll watch it again when there is a lull of Tar Heel sports to read about. Here's the link. Although the price isn't awful, the shipping might kill you.

Draft Thoughts

2009-07-05T17:59:00.002-04:00

Ok, I realize that my blogging has been poor as of late, but I promise that will change. June was a very crazy month for me and now that it is over, I should be more consistent. I apologize and hope you readers out there do not think any less of me.

But the draft has come and gone and I’m just going to give some thoughts on where each Heel was drafted and what I think about it.

Tyler Hansbrough went #13 to the Pacers. I was sure surprised by the fact that he was a lottery pick. Who would have thought the guy who had been nit-picked at for 4 years would be the first Heel to be drafted, let alone a lottery pick? When I look at the Pacer’s roster, I know that Psycho-T can play on this team and get some significant minutes. The Pacers don’t seem to have a truly skilled big man, so they went with a safe pick on this one, which some experts say wasn’t good, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. There are a lot of North Carolina ties on this roster, like Josh McRoberts from Duke and Roy Hibbert from that fateful Elite 8 game in 07.

Ty Lawson was originally drafted by the Wolves at #18 (and their plethora of picks and point guards), but then traded to the Nuggets. I think Lawson might be in the best situation of all of the draftees because he will be the primary back up. There is no way he is starting over Chauncy Billups, but Billups will be an excellent tutor for Lawson to learn under. Also, the Nuggets play at a fast pace, which should help Lawson make the transition from the Carolina system to the NBA. Hopefully he will do a little better than Raymond Felton did at making the transition.

Wayne Ellington was drafted by the T-Wolves as well at #28, but they kept him. I’m not sure what to expect with the T-Wolves with their coaching situation up in the air. He’s really the only shooting guard on the team, unless you count Ricky Rubio, who is the same height as Ellington, but everyone else on the roster should be a point guard going on by their height. Now that Kevin McHale is gone, there won’t be a doghouse for Ellington to get in like Rashad McCants was, so hopefully he can get some playing time. Ellington was quoted as saying that he had a chip on his shoulder to prove the other 27 teams wrong, so I would think we would see him play well.

Danny Green was the lone second rounder. I really like this pick for the Cavs. They don’t really have a lot of wing players and Green can bring some things to the table that they can use. He joins Jawad Williams on the roster, so I imagine we will see some mentoring there. He also joins LeBron James and it’s hard to imagine that LeBron won’t want Danny Green to do his best and help him out along the way. I think if Green can earn a spot on the roster, he could get some spot minutes on this team.

So those are some thoughts from the draft from my head. I know I’m giving a best case scenario for all of these players, but I truly think that these things can happen. Again, I wish them the best and thank them for their years of service to the UNC, especially that National Championship thing. That’s a pretty big deal.

What to Watch For

2009-06-20T15:13:00.003-04:00

Dana O'Neil from ESPN wrote an article about the players to watch in the upcoming season and there are two Heels mentioned on this list. Ed Davis and Tyler Zeller are the victims on this list, but this isn't a Madden Curse dealio here. O'Neil mentions that if Zeller can be just an impression of Hansbrough, then the Heels should be in good shape. She says of Davis that Roy will have a hard time selling the "woe is Carolina" line to people because he was projected as a top-five pick in this year's draft.

Now, everybody is excited about Davis because he could be what Marvin Williams was supposed to be before he decided he was too cool for school. Ed Davis is going to be big time and it will be exciting to watch him become an All-ACC First Team performer.

Zeller is a wild card next year. He will not be Tyler Hansbrough, but that's ok with me. He just needs to play in his role. Remember that Zeller has a good offensive game, which would greatly balance out Davis's defensive game (Yes, Davis will be better on the offensive end). The wrist injury really set Zeller back, but I imagine he is hard at work this summer and hopefully gets a little quicker and stronger for this next season.

In all reality, I think Zeller will be around for his 4 years (3 1/2 if you want to be technical) and I believe Davis will be gone after this year, but you never know. Bottom line is that UNC will have the best front court in the nation. BOO-YAH!

Is that a Pen Name?

2009-06-18T10:19:00.002-04:00

Roy Williams is writing an autobiography? Yes, yes he is. It's release is sometime in November, so we'll have to wait until then to read it. I think this would be a great read, especially if he talks about learning under Dean Smith and winning his last two national championships. That would be really special.

Since we're talking abut books here, here's a book that I have enjoyed throughly. It's written by Wes Miller and Adam Lucas about Wes Miller's senior year at North Carolina. It's called The Road to Blue Heaven and here's a link if you want to check it out. Great book that gives some good insight into what goes on behind the scenes of a North Carolina team. As a fan, I love this book because it brings me that much closer to the action. I would encourage you to at least read it if you are a fan and buy it if you are a huge fan.

Look Out World!

2009-06-17T15:56:00.003-04:00

Two posts in two days. I'm making a comeback on the blogging world.

First let's congradulate Dustin Ackley. He was the second overall pick in the MLB draft and will probably be the next best hope for the Seattle Mariners. Also, he is in his fourth College World Series and now is the all-time hits leader in the College World Series. He now has 27 hits in 14 games after going 5-6 yesterday. I know this blog is mostly about basketball, but I do try and follow the Heels on the diamond as well.

Second, we have some new top 25s in the college basketball world. Fox Sports has the Heels at #5; Sportsline has them at #4; Andy Katz has them at #5 and Pat Forde has them at #4. So things are looking pretty good for the Heels, but this is all on paper and has no real relevance until March. But it gives the writers something to write about and it gives the fans something to think about - and believe me, I am thinking about next year. I'm so ready to see this team in action. I like what Pat Forde said about the Heels:

"Carolina has become recession-proof."

I like reading that statement. It makes me feel good. So until next time...

So that NBA Draft Thing...

2009-06-16T19:57:00.003-04:00

I Know it's been awhile. It has been rather busy around this side of the blogosphere, so I apologize.

Here's some info on where the Heels are projected at:

Tyler Hansbrough
Draft Express - #20 to the Jazz
NBA Draft.net - #20 to the Jazz
SI - #24 to the Blazers
Fox Sports - #20 to the Jazz

Ty Lawson
Draft Express - #17 to the 76ers
NBA Draft.net - #25 to the Thunder
SI - #14 to the Suns
Fox Sports -#25 to the Thunder

Wayne Ellington
Draft Express - #28 to the Timberwolves
NBA Draft.net - #19 to the Hawks
SI - #26 to the Bulls
Fox Sports - #19 to the Hawks

That's all I can get because I don't have ESPN Insider. Danny Green was not included because he is a second round pick and most sites don't project that deep. Here are my thoughts on these players and their future careers:

Tyler Hansbrough has been criticized by NBA people since the dawn of time. He is too slow, then not tall enough, not explosive, etc. Well here’s my opinion on him at the next level. At worst, he will be a rotation player. He has a high basketball IQ and can shoot, rebound, and defend. He’s not going to be buried on the bench. Best case scenario is that he becomes a Carlos Boozer. Yes, I did just mention a former Duke player, but when Boozer was drafted, I said adamantly he would amount to nothing because he was too short, not fast enough, etc. Well last time I checked, Boozer played on the Olympic team, makes more money than he should and has been an all-star at least once, if not more. I believe Hansbrough will have a fruitful career and look forward to following him (not watching him though because the NBA is stupid.). Even if he does get picked late in the first round, that would be better for him because he will be playing on a good team and can probably step in right away.

Ty Lawson is who I thought would have been drafted first for the Heels, but I'm not sure anymore. His stock has dropped considerably so I'm not sure what to tell you He has been mentioned as a lottery pick or mid to upper 20’s pick. It’s hard to tell where he will land, but I do see him similar to the last North Carolina point guard drafted – Raymond Felton. Felton has been up and down it seems, but his learning curve is on the better end than it was last year, but Ty Lawson could be very similar in the fact that he is a back up or occasional starter to eventual full-time starter. I think Lawson is better than Felton because it seems Lawson’s shot is more accurate and Lawson can get in the lane any time (at least on the college level). Lawson’s ¾ court sprint time seemed slow, but he is still amazingly fast. I've read articles that say that Johnny Flynn is way better than Lawson, but there’s no way. Flynn is good and I have enjoyed watching him play, but he is no way better than Lawson. Flynn relies on the three too much and has way too many turnovers. I know the critics say they worry about Lawson's shot being released low, so he's easy to block, but it's hard to block shots when you're double teaming someone else.

Wayne Ellington is hard to figure out where he could land. His draft measurements were interesting (who would have known he has a higher vertical that his buddy Gerald Henderson? And where was it during the season? We want to see some slam-a-jamas!), but I don’t know where he is going to go. I’ve heard as high at late lottery and I hear that he may not be drafted until the second round. My guess is that he is a late first rounder – somewhere in the 20’s - which might be the best thing for him because he’s not a superstar, but can be a viable option of the bench or maybe as your fourth or fifth scorer. If he does go the Bulls, that could be a really good fit because Ben Gordon will probably be gone and Ellington can step in and take his place.

Danny Green is questionable to make a team, which I’m sorry to say. No way is he a first round pick. If we could compare him to a former Tar Heel, he would probably be like David Noel, who was a glue guy, but was drafted in the second round. Noel did play for the Bucks for awhile, but now I think he is in the D-League. Danny Green could follow the same course, but I think he stands a much better chance than Noel because Green is more versatile. Time will tell with Danny Green.

That's the information I have, so thanks for reading. Again, sorry it has been so long, but keep tuning in and I will make up for it.

Wall could block Heels' march to all-time win mark

2009-06-01T19:39:00.000-04:00

Read that title again. One player is single handedly going to stop UNC from eclipsing the all-time win record for college basketball. I’m sorry, but I respectfully disagree.

But that’s what Robbi Pickeral from the Charlotte Observer things. Now, I know the article is not just single handedly about John Wall and that other factors obviously play into this (like the fact that Kentucky now has a plethora of talent), but we’re talking about a lot of things that have to go Kentucky’s way this year.

I think this upcoming Kentucky team (I’m assuming Jodie Meeks is back, for the record) is comparable to the first UNC team that Roy Williams coached. That team had a lot of talent, but what did they do with it? Not much.

So Kentucky will be a team of talent, but what are they going to do with that talent? This team has to do the following in order to succeed: 1) Buy into the coaches system, 2) gel together as a team, 3) refrain from any controversy (like academic problems. Hello Memphis!) 4) stay healthy. I’m sure there are others, but those stick out right now.

Let’s take the first two. Buying into Calipari’s system. Think of the upperclassman on this Kentucky team, this is their third coach in 4 years. That’s a lot of different offenses and defenses and lingo to pick up from a coach. Now some of these players are going to be fine right away, but you’re going to have some head cases that are harmful to the team. One of the biggest reasons why that 03-04 UNC team struggled and played poorly was because they did not buy into Roy’s system. The next year they did and the rest is Championship history.

Now the second point: gelling. Patrick Patterson, Jodie Meeks, and John Wall all seem like big time players, but are there enough shots to go around? What happens when Wall comes down the court and shoots the ball 5 times in a row without giving Patterson a look? This team as talented as it may be will be young and won’t have played much together. That’s plain and simple fact.

Robbi Pickeral says in the article that Kentucky now has the talent to become a 30-win team, while North Carolina will probably be somewhere between 23-28. Both of those are realistic numbers, but let’s not declare Kentucky champs yet. They still have to play the game. Just like the talking heads were toying with the idea of North Carolina being undefeated this past year.

The point of this is that I am of the opinion that this race will be close all year. I don’t look at John Wall as being the superman who is single handedly going to keep UNC at #2. If North Carolina does pass Kentucky, it’s hard to envision more than being 3 or 4 wins ahead of them by the end of the year. It may not be this year, but North Carolina will pass Kentucky and that will be super cool. And when the two play head to head this upcoming year, I’m going to go ahead and give the nod to UNC. Then it will be three more to tie!

#4?

2009-05-27T15:55:00.003-04:00

Fox Sports recently ranked the top 10 coaches in the nation right now. Ol’ Roy comes in at 4, with Coach K, Rick Pitino, and Tom Izzo all ahead of him.

Now I really don’t think this list is very accurate, but I am biased. I’m not sure what the basis is on this at all, but the only one who maybe has an argument to be better that Coach Williams is Coach K, and that’s only because of Duke’s dominance in the late 90’s and early part of this decade. As much as I don’t like Coach K, I have to respect the wins and what he has done over the years. Lately he has lost his mojo and that’s ok with me, but he could arguably be first on this list.

Rick Pitino is a good coach and has done a good job with Louisville, but he really hasn’t bee a true power like he was in Kentucky. Yes, it takes some time to build up a program, but we all saw how Louisville did with the overall #1 in this year’s tournament. CHOKE! Pitino is a good coach; I like his style and he has won a championship, but I can’t really think of any reason to put him at #2 ahead of Williams.

Tom Izzo might be the easiest one to remove from ahead of Williams because they just played head-to-head twice this year, and both times Michigan State ended up scratching their heads in wonder and Coach Williams and his team destroyed them. If Tom Izzo was a better coach that Roy, Michigan State would be National Champs and not UNC. Tom Izzo is known for getting the most out of his teams and I respect him, but he is not better than Roy Williams.

If we went by National Championships this decade, it would be easy to list these coaches; if we went with National Championships overall this list would be easy. I don’t buy into the talk that Roy Williams is only a good recruiter and an average coach. I say he’s a great recruiter and a good coach. I think he’s a better recruiter, if not the best, but he still had to be a good coach to teach and instruct the players in the ways of North Carolina basketball. And bottom line is that he is probably a better mentor than anyone on this list. I don’t hear too many Duke players praising Coach K for being a good friend to them.

As I have said before, Coach Williams has my respect as a coach. I do not always understand what he is doing, but I trust him because of everything he has done in just six years. Rarely will I question him and when I do, it is because I don’t understand why, but he has a method to his madness. Another thing I try and remember is that he has won more games that I have and knows what he is doing and knows his team far better than I do. Coach Williams, you may not be #1 on this list that you don’t care about anyway, but you’re #1 in my book. In Roy We Trust.

Top 25's 5 Months Before Practice Starts

2009-05-23T13:43:00.003-04:00

Now that the John Wall sage is over, some sites have put out their early edition of the top 25 for next season, so I thought I would link them up and make some comments about them.

Fox Sports has North Carolina coming in at 4th, preceded by Kentucky at 1, followed by Kansas and Michigan State. I do like the number 4 spot, and think North Carolina should achieve this with the ups and downs that is college basketball.

Sports Illustrated has the Heels bringing up the rear of the top 10 at number 8, which at first caused me to be outraged, but the more I think about it, this may be an honest assessment of the team. I think a lot of us feel that this team will be vintage 05-06 team with Marcus Ginyard putting on his throwback of David Noel and Ed Davis and John Henson teaming up to transmorph into Psycho-T. Let’s not all get on that band wagon yet. We have not seen this team play and they might not gel. I would easily say that they’ll be in the top 25 all year long (barring injury of course), but they might not be as good as we as fans are thinking they could be. I know Roy is a good coach and that 05-06 team showed us what he can do with not as much talent, but willing bodies.

I look forward to the season and I think the Heels have the ability to stay in the top 10 all year long. This will be a well-coached team (obviously) and I look forward to watching them play, but where they will be at the pre-season and at the end of the season is yet to be seen.

Also, one other note Fox Sports has Kentucky at #1, which I suspect is where they will be most of the year. I do not like Memphis, mostly because of John Calipari; therefore I do not like Kentucky even more now because of John Calipari. Memphis would always get national praise for being so good. Well they should be because they don't play anyone until the tournament and then get ousted (with the 08 Championship game being the exception) I hope we are really for them to turn into the next Memphis with the lone exception of them running through the conference play. I would imagine someone from the SEC can beat them once, unlike Memphis in Conference USA (Note to sports writers: to run the table in Conference USA is not that impressive. I'm sure top high school teams could do it.)

Video Tour of the White House

2009-05-19T16:06:00.002-04:00

Bobby Frasor was given a camera by ESPN to film the Tar Heels recent trip to the White House. It is actually pretty funny, so check it out.

I'll be giving draft updates soon. It helps with the lottery being tonight as we will see more talk of the draft.

Repeat?

2009-05-14T16:22:00.004-04:00

Well, with the absence of college basketball comes the hype of the next season. Personally, I'm so bored without college basketball. I hate this time of year because there is no good basketball on. I do not like staying up to all hours of the night watching the NBA players dribble down the shot clock and then throw up a shot. Yes, they are good players, but when a playoff tournament comes down to a seven game series, and then another one, and then another one, I'm not going to watch.

So Andy Katz comes through for me with an article about North Carolina. He seems to be thinking repeat. Ok, not quite, but he says if UNC has any chance to repeat, they need good play from Larry Drew II, Ed Davis, and Marcus Ginyard. I'd go a step farther and say we need good play from everyone, but yes, he is correct that those three players are going to be keys to next year's team.

If you ask me if North Carolina will repeat next year (go ahead and ask), I will say that I do not think they will. There are just too many variables to a season. What would happen if Ed Davis got hurt, or perhaps more importantly Larry Drew? Face it, we are a little thin at point guard. We can't afford a sprained ankle or a bad toe for anyone.

Here's what Roy has said about Drew:

"I just think he's good, and I think he's a quarterback first," said Williams of Drew. "I think he tries to get people the ball, and he's going to be fine defensively. He can do a lot better job on how important he takes care of the ball because he's following a guy who's probably the best I've had doing that. Larry has got to be able to push it at a fast pace and still not turn it over."

I believe this is an accurate statement, if Drew can keep the turnovers down, he should be fine. I was impressed with the way he played in the ACC tournament. He's not the scorer that Lawson is, but he doesn't have to be. He needs to get people involved and that's what I like in a point guard is a pass-first point guard. He didn't get a ton of time this year playing behind Lawson, but he will next year and that will increase his confidence. He is the starting point guard next year, because there is no way in high Heaven we are getting John Wall (For the record, I don't want him anymore anyway).

With Davis, everyone and my own mother knows what Davis can do next year and will have to do. He made a good decision and will not have any regrets with another year.

Ginyard is going to be huge next year because if he had played this year and graduated, we're talking about Will Graves being our main perimeter weapon. Here's what Roy said about Ginyard:

"Let's put it this way, if I didn't have Marcus on the perimeter, I'd be scared to death -- and you can put that in capital letters … SCARED TO DEATH," Williams said. "He can play the 2, that's his natural position, and he can play the 3 and he can play the 1 in a pinch for us, and he's been there and he's been in involved in big games and tough practices. He can get those guys to understand what's going on."

Yeah, I have to agree with Williams about being scared to death, as mentioned above, Will Graves would be the main perimeter weapon. This sounds an awful lot like David Noel, which has also been mentioned before about Ginyard. I think he's going to have a lot of fun with this group.

I'm gonna throw out a wild card here and say that Will Graves will play a big role for next year's team as well. We've seen flashes of what he could be - a decent defender and a good shooter - now we need to see it consistently.

I'm looking forward to the title defense. I said earlier that I didn't think North Carolina could repeat, but it certainly doesn't mean they won't. I think they should win the ACC regular season. My feelings are mixed on the ACC tournament, and in the NCAA tournament, I believe the Sweet 16 is possible, but so is the Final Four. You never know and we won't know until we start watching this team. How many days is it before Late Night?

Season in Review: Tyler Hansbrough

2009-05-13T13:38:00.005-04:00

(In Agent Smith’s creepy voice from the Matrix movies) “Mr. Hansbrough, we’ll miss you.” But it’s so true though. I will greatly miss Tyler Hansbrough. I don’t live in the Chapel Hill area (I don’t even live in North Carolina), but over the last four years, I have not missed many televised games. Some of the games I have missed include the 40 point game against Georgia Tech, the 2007 ACC Championship game, and the Sweet 16 game in 2007 against USC (probably that was a good thing because I would have been pacing and yelling). There may be a few more, but those ones stick out. Other than that, I think I have seen most, I would say 90%, of the nationally televised games (thank you ESPN 360 and ESPNU!), so next year, when I don’t see #50 out there facing his basket on the opening tip ready to pounce on the ball, it’s going to be really sad. I think when people think of North Carolina basketball, Tyler Hansbrough will be at the top of the list.

Hansbrough’s freshman year, during the ACC-Big 10 Challenge, the rematch of the 05 championship game, was the first game I was able to watch, but I was only able to watch part of it because I was working. We were close to winning, but ultimately fell short. I had a friend who was an Illinois fan who was watching the game. Afterwards he told me “Dude, your white guy is going to be really good.” Well after four years, I would have to say he was just a bit off. He was outstandingly amazing!

This past year, when I saw the headline flash: “Tyler Hansbrough out indefinitely with stress reaction in leg,” I couldn’t believe it. All these records that were supposed to be broken this year would not be broken. The championship run was in jeopardy. His draft stock was ruined. But the UNC medical staff, (which I think do a great job) did the right thing and held him out. Without him this season, this year would have been a lot different.

Things I didn’t like:
1. Missing some games. Yes, it was the right choice, similar to Lawson, but his records would be even greater. It would have just added to the legend. Did you know that Hansbrough has more points and rebounds at UNC than he did in high school? That is impressive considering he would have been the main head honcho, whereas at UNC, he was just the head honcho. It also would have been nice to say that our best player never missed a game or a practice, but what can you do.

2. Some inconsistent games. This year Hansbrough didn’t have as many high scoring games. He also had more single-digit point games than any other season before. His rebounds were down as well. I know all of these have different reasons, not that Hansbrough stopped trying. Ed Davis and Wayne Ellington increased their rebounds. Danny Green, Deon Thompson, and Ty Lawson all increased their scoring. The officials were watching the cheerleaders and not the game. These all were different factors and some of the reason was that defenses were gearing up for him. It’s cool; he’s still the best scorer and rebounder in UNC history.

Things I liked:
1. Coming back. This season was awesome because of the history behind it: North Carolina and ACC scoring record, rebounding record, free throw record, the 4 time All American. I’m sure there were a bunch of other ones, but those stick out. If he hadn’t come back, we as fans would have been left with the “what if” questions. That would be terrible to think about.

2. The attitude. The work effort was there all year, even though he could have taken some plays off at any time because he’s Psycho-T. But he gave it all year. When Lawson and Ellington were on fire at the end of the season, he didn’t try and do the same thing. He played in the team concept and was fine being the second or third option. There could have been a lot of problems if he hadn’t.

3. The shooting. Were you sick of hearing commentators talking about how surprised they were that Hansbrough was taking threes? I know I was because he has expanded his range every year. It’s not like they were fluky. With the extended range, I’m guessing that helped his free throw confidence, which resulted in a higher percentage. Also, he added the turn-around jumper and the fade away a bit too. He has the complete package as far as an offensive player.

Tyler Hansbrough is just the best. There’s no other way to put it. He is the best player in North Carolina history and a record setter. I love the above picture of him because it just symbolizes his career - a winner. If I ever met him, I would just hug him and say thank you and I’m sure he would know what for. He truly is a special player and was sooooooo much fun to watch. Thank you Mr. Hansbrough!

The Carolina Blue House

2009-05-11T16:40:00.004-04:00

So the Heels visited the President today, a day after graduation (talk about a lot of emotions this weekend). President Obama had a lot of nice words for players, Coach Williams, and the program. His words have reminded me of one word about North Carolina and that word is class. I saw a quote the other day that said "You can pay for school, but you can't buy class." How true is that saying? Carolina is classy and I will be writing more on that subject later on. I wonder if President Obama will still be in office when the Heels win their next championship. GO HEELS!

Season in Review: Mike Copeland

2009-05-11T12:52:00.002-04:00

I wonder how the general public views Mike Copeland. I wonder if they think he’s annoying (personally, I thought Greg Little was annoying last year). I wonder if they even noticed him. Truth is that Mike Copeland contributed during the year, the stats just don’t show it. He fired the Heels up against Duke at halftime; he provided the comedy during tense moments; and he occasionally did some nice plays during the games.

Things I didn’t like:
1. Missing some time. Not much he can do about this. It’s not like he meant to go out and tear his ACL. But when we only had two big men (remember Zeller and Hansbrough both missed a few games) for awhile, it would have been nice to know he was there so in case something happened. Also, the non-conference schedule was way too easy and he could have gotten some easy points to pad the stats.

2. The whole NC State issue. It was a hard foul and I’m pretty sure that it was just Roy who ejected Copeland. But there’s no reason to do that. If #50 doesn’t go kill Gerald Henderson for breaking his nose, you shouldn’t charge someone who fouls you hard. That’s anti-Carolina.

Things I liked:
1. Attitude. One of the best qualities about Copeland is the fact that he is happy to be on the team. He is a Tar Heel fan, who happens to play on the basketball team. He is very appreciative of his opportunity to play for UNC and I appreciate that. He’s also not the kind of guy who is upset over playing time and holds a grudge but knew his role and sought to fulfill that role.

2. Doing whatever needed to be done. Whether it was cracking a joke or firing up the team, he did what he could to help, even if he wasn’t the best player. He was a good leader.

Copeland will probably not be remembered in 10-15 years, but that’s probably ok with him because he got to live a dream. He probably considers himself to be one of the luckiest people in the world because of that dream.

Season in Review: Danny Green

2009-05-06T15:35:00.002-04:00

I remember when Danny Green was a freshman and it was a game against Duke at North Carolina. He did this one thing that made me so mad (I think he was dribbling around with the clock winding down and the Heels were down by a few points and he ended up turning it over.) and I was thinking he was the dumbest player in the world. Well since then, he still does some dumb things, but has matured quite a bit. Green has gone through a lot in his career with his father, but he has handled himself well.

Things I didn’t like:
1. Dumb plays. Sometimes, Green would go for the homerun, when all we needed was a single. Sometimes it was shooting a 3 early in the shot clock late in the game or a stupid pass when trying to break the press. You could throw some bad fouls in there as well as Danny was in foul trouble quite a bit late in the year.

2. Didn’t go to the hole enough. Green is a good free throw shooter, but he rarely goes to the line. I’m not sure if he’s just more comfortable on the perimeter, or doesn’t like to bang with the post players, but I think he should have gone to the bucket more and hopefully gotten some easy lay ups or gone to the free throw line.

Things I liked:
1. Confidence. Thankfully, this year wasn’t the Danny Green of old, who when he would be in a shooting slump would often stop shooting, but his year he kept on shooting and hit some big shots.

2. Shot blocking. For a guard or small forward, Danny Green is an excellent shot blocker. Remember that game against Miami when Green had 2 huge blocks within a 2 minute span? Remember his 7 block game against Duke? He was an excellent help defender and it was appreciated, not only to the fans, but also to the highlight guys.

Green declaring for the draft last year was shocking, but he needed to come back and he did. He was the stat-stuffer and I enjoyed watching him play and mature as a basketball player. His dancing will be missed and I don’t think he’ll do that at the next level, but I do wish him the best. Four years after me reeling him despising him for doing some dumb things I feel that Danny Green was the glue guy on this year’s team. Then we have this picture, which is just amazing.

What If? J.R. Smith and JamesOn Curry

2009-05-05T20:00:00.001-04:00

This will be my first choice for the what-if segments of my blog. I know I hinted at some possible topic choices, mostly positive ones, but this one got me thinking the other day. What if these two guys came to North Carolina?

I don’t watch a lot of NBA games. I will follow the season vaguely because when you play 82 games, one game doesn’t mean very much to me. I do tend to keep tabs on former North Carolina players, just to see how they are doing. I was watching the Nuggets and Mavericks duke it out the other day and I was watching J.R. Smith. Do you remember him? He was a 2004 McDonald’s All-America on his way to North Carolina, along with Marvin Williams, JamesOn Curry, and Quentin Thomas.

J.R. Smith was an incredibly talented guard and I couldn’t wait to see him play. He was a bit short, but athletic and limitless range and could dunk. Well, he had a good showing at the McDonald’s game and his draft stock went up (remember the rule for at least one year of college was not in place yet) and he entered the draft and was taken with a middle draft pick. He has done pretty well for himself, establishing himself as a 6th man. But he has had a few run ins with authority figures as well. When I watch him play, he seems like such a head case. He’s arrogant and proud and quick tempered (Remember he was suspended for a few games because of fighting), but he is athletic and has limitless range.

JamesOn Curry was another guard who was similar to Smith, but probably not the dunking. Well he had some run-ins with the law (similar to John Wall, eh?), mostly because of a drug bust. UNC decided they were better off without him and released him from his Letter of Intent, where he ended up going to Oklahoma State. He later applied for the draft and was taken in the second round and bounced around the D-League for awhile.

What if these two had shown up to campus? At first, when they both said they weren’t coming, I was very disappointed because I thought we were losing some good players (I was young). Well, I’m glad they didn’t because that could really throw off the whole team concept in the 05 season. Remember this group went from all about me to all about we. Both of these players seem selfish to me and they don’t really have their heads on straight sometimes.

I know Coach Williams recruited them and is a firm believer in character and no-nonsense, so I think he would have made an impact on these young men’s lives, but still, you never know. What if J.R. Smith was a shoot-a-holic? What if JamesOn Curry is handing out drugs to Sean May and Marvin Williams? I think both of these guards would have been immensely talented and would have greatly helped out after the mass exodus in 05, but if they had played on that team, it probably wouldn’t be one of the all-time favorite Tar Heel teams. And they would have cut in on #50’s stats, which I’m glad didn’t happen.

Again, I know that Roy would have been laying down the law on these kids, but we were much better off without them. We did win the championship that year and the next year, we brought in the best player to ever play at North Carolina, so I will gladly take it.

Season in Review: Bobby Frasor

2009-05-04T21:11:00.003-04:00

Oh Bobby. I secretly cheer for Bobby Frasor to make every shot he takes because I feel bad for him. Think about his career: Starts every game his freshman year, starts the first five or six games of his sophomore year and then is benched and injured off and on for the rest of the year. Junior year is playing great in his role and tears his ACL – out for the year. Senior year comes along and he can’t hit the broad side of a barn. Interesting career, but if you have read about him and watched him, you know he’s pretty optimistic about his situation and he has something that not a lot of others have: a national championship.

Things I didn’t like:
1. Shooting. Obviously, the shots did not go down for this young man, and sometimes you wonder why he kept shooting. This was the same guy who would sit on the bench his junior year and shoot 3’s from his chair. When he did get some shots to do go down, you couldn’t help but be happy for the guy.

2. Stupid fouls. How many times did Frasor foul a guy shooting a three pointer? Lots of times. He fouled so many jump shooters that it’s no wonder Coach Williams suffers from vertigo and has grey hair. Bobby Frasor, you are 6’3” and you will not block a lot of shots.

Things I like:
1. Defense. Frasor was the team’s best individual defender, winning the defense player of the game award numerous times as well as the team’s defensive player of the year award. Frasor did his best to keep up with people who were faster, stronger, quicker, and had a few picks set for them and he did a great job.

2. Hustle. The little gym rat did every little thing he could. Rebound, take charges, and just overall hustle. He’s a smart player for the most part and obviously unselfish because he knew what his role was and didn’t try and do more than he was able or capable of.

It would have been nice if Frasor had gotten a medical redshirt (another Final Four run would not be out of the question with him holding down the guard spots), but the NCAA must not like him. He would have provided good experience and leadership for next year’s team and I’ve heard that it takes over a full year to return to normal following ACL surgery, so it would have been nice if he could have gotten back to form. But, as I said earlier, Frasor is going out a National Champion, and I don’t think he would have it any other way. And he gets to throw out the first pitch at a Chi Sox game soon. The perks of being #1!

Season in Review: Marcus Ginyard

2009-05-03T20:56:00.003-04:00

I know, if I thought it was unfair to judge Tyler Zeller who missed half the year, how can I judge a guy who played in 3 games? Well, this is my blog, so I can do what I want. This is more of what I hope to see from Marcus Ginyard next year. When he was shut down for the season, everyone (myself included) thought of the David Noel comparisons (Has he really been cemented in people’s minds or what?). Senior leader on a young team, incoming freshman and on and on. Yes, he is very much in the position that David Noel was in, but let’s not crown him the second coming just yet.

Things I’d like to see:
1. Consistent jump shot. We all know we can defend, rebound, and make lay-ups. If he could get some consistency on his shot and even bag a couple of 3’s per game, I would be very pleased with Ginyard. We should have enough front court depth to have enough offensive fire power, but my concern is the backcourt (which is where I think Ginyard will be at next year: Davis – C, Thompson – PF, Henson – SF, Ginyard – SG, Drew –PG. Or Ginyard could come off the bench and I’m sure he would do fine and accept his role.) If he can get a jumper, teams won’t be able to sit in a zone or sag off on him in man-to-man defenses, meaning that they can’t just clog the paint. I know he can, and hopefully he will.

2. Defense, leadership, and hustle. All of these are pretty much given, but that doesn’t mean I don't want to see them go away. We know he’s the best individual defender on the team, so it will be nice not to have opposing guards go for 30 on UNC every other night. I have considered Marcus to be the leader of this team since he was a sophomore because he was vocal and would lead by example, whereas some of the others led primarily by example. He will fit right into the mold of the leader with the young team. The hustle should be there as well, especially since He is the elder statesman of the team, being a 5th year senior. He needs to put in the effort and work to make an impression on this young team, so that they can continue the excellence that is North Carolina basketball. I have no doubts about any of these.

I do feel bad that Marcus didn’t get to play in the championship run, but I realize and I think he does to, that this is a blessing in disguise with the team that is in place for next year. He has a great situation to take part of here and I hope he relishes it.

Season in Review: Deon Thompson

2009-04-30T16:07:00.002-04:00

I know, I did it out of order. I was supposed to go numerically and I blew it by jumping from Ty Lawson to Wayne Ellington. Maybe it's ironic because Deon Thompson can be overlooked. Deon Thompson is a special player, but you really never knew what you were going to get out of him. Would it be the Thompson who was so dominate at the beginning of the year, or was it the barely-show up Thompson? Now people get down on Thompson a bit, but I don’t like to. He can get down on himself quite a bit and lose confidence, but when he’s on, he’s on. If you think of the game at Duke, he carried us in the first half. If you think about the championship game against MSU, he contributed quite a bit.

Things I didn’t like:
1. Lack on confidence. Obviously that hurts Deon quite a bit, but it also hurts our team. I don’t think we want to run the offense through a player that doesn’t have any confidence, but maybe that’s how you get him over the hump, by running some plays for him. But then again, Coach Williams doesn’t really like to run set plays very often. I don’t know.

2. Free throw shooting. Deon is somewhere in the 50% range, which to me, makes him a liability. We have been spoiled with Hansbrough’s good shooting, but Deon makes up for it. I would like to see him improve into the 60% range.

Things I liked:
1. Knew his role. If you watched Thompson, he plays pretty hard and doesn’t demand the ball. He knew that he was the fifth option on the team. Sure, he forced some shots, but who didn’t on the team? He never tried to do more than the team needed him to do.

2. Expanded range. Thompson has worked on his range a bit and is not hitting the 10-12 foot jumper regularly. If he could get it consistently to 15 feet, that would free things up for Davis next year. His jump shot looks pretty good too.

3. Improvement on defense. With college basketball seemingly getting more perimeter-oriented (in my mind anyway), the power forward position will need to guard more Kyle Singler-like players. Like, Ed Davis, I thought Deon improved quite a bit on perimeter defense. He also proved he can bang with the big boys by guarding Blake Griffin quite a bit.

We have seen what Deon can be like, when he was the man at the beginning of the year. It would be nice if that could transcend into a full season. My feeling is that he will be better scorer and probably get 14 points and 8 boards per game, but we’ll see. It really depends on how good John Henson and Leslie McDonald are. We’ll see.

Season in Review: Wayne Ellington

2009-04-28T15:57:00.005-04:00

With the MOP, Wayne Ellington has ultimately lifted any past tournament failures off his back (especially the Georgetown game). Ellington really improved his stock quite a bit. He showed various improvements in his game, and the ones that stuck out to me were the rebounding and ability to put the ball on the floor. The 2nd half of the year was something special from Ellington. He was simply on fire. I can’t remember a player who went on a streak like that. You could tell some of the shots he put up were just heat checks, especially when he was draining 7 3’s. I think the Heel’s record when Ellington hit 50% of his shots was 50-0. That is impressive!

Things I didn’t like:
1. Turnovers. Sometimes Wayne Ellington would have some bad turnover games with no assists. That’s usually not good, but it really never hurt us too much, but I just didn’t like it.

Things I liked:
1. Improvement and contributions. I know I mentioned the improvements already, but Ellington also contributed in various ways. I thought his defense had greatly improved (at least he was able to stay with his man this year), but you could tell he was focused on defense by the way he carried himself, often times slapping his hands together. You could also see the fire in his eyes and often during team huddles he was the one yelling at people. The contributions were there (rebounds, defense, assists), even when the shots weren’t.

2. That shot. It’s such a pretty shot, especially when it goes in. I love the pose after a made basket too.

Ellington made the right decision to return to school. He became a much better overall player, rather than just a shooter. Primarily that was his job, but he did the other things as well. I know I mentioned that I thought he would come back, but he is not. It would have been nice to see the transition of Wayne the shooter to Wayne the scorer, but what can you do. Also, when you think of Ellington remember .4 against Clemson. And the picture above is my all-time favorite of Ellington. Not known for being a big dunker, but this one was huge against Arizona his freshman year.

Comparing 05 to 09

2009-04-27T15:56:00.004-04:00

I have finally done my comparing of the last two title teams. This would be an awesome game. I could throw out a whole bunch of numbers and stuff, but I’m not that motivated right now. So here’s what I’m going to do; I’m going to break down the starters and the bench as a whole and say who has the edge based on my opinion.

Center: Sean May vs. Tyler Hansbrough
Sean May really hit his stride his junior year about half-way through. Tyler Hansbrough hit his stride all the time. May had really good hands and was a good shot-blocker as well. He also had a number of low-post moves in which to fall back on. Those are about the only things he has on Tyler Hansbrough. Hansbrough didn’t have a ton of post moves, but he was ok at putting the ball in the basketball. Also, the ability to draw fouls, make free throws, take charges, and steal the ball all play into his favor. Then throw in the hustle, determination, and the extended range, it’s not much of a contest. May was good, but Hansbrough is much better.
Edge: Hansbrough

Power Forward: Jawad Williams vs. Deon Thompson
Jawad was an undersized power forward, but he played big in my eyes. A few things that were nice about Williams, was the fact that he could shoot the three and open up the post, which Deon cannot do. Deon defends well with his blocks, but he can be such a head case and be streaky. If it was Deon of the first few games of the regular season, Deon would win, but Williams had that senior leadership quality, experience, and know-how.
Edge: Williams

Small Forward: Jackie Manuel vs. Danny Green
We really have opposites in this area. A defensive-minded stopper against an offensive-minded shooter. Manuel was an excellent defender, but defenses could lay off of him because he couldn’t shoot a lick. Green was the stat-stuffer, filling up the box score on a regular basis. He could shoot, pass, rebound, and block. His on ball defense was suspect, but you always had to be aware of him coming on the help-side defense.
Edge: Green

Shooting Guard: Rashad McCants vs. Wayne Ellington
At the beginning of the year, this would have been no contest to McCants. He has the ability to shoot from anywhere. But he could also drive hard, finish hard, and dunk hard. Ellington is a much better all-around player now. His rebounds were up; assists were good; defense was much-improved. I would have liked to see him take it to the hole more and get fouled because he was a good free throw shooter. Because of that, I think McCants was better. McCants was also a decent shot-blocker as well, which Wayne is not.
Edge: McCants – slightly

Point Guard: Raymond Felton vs. Ty Lawson
This would be a great point guard match-up. One for the ages. Felton was the leader of the 05 team. His three pointer against Illinois when the game was tied at 65 was cold blooded. He also had great court vision, and if he had stayed, would probably be close to Ed Cota’s record for assists. Both of these players underwent severe criticism over their play and both handled it very well. Lawson down the stretch was similar to May’s run in 05. No one could stop him. I believe the only things that could stop Lawson this past year was Lawson, Roy Williams, and Lawson’s toe. Lawson 3% and FG% were amazing and though his assist numbers are not as good as Felton’s, he was the man. This match up would be close and Felton never really got to be the man like Lawson did, so he could have been better, but I’m going with Lawson, barely
Edge: Lawson - slightly

Bench
Marvin Williams, David Noel, Quentin Thomas, Melvin Scott, Reyshawn Terry, Wes Miller, and Byron Sanders vs. Ed Davis, Bobby Frasor, Larry Drew II, Tyler Zeller, Will Graves, and Justin Watts. This is close and it’s a little unfair without Marcus Ginyard in there somewhere, but I will give the edge to the 05 bench. Only slightly. Marvin Williams and Ed Davis have been compared, but Williams was more polished on the offensive end, whereas Davis is a much better defender. Drew and Thomas would be even. Noel would have an edge of Frasor in my mind because he was bigger and could go hard to the hole. Frasor’s defense would be key though. Zeller is better than Byron Sanders ever was. Melvin Scott was just a shooter and not much else and I think Will Graves is better than Terry, but Wes Miller was such a little fireball. The 05 team was deeper, hands down, and more experienced, so they get the slight edge. But if Ginyard played this past year and either he or Green came off the bench, I would tip it to the 09 bench.

So there you have it. I would say that the 09 team would beat the 05 team, but it would be a good game. I think the combination of Hansbrough and Lawson would be too much, but it would be intereting to see Manuel crack down on Lawson or Ellington, which could be the key to an 05 victory. I think the 09 team was better defensively and the 05 team was better offensively, just because almost everyone was a threat. Truth of the matter is that this game could happen since a lot of Tar Heels come back for pick-up games in the summer.

Season in Review: Ty Lawson

2009-04-26T16:59:00.004-04:00

More like Ty Awesome. Lawson was simply amazing this season. I really never felt like we should lose because we had this guy on the team. After the 2 ACC losses, he carried the team into the Promised Land, filled with shiny wooden and crystal trophies (did you know the Championship trophy costs $19,000? It’s so ugly looking) This year definitely showed me the Ty Lawson that was promised his freshman year. End to end blazing speed, the sweet jump shot. This guy was truly amazing this year.

Things I didn’t like:
1. Missing some games. We could have easily run away with the ACC tournament championship, especially with the dud that Florida State had in the championship. In the long run, it was fine because we on the national championship, which was the ultimate goal. So I will take it.

2. Court vision. If I could find one flaw in his game, it would be these and that’s because I like a passing point guard. Probably on every play, they could run this offense: Lawson dribble until a lane opens up and either make the lay up or dump it down to a big man for a wide open lay up. Ty Lawson is good passer, but I think he could have been better. Yes, I am nitpicking a bit.

3. Free throw shooting. Yes, he was around 80%, but he could have totally been dominate in the tournament if he hit most of his free throws.

Things I liked:
1. Umm…everything? The shot was there all year and it looked so good. The turnovers were so few, which was awesome. The defense was there for the most part. I think Ty Lawson was amazing this year and I truly did like every part of his game.

2. The DUI. I truly think this basically gave us the championship. I don’t think Lawson would have been back otherwise. Thank you for having a lapse in judgment Ty Lawson. Also, thank you Chapel Hill Police Department for catching him. It’s true, if Lawson wasn’t there, Hansbrough, Ellington, and everyone else would have played differently, but it’s a lot more comforting to know he was there.

Ty Lawson had a great year. Maybe his stats don’t blow you away, but to the true fan, he was the man.

Season in Review: Will Graves

2009-04-23T12:46:00.006-04:00

Where to start with young William? First, I’m going to say this about Will Graves. I have seen in chat sites where everyone bashes him and on and on. But in response to that, I believe that Will Graves is better than Reyshawn Terry was at his sophomore season. Yes, true, Graves did redshirt, so he’s technically a junior, but actually playing the college game he was a sophomore. If you compare stats of Terry’s and Graves’s sophomore seasons, you will find out that Graves has averaged more minutes (arguably on a more talented team) and points. Here’s the comparison:

Graves: 11.2 Mins, 4.0 points, 2.6 boards, .8 assists, 1.2 TO’s, 44% FG, 89% FT, 28% 3FG
Terry: 4.5 Mins, 2.3 points, .7 boards, .2 assists, .5 TO’s, 54% FG, 69% FT, 60% 3FG

So other than a bad three-point percentage, I would give Graves the edge over Terry. But that being said, Terry played his junior year and Graves may not. Remember what Roy Williams said when Graves was suspended:

“He will remain a part of our program and participate in practice and all other team activities. His status for 2009-2010 will be determined prior to next season.”

So we may not see Graves next year, but I highly doubt that. Coach Williams is a firm believer in character and though Graves obviously did something to merit a suspension, I’m sure he learned from this and won’t do it again. As to what he did exactly, I’m not going to speculate. I think Graves will be a key contributor next year.

Things I didn’t like:
1. Obviously, the suspension hurt our depth at wing and guard. It would also have been nice for him to get some more experience, in light of the departures of upperclassman. When he was suspended though, he said he wanted to do everything he could to help his teammates and I think he did.

2. The 3 point percentage. He was 10 of 36 in 20 games, but when he came to UNC, he was known as a shooter and it just wasn’t there this year. I do believe he will improve and understand that this was the first year with the extended 3 point line.

Things I liked:
1. Contributing. With the loss of Marcus Ginyard, the minutes were there for the taking and in the beginning of the season, Graves took advantage of it. He had several good contributions and did end up playing some big minutes against Wake Forest (the only challenge game that he played in). I would look at him mostly as a scorer right now, but he does a good job rebounding and I think his defense is pretty good.

2. Defense. With playing 11 minutes per game, Graves sometimes played in garbage time, but in the two losses, he played in, he played 14 against BC and 12 against Wake. I know the Wake game was close (even though Wake was dominated), but he wasn’t on the court for just offense; he played solid defense and I think since last year, his defense has improved the most.

I think Graves will be a big help next year, and the year after that and I think he could qualify for the David Noel or Reyshawn Terry-type player by the time he is done at UNC. Don’t get down on him too much; he has greatly improved since his arrival and I am excited to watch his progression.

Update: With the thought that Will Graves might not play next year, I am 95% convinced he will now based on what Roy has said in the press conference that Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson had:

"You're talking about two of the greatest kids I've ever coached, as basketball players and as people. So I'm going to miss them immensely off the court and definitely on the court. It'll be a huge challenge for other people, they've got to step up. Larry Drew's got to step up, Will Graves, Justin Watts, Marcus, all of those guys have to step up. We're probably thinner on the perimeter than any team I've ever had in terms of people who have done it. "

So I take it Will Graves will be playing next year.

Season in Review: Tyler Zeller

2009-04-21T15:57:00.000-04:00

I feel it is almost unfair to judge Tyler Zeller this year. I like to call him the “Big Z” (apologizes to Zydrunas) and he did start out the year big, then Kentucky fouled him (no, I don’t think it was a dirty foul). Honestly, when it happened, I knew it was broken and figured he was done for the year. That’s also what the reports said too. But he came back.

Things I didn’t like:
1. Again, take these with a grain of salt because Zeller was never at 100% after the injury, but in the first 2 games, he had 2 blocks. After he came back, he had 1 block. Not cool. I remember his first game back against NC State, he looked so slow on the defensive end. So hopefully he defense will improve.

2. Rebounding. Zeller’s high for one game was 8 against Radford. Other than that, his high was 3 on many occasions. The game against Radford was his most minutes of the season after injury, but even against Penn and Kentucky, he only had a total of 3. Rebounding needs to improve, especially with the absence of Hansbrough next year.

Things I like:
1. Offensive game. He certainly has it and we saw it throughout the course of the year. Lay-ups, dunks, jump hooks, jump shots, and free throws. The thing that impresses me is the free throws. He shot 8 of 10 against Penn and for the season was 13 of 17. Not a lot, but I don’t think the Penn game was a fluke.

2. Selflessness. I would have been easy for Zeller to take a redshirt. But he wanted to help the team. That is what he said his first game back. To help the team reach their goal of a National Championship. Well, mission accomplished.

I think the future is bright for Big Z. He has a good offensive game and I think his defensive game will improve in time. I picture him as a 4 year guy, so I think he can get used to him being around. He should prove to be a good 6th man next year as well. I believe when he came in, he had the ability to shoot the 3 ball, so hopefully we can see that next year as that will open up Ed Davis in the middle for dunk city.

Season in Review: Ed Davis

2009-04-18T20:54:00.000-04:00

Ed Davis is the man. Not only is he coming back, but he’s going to be awesome. Unfortunately, he is probably not a 4 year guy, which is a shame because he could easily break the shot blocking and possibly the rebounding record. But you never know what could happen.

Some people were worried when Alex Stepheson left last year because of family problems (wonder if he regrets transferring now), but I can’t say I was. We had Zeller and Davis coming in and 2 are better than 1, most of the time. Well, Davis easily did was Stepheson did and them some. If you remember Stepheson, he had good size – 6’9” and 250ish (I’m guessing a bit, but he was solid) – but he was not really an offensive threat. He was a good rebounder and ok shot blocker and he could have made a contribution, but Ed Davis was so much better.

Things I don’t like:
1. Free throw percentage. To his credit, he did improve, but he was down around 50% for awhile, so he didn’t have to work hard to go up. If he could get this up into the low 70’s, I would be very pleased.

2. Shot selection. Sometimes he forced shots, but his left hand jump hook is pretty sweet.

3. Tendency to foul. This seemed to be a problem late in the year, specifically the tournament. I remember in the Oklahoma game and championship game, he had 4 each. Some were dumb fouls, some were legit. I hope he can cut out the dumb fouls and give effective minutes next year.

Things I like:
1. Length. He has long arms and crazy hops. He blocked and altered lots of shots this year. It’s nice to have him back on defense because you know he causes guards to think twice about driving. He had some monster blocks this past year and he is really the first legitimate shot blocker in my watching era. Brandon Wright was ok too, but he didn’t have as many huge blocks, I think anyway.

2. Rebounding. He has excellent hands and the ball just seems to fit when he goes up. His rebounds per 40 minutes were probably out of this world!

3. Improvement on defense. Davis is not a big guy muscle wise, but I think he did a great job of being able to body up bigger guys like Blake Griffin. I also thought his perimeter defense improved quite a bit as the season progressed.

I think everyone knows Ed Davis is going to be a force next year. If he started this year, I think he would have gotten ACC Rookie of the Year, but it was nice that he came off the bench to help us out because our bench had good depth, but not good scoring. I wish he was going to stay around for 4 years, but I think Roy did a good job of keeping him a secret for this long.

Season in Review: Justin Watts

2009-04-16T19:18:00.000-04:00

I don’t have a lot to say about Justin Watts. He didn’t play a whole lot and I probably have more negative things to say about him than positive. But here goes:

Things I didn’t like:
1. He shots every time he touches the ball. I know he usually only plays during garbage time, but there were a few times where he was needed because of foul trouble. I think he played in the LSU game for about 2 minutes or so in the first half and he took a hard drive and terrible shot, which ended up being a turnover because it was so bad. He shouldn’t be shooting. He was there because we had some foul trouble. Every time he gets in the game he was looking to shoot. In Maui, he had 11 points or so in a game, but he took 9 shots in about 5 minutes to get them (he did have a nice dunk though). In the championship game, he took a shot instead of having Mike Copeland try for it, which really ticked me off. Copeland has paid his dues – give it to him. It’s his senior year.

Things I liked:
1. He was able to spell the guards and you didn’t have to worry about him being a total liability. That’s all. Pretty self-explanatory.

When Marcus Ginyard went down, I was hoping that Watts might be a super defensive specialist that Roy Williams had been hiding, but it did not appear so. However, with Watts, if you saw him on the bench, he was typically hanging out with Copeland and everybody loves Copeland. If he can be another version of Mike Copeland, then I will be happy. Copeland was the guy who made the team laugh and helped them relax, in my opinion anyway, and if he can do the same thing over the next 3 years, then he will have earned his scholarship in my book.

Season in Review: Larry Drew II

2009-04-11T09:09:00.001-04:00

Maybe it’s ironic that Larry Drew took Q’s number 11, because sometimes, he played like Q did his freshman year. I understand the PG position at UNC is the toughest position to play because the PG is the leader on the court. I also understand that Ty Lawson was a special player who was a good player as a point guard (not necessarily a good leader) and he is the second freshman to take over a Roy Williams-coached UNC team (Bobby Frasor was the other). So coming into the season, I expected big things from Drew. I heard some talking heads say he was close to as fast as Lawson.

Please don’t think I’m being super critical of Drew yet, because I do like Larry Drew. Playing those games without Ty Lawson showed me of what he could be in the future. I have decided to break all the players down like I do games: Things I don’t like and things I like.

Things I don’t like:
1. Decision making. Sometimes he forced. Sometimes he made a horrible pass. I know the game is rushed and different pace in the ACC, but some seemed like careless mistakes. Some of it might be pressure to do well and increase playing time, etc…but he did have a year to learn under Lawson. I’m confident he will improve by the time his career is done.

2. Shot selection. Sometimes he had no business taking some shots. Some were forced. Some were 3’s that he shouldn’t be taking, but this should improve too.

Things I like:
1. Passing ability. During the ACC tournament, I thought he played well and gave me a reason to have hope that he could be a good player. He has low turnovers and average assist numbers. He had quite a few nice dump offs to Ed Davis in the ACC tournament

2. Aggressiveness. This relates to his shot selection. He was aggressive in taking it to the hole quite a number of times throughout the season, but some of the shots he flipped up were like….whoa! But Drew is aggressive and looks for his shot sometimes. I think he’s a smart player, who just needs some experience.

3. Stats. If you look at his stats, they are not jaw-dropping. But he did have more assists than turnovers and seems to be a pretty good rebounding guard. If he could pick up his shooting percentages, that would be awesome.

I compared Larry Drew to Quentin Thomas because that’s who he reminds me of. Q struggled his first year and then had some injuries, but I think we can all say that we liked Q at the end of his career. I think their games are very similar in the fact that they can both pass well and look to get others involved, as well as their timely baskets. I’m a little hesitant to hand over the reigns to Drew next year (but I’m not the coach and have never seen him practice) because of some of the cons listed above. I’m almost hoping that this John Wall recruiting works in UNC’s favor, but I know the player that Larry Drew can become and know he will improve him game – that’s what college basketball is for.