Oh It's the End of the World...

It's really not, but I did have to convince myself for a while there too. Let's face facts: ACC Player of the Year did not play, Danny Green has not been Danny Green over the last 2 games, Bobby Frasor has not played consistent point guard in almost 2 years, and Larry Drew is just a freshman running the one of the nation's top teams. Those are just North Carolina facts.

Let's face facts about FSU: Toney Douglas was 2nd in the ACC in PPG and in Player of the Year voting. The 'Noles also shot 67% in the second half, which wasn't neccessarily bad defense, it was just an amazing performance.

It's really not the end of the world. Yes, I would have liked to have won the ACC tournament, but as the years have gone by, I tend to agree with Roy: the season represents a whole year's worth of good play. The tournament only merits 3-4 good days of play. And now that Duke is in the final, it makes this loss feel worse because they really have no business being there. But let's look at the positives from this game.

*Our defense did a good job. Yes, FSU shot 67% in the 2nd half, but they were on fire. They forced 14 turnovers and had 11 steals. They were out-rebounded, but only be 1 (34-35), but with Toney Douglas being the main player, we only had a few people to run after him with Ty being out. So Bobby, Larry, and anyone else that covered him did a pretty good job.

*Ed Davis and Larry Drew looked pretty good over the last 2 games. Davis had several sweet dunks and I get so excited thinking about what he's going to do over the next few years. Drew has not been impressing me lately, but over the last two games, I think he has gained more confidence, which will only pay off in the long run. He still has a tendency to go to far in the paint or to force some things and even some of his passes were erratic even though they got to their intended target, but I feel better about him than I did 2 weeks ago.

*We shot 37% and still had a shot to tie it. In three of the four losses this season, this has been the same story. We have shot poorly, but still were in the game enough to at least go to OT. This means that the defense is keeping us in the game, even if the offense is struggling.

*Tyler Hansbrough is still pretty good. Remember when Lawson went down last year? That was when Tyler Hansbrough really went off to claim NPOY because he took over games and I think he averaged 27 and 12, or close to those numbers. I was thinking he could do the same thing and carry us in the tournament, but alas, it was not meant to be.

*Our players tried hard and will still feel this loss. In most of the post game comments, the players were disappointed, but realized that this now means that every game could be their last. But it will also serve as motivation. Here's a few of the comments:

Hansbrough: "We understand we lose now, it's over."

Lawson: “We wanted to win this tournament real bad, because we want to win every game. But they didn’t want my toe to flare up, so he decided to sit me out this game. Our big goal is to win the [NCAA] championship, so that might have played a little bit into it.”

Frasor was asked if he could accept this loss. "Live with as in accept it? No. We didn't play the way we wanted to play. We didn't get contributions from everyone. Danny's had a rough couple of games, and he usually plays better. We'll watch film and learn from it. The ultimate goal starts next weekend, and that’s what we have our eye on.”

Green: "We've got six games left."

Yes, it would have been nice to win the ACC tournament, but I would gladly take a National Championship over the ACC championship. We didn't have a ton to lose, at least from a fan's perspective because we will be a number 1 seed in the tournament. I believe this loss will help over the next few weeks. The Heels have looked committed on defense since the Maryland game and know that it is all business from here on out. Remember we ran the table in 05 after we lost in the semi-finals. We can do this! Believe!

Three side notes from this blogger. 1) Ty Lawson will be playing in the NCAA tournament, which I think everyone and their mother knew. I'm pretty confident we could have won the first game without him and even the second, depending on the draw. 2) One team I do not want to face in the tournament is Pittsburgh. 3) Uche Echefu is a senior from FSU. I remember he was a late signer and he was deciding between UNC and FSU and I was hoping he would sign with UNC because it was just after the mass exodus of 05 and we were looking at Hansbrough, David Noel, Mike Copeland, and Byron Sanders as our big men. Well, he probably would have done well under Coach Williams, but we didn't miss much. A career 7.2 PPG scorer and 4.7 RPG, but to his credit, he hits his free throws and can shoot the three. But I wouldn't say we've missed much.