Final Four Wrap-Up

Just some thoughts about the Final Four that I was too lazy to post yesterday.

*With the glory of a Championship, usually means the mass exodus of the team. We know that Hansbrough, Frasor, Green, Copeland, Tanner, Moody, and Wooten are gone. Ty Lawson is probably 95-98% gone already. Ed Davis is coming back (Hooray!). I feel that Wayne Ellington might be back. No way am I saying he will be, but I am about 50/50 or this. Probably more like 60/40 that he will go pro, as of right now at least. He had a great tournament and a great second half of the year. Clark Kellogg talked about it in a few games, I’ve talked about it here: he has simply been on fire. I know his draft stock is high now because he has proven he is more than a shooter with his ability to put the ball on the floor, rebound, and even pass the ball. I’m just not sure. NBAdraft.net has him as the #12 overall pick and if that were to actually happen, he would be stupid to not go. Like I said, it’s just a feeling and tomorrow he could declare.

*How did Ty Lawson not win the MOP? Now I love Wayne Ellington, but how did Ty Lawson not win the MOP? Lawson was magical throughout the tournament AND the Final Four. Wayne was great, but not magical. I think you could give it to Lawson based on his Championship game performance. 8 Steals! 8!!

*I think one of my favorite plays of the game was when Bobby Frasor got a steal and could have passed it to Danny Green for a dunk, but he took it all the way. Go Frasor-Flave!

*If MSU won, the economy would not have been saved, like every writer and commentator was saying. I was soooooo sick of that story line.

*Tyler Hansbrough does not look good in a hat. Rather a net looks much better. Also he has cemented his status as the best player in UNC history. If you look at this list, I have no arguments, but it is interesting to note that before Monday night, Hansbrough was only 4th on the list.

*Where are these players going to store all this stuff that they have accumulated over the years? If you think about the senior, junior, and sophomore class, they have won the ACC regular season 3 times, ACC tournament twice, been to 2 Finals Fours, won Maui, and won an NCAA championship. Plus think of all the accolades that Hansbrough and Lawson have won. I know they donate some to the Carolina Museum; some is probably given to their families, but still. Hansbrough will probably have a room set aside someday; at least, I would if I were him.

*I’m excited about next year (I will do a post soon previewing next year, once the draft situation gets cleared up). But this team could be very similar to the 06 team because they are young and only have a few upperclassmen, but they will be exciting to watch. If you think that another Sweet 16 trip is out of the question, you better check your head.

*Don’t get me wrong by the following, but to me, this championship just doesn’t feel the same as the 05 one. But to me, that’s totally weird because I think this team is so much better and I like this team more than the 05 team. (I’m actually going to do a post comparing the 05 to 09 team soon, so hold onto your horses) I have a few theories 1) The 05 game was closer and you didn’t know that UNC had it in the bag until about 30 seconds to go, whereas the 09 game was decided in the first 5 minutes. 2) That 05 team was not anointed champs in June. Most of us knew they had the talent to go all the way and they did start out the year #1 (stupid Santa Clara). But after the three came back, they were picked to win it all. I know some never doubted, which is fine, but I’ve seen enough college basketball where anything can happen. 3) My other theory is probably the correct one. I have not been a fan for as long as many of you have been. I don’t frequently watch any games from the late 80’s and early 90’s. I didn’t start watching closely until 2000-2001, so in 05, that was my first championship and it was special. I still like this 09 team better, no question, but it’s like your first kiss or something – you don’t forget it.

*Also interesting to note how people compare champions to other champions (I do the same thing), but check out these two: One from ESPN.com's Page 2 and the other is from Fox Sports. Notice how they differently they treat the 01 Duke team.

Season reviews for each player will begin soon. I plan on starting with freshman and working my way up numerically, so Larry Drew gets it first. I will only be doing scholarship players too, because who am I to judge the walk-ons who work so hard. I will also review Roy as well. Take the time to read the articles about the UNC from yesterday’s post. I know there are a lot, but just about every major sports site put out 3. It took me a long time to go through them all. Also check out photo galleries if you come across them. Thanks for reading and, again, feel free to comment.

Destiny is Calling

I can’t describe the joy I felt when Hansbrough hugged his coach. That big grin on Roy’s face was priceless and the big man’s excitement was equally priceless. He was running around like a fool out there when the final horn sounded and it was funny. Four years of hard work for this year’s class culminated last night with a National Championship and it was special. Unfortunately, the game wasn’t close, but that may have been a good thing with the anxiety and nervousness I was feeling before tip-off. But when the score was 12-5, I didn’t think we would have a chance to lose. Too much will and determination. That first half was special, I hope you realize: 55 points, 21 point lead. Michigan State was lucky to not be down by 30 with as many turnovers as they had. They did shoot 44% in the 1st half, but those turnovers did pile up.

They piled up to the tune of 9 steals. 8 of them by Lawson – an NCAA championship game record. I don’t know how many points they scored off them, but it was one-sided. The effort was amazing, even if the shots weren’t fall in the second half. The defense was great. I have said on this blog that good offensive and average defense will win us games, but it turned out the last 3 games that good defense and average offense won us the championship.

And that Championship takes the monkey of the back of so many people:
1. Roy Williams for winning a championship with his own recruits and being a "game" coach instead of a recruiting coach (a lot was made of Izzo being a great coach on strategy and quick turn arounds)
2. Tyler Hansbrough for going down as the greatest player in UNC history and one of the top 10 in college basketball history and a National Champion.
3. Wayne Ellington, silencing his tournament critics, when they related the past tournament failures to his own shooting woes.
4. Ty Lawson, proving again how tough he is and how important he is.
5. Bobby Frasor for being able to survive the whole year and win.
6. Deon Thompson proving he can produce in games that matter.
7. The North Carolina team, saying that talent doesn’t win championships, and that a good offense beats a good defense.

Destiny was in the house, but it was on UNC’s side. If I could pick a theme for the year, and I think Roy Williams would agree with me, mostly because we're golfing buddies (I wish), would be overcoming adversity It's unfortunate that we never saw this team at full strength. Ginyard missed most of the season; same for Zeller, Graves was suspended. Bobby was never really Bobby. Ty Lawson was hurt towards the end of the year. Hansbrough missed some time. Ellington struggled early on. But as Wayne Ellington said at his post game interview, they all came back for this moment and all the hard work has paid off.

CHAMPS! CHAMPS! CHAMPS!

Oh yeah, that feels good. Enjoy this one for awhile. Soak it in. I think I'll be replacing the main picture on my blog here soon. YEAH!

Photo Credit: SI and Sportsline

UNC 83 - Nova 69

You should go check out the box score right now, because it's pretty ugly. Probably the only 3 good stats in the box score are the 3 point percentage, the free throw attempts, and the final score. Everything else is very non-North Carolina-like numbers. This was a very ugly game, mostly the second half because we were playing very well in the first, except that lapse there at the end of the half to let Nova be within 9. Oh well. You have to be happy with the results.

Things I didn't like:

1. Rebounds. I think we forgot how to box out as Nova had 19 offensive boards, but you must understand that, despite the lack of size that Villanova has, they play tough and actually out-rebound their opponents by 4 or 5 per game. Case in point is this game 50-46.

2. Shots. Yes, we did shoot 50% from 3 land, but we did shoot 22 times. I don't like it when we fall in love with the longball. I feel we should have taken the game in the paint, but they might not have gotten a lot of the calls because they weren't getting them to begin with (there should have been a few loose ball fouls or away from the ball fouls. This went both ways). I think there was a lot of excessive hitting going on, which may have attributed to the low shooting percentage, but some of the shots were forced. I also hope we don't fall in love with the 3 on Monday.

3. Free Throws. Mostly Hansbrough and Lawson, but as I have said before, they will bounce back.

4. Turnovers. We looked pretty careless out there, especially at the beginning. Lawson had 4 turnovers, which was very shocking. We need to do a better job protecting the ball on Monday.

Things I liked:

1. Defense. Last 2 opponents have attempted a bazillion 3's and only made 7 of them. UNC is playing great defense and as I have said, average defense and good shooting (45-50% area) should win us most of our games. Even though North Carolina did give up way to many offensive rebounds, I though Hansbrough, Thompson, Ellington, Lawson, Davis, and Frasor all had strong rebounds throughout the game. Villanova is a scrappy team, and UNC was able to hold them off.

2. Ty Lawson. You probably saw the sign during halftime - "He laid down the LAW, SON" or something close to that. Well, we had another excellent game, minus the 4 turnovers and poor free throw shooting. He's pretty special to watch and I love watching his emotion and him beating his chest. Thankfully he did get his number 5 back as well. I was worried #25 would doom us for awhile.

3. Hustle. Bobby Frasor had 5 offensive rebounds. Only Dante Cunningham had more with 7, but he is a long and active big man. I think on just about all of his offensive rebounds, Bobby was running the ball down and then pulled it back out. How about the play where Ty Lawson somehow picked up the ball near half court, without going out of bounds, and raced down court, dumping off to Hansbrough who was fouled. Or with Ed Davis shooting some free throws, he missed them both, but Danny Green tipped the ball up, it hit the rim, and then he pinned it against the cushion on the bottom of the backboard until he could grab it, and kick it back out. All of these were big plays and shows that this team is competitive, determined, and focused. They have the fire in their eyes. Just look at Lawson when he makes a big shot or gets an and 1. Look at Ellington when he is stroking it. Look at the bench, cheering on the team.

This game was not pretty and there are several fundamental things that can be fixed. I can't find the link (there has only been a 100 UNC stories to read since last night's game), but Danny Green, when he looked at the box score said that these things can be fixed and I have no doubt that they will be fixed by Monday.

Monday's game is the rematch of a brutal slaughter earlier in the year, but both teams have changed since then. Yes, MSU has a home court advantage, but remember in 05, Illinois was playing in their backyard in St. Louis. UNC is a very good road team, case in point the earlier game against MSU. No, MSU was not at full strength, but neither was Hansbrough (still playing through shin and ankle problems), Ellington (wasn't really the Ellington we knew until the ACC season), Davis was still learning, Zeller was out, and Lawson was still playing second fiddle to Hansbrough. I know the game will be a lot closer; we will see who wants to more.

ACC/Big Ten Challenge Part II???

Well, I'll admit it, I thought the road to the championship game was through the Big East, but that's not the case. Michigan State is not the same team that played in December; they are on a roll, but they don't have Ty Lawson, who is the engine. He had a great game and would have had a monster game if he could hit his free throws (maybe he won't gamble tomorrow and he'll practice free throws). But we win and the season comes down to Monday night. This is all we as fans have hoped for since the middle of June, when everyone came back. This is the hype that put us at Number 1 at the beginning of the season. I'm ready. And the Heels look ready too.

SuperNOVA...Bad?

Remember that '05 game against Villanova. I do, so I’ll tell you my story. I was at a friend’s house out in the Midwest and they obviously were showing regional coverage, so it was like Wisconsin or some other average team. This was also before CBS started broadcasting games online. When I first saw the score, UNC was down by 10 or maybe even 16. It was awful and I started to get really nervous. They closed the gap to within 4 at half and then were up by 10 with about 5 minutes to go.

Then the bad stuff started happening (which was about the time that CBS switched over to the game). Namely, Raymond Felton fouled out. The last inbounds play that 'Nova had, yeah we all know it wasn’t a travel (not that it was a foul either). But if you saw me and didn’t know me, you’d think I was on drugs or something because I was pacing and praying and hoping and wishing.

Well, now is 09. Villanova is a tough team. They have to be to play in the Big East (or at least that’s what the Big East keeps telling me). They do present some match-up problems with the 4 guard line-up. Some experts are comparing them to Maryland because of the lack of size, and we know what Maryland did against the Heels.

Well here is my counter. First, UNC is the most experienced team in the Nation. You can’t tell me that because of the last 2 (even the last 3) tournament nightmares, that they are not playing with a chip on the shoulder.

Second, last time I checked, UNC can still go small too. Hansbrough, Green, Ellington, Frasor, and Lawson is a pretty good lineup. But at the same time, I think we should capitalize on our size and get everybody in foul trouble. Hansbrough is the best perimeter defender of the big men, but I think Deon Thompson has gotten a lot better.

Third, Maryland has Vasquez, who is a 6'5" point guard and a tough match-up. He's the one who killed us, not Maryland. Plus we killed ourselves by shooting in the 30's percentage wise. Did you see what DeJuan Blair did against Nova? I don't consider him to have a lot of post moves, just a good rebounder, who cashes in a lot, but if he goes 9 for 9, I have no reason to doubt that Hansbrough can't have a big game. Also, remember that Hansbrough only had 8 points last game and will be looking like a man on mission.


One other note. About the whole Ty Lawson gambling issue. First, he is only 21. I'm sure you did some stupid stuff at that age too. Second, chill out a bit. It's not like he's doing it the night before the game. Third, here's what Roy had to say about it, providing more information than was originally given, like Marc Campbell going and them both being supervised. Roy's cool, Ty Lawson's cool, Marc's cool, so I'm cool about it.

March to Detroit

This game seemed to be everything that we do not expect in a North Carolina game: slow-paced, half-court, defense, getting the short end of the fouls. But it was a good game. I like the strategy that Roy put into place about doubling Griffin and letting the other guys beat us, because it worked to perfection. Now I heard some Syracuse fans ranting about how cold Oklahoma was after torching them, but I really believe the Heels played solid defense. I’m not always sold on good defense vs poor shooting – is it because there was a hand in their face or because the shooter is off? – But I think this game was a good defensive game. You don’t force back-to-back shot clock violations because the shooters are off. You do it with good defense.

Things I didn't like:
1. Refs. Let's be honest, if UNC breathed on Blake Griffin, they were called for a foul and that's just the honest truth. I could hardly watch the 2nd half because there were some ridiculous fouls. If they had been calling it on the other end, I wouldn't have minded as much, but you can't tell me that Blake Griffin never fouled Ed Davis or Deon Thompson. Yes, the fouls were even at the end, but only because OK needed to foul at the end of the game (which I'm surprised they called). If you look at Ed Davis's 4th foul, he was called for a block...I'm pretty sure that's solid defense to cut someone off at the baseline.

Things I liked:
1. The fact we can have a half-court game and win. I think that since Ty Lawson has been hurt, UNC is a better half-court team. He's not playing as fast, but he can still get to the basket pretty easily, which makes him the most dangerous person on the court. You say what he did when he drove and dumped off to Zeller. He probably could do that every play.

2. Bigs played hard. I thought Hansbrough did a good job on Griffin to begin with, but it may have been because he wasn't looking to score yet (you're the best player on your team - you should be looking to score), but then came the fouls and Griffin spent the rest of the game hitting layups. I really thought UNC did a good job though. Davis, Thompson, and Zeller, even though they are not physically, did a good job and making his work and that's one of the things that made a difference.

3. Danny and Deon playing well. Around here, Lawson, Ellington, and Hansbrough get a lot of the credit, but that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate these guys any less. Despite the fact that Griffin is an outstanding offensive player, he really isn't that good on defense, as Deon Thompson scored 8 in the 2nd half. When you think of Deon, please don't get too down on him. Remember that hot start he got off to? I think he's capable of doing the same thing next year. As far as Green, good time to carry the team. Sure Lawson played as Lawson does, but Green was the man out there.



I think North Carolina is the best team in the nation. I also think that everyone agrees that they are the best team in the nation when they defend decently and when Ty Lawson does amazing things. I think they are capable of both in the Final Four.

Detroit What!

Well done Heels! I'm going to enjoy this one and you should too. But please be careful when you pump your arms in the air, you might nudge Blake Griffin and get whistled for a foul. Please NCAA, don't fine me. Aye-yi-yi!

Photo Credit to J.D. Lyon

Revenge on Gonzaga

Sorry it took me so long to post. I've had a busy day. I thought North Carolina looked great. I was expecting the game to be a lot closer, but every time the Bulldogs made a run, UNC answered. Hansbrough looked like he wanted revenge, Lawson came out smoking, Green had an awesome stat line, and Wayne Ellington did his damage. Then throw in what everyone else did and you had the score you had.

Things I didn't like
1. Free throw shooting. This game could have been over way before it was over it we hit our free throws at our season average. Thompson and Davis were the big culprits.

2. Not putting them away. Gonzaga had me worried a few times, by going on runs, but ultimately they didn't have enough. I thought we had some lapses in the game, but that happens, so it's almost a mute point.

Things I liked
1. Basically everything else. Defense was pretty good. Rebounds were there. Everyone did their role and didn't try and didn't try to do it all by themselves.


As for the Oklahoma game, this match-up is very appealing to the eyes. Griffin is an amazing basketball player and I'm not sure if we should just let him score his points and shut down everyone else, or try and frustrate him. I do not think that Oklahoma has enough answers on defense for Ty Lawson (who has though?).

GO HEELS

Elite!

That was a really good display of pretty much everything, except free throw shooting. Very impressive! I will blog more about it later. Onward Heels!

Lots of Goodies Today

Ok, a lot to get to today, so let's get into it.

Tuesday Talking Points
Here's the link and I'm only going to comment on 2 of the points.

1. "Danny Green has shot better than 50 percent from the field in just two of his career 13 NCAA tournament games."
Well, that's not good. Sure, I could speculate about what the reason is - Seasons is wearing on him, pressure to succeed, the ball is a little flat. I realize this stat is true, but don't buy into too much. Green is a shooter and shooters always bounce back, especially the good ones.

2. "Wayne Ellington has played 138 minutes of a possible 160 over the last four games; the next-closest Tar Heel, Tyler Hansbrough, has 121 minutes. In that stretch, Ellington is shooting 57.6% from the field, 51.9% from three-point range, and has an A:TO ratio of nearly 3:1."
They should have just said that Wayne Ellington is on fire because he is. Go to this article that Scout wrote about him because it is exactly what I've been thinking and most of what I've been posting. The rebounding has impressed me quite a bit, but look at his scoring as well:

"Ellington averaged just 12.8 points on 43.2 percent shooting (34.6 from 3-point range) through UNC’s first 17 games of the season. Over the last 17, his numbers have soared as he’s averaging 18.7 points on 52.0 percent shooting (115-of-221), including knocking down 44.8 percent (47-of-105) of his attempts from beyond the arc. He has also increased his rebounding totals from 4.1 to 5.5 during this stretch run."

I love the fact that he has just been dominate in the second half of the season because that's where I want him to dominate. I also like the fact that he has been attacking the basket more over the second half the of year. Keep it up Wayne!

Roy Williams Radio Show Quotes
I like the radio show because it gives me something else Tar Heel related to read and blog about. This particular segment was does by Joe Holladay and he was asked this question:

On preparing a scouting report: “Eric Hoots is our video coordinator. Since the first day of the basketball season back in November, every night he’s had four or five recorders going [with the help] of DirecTV and satellites. So we have recorded every basketball game on television this year. So when the brackets are announced, we’ve got 10-15 games of Syracuse, 15 games of Oklahoma and 15 games of Gonzaga. We’re prepared. So the first thing you do is you start watching tape, and that’s what C.B. [McGrath] is doing right now on this Gonzaga team, and then we’re seeing what we can do against them and what weaknesses they may have or what strengths that we have that might affect them.”

Having Holladay do this radio show and McGrath watching tape made me think of something: I love the assistant coaches. I think they do a good job. If you watched the senior night speeches, all of them mentioned the different coaches and how thankful they were for them. I don't know a lot about them, but I know they do a great job. I hope they never leave, but at the same time, wish them the best, so if they do move on - good luck - unless you go to Duke.

Other Notes
1. Ty Lawson looks to be a go this weekend, which I think everyone knew anyway. He will not be 100% the rest of the season, but if Saturday taught us anything, it's that an 80% Ty Lawson is better than a 0% Ty Lawson.

2. The debate all year was who was better - Big East or ACC. Well I think the Big East answered that one, but does that mean they will stay the dominate conference? No. The ACC has easily been the top conference different years and even the Big 10 and SEC (that hurts to say). The point is that each of the major conferences has been the best at sometime since college basketball started and this year, it happens to be the Big East, so congratulations. But also keep in mind that if UNC follows my bracket picks, going through Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and then Louisville, then I'm going to tout the ACC and ask Louisville to give us the Big East trophies (Kinda like in 05 when we won the Big 10 conference - Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Illinois). One thing I would like to see is a ACC-Big East challenge. Let's face it the Big 10-ACC challenge or whatever they are calling it now does not have the luster it did in year 1 when it was any one's challenge to win and it's been like 10 years or so.

3. That's it for today. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments.

Round 2 - Fight!

Dear Ty Lawson,

Thank you for playing today and putting on a wonderful show. I hope you are able to walk tomorrow and can rest up for the Gonzaga game.

Sincerely,

Triumphant Tar Heel

Wow! Did you see him? I think I heard his toe pop a few times too. Insane game. How tough is Ty? Too tough. That killer crossover? AMAZING! The 3 pointers? CLUTCH! The and-ones? HOLY! Magical, extraordinary, jaw-dropping. And that was just the 2nd half.

But were you worried? I was for awhile. You really never knew when the toe would suddenly break off and then it's just Bobby. Apparently Larry Drew hurt his back in practice, so we again, had very little for a back court (Remember when we were so deep at the beginning of the season?). LSU came swinging out of the gate in the 2nd half and Marcus Thornton was playing like a man possessed, hitting shots everywhere. Ellington had another solid game in a row. Clark Kellogg mentioned that no guard is playing better then Ellington right now and he may be correct. Again, I see the fire in his eyes, not so much this game, but overall. He had 4 assists and I thought played good defense and had the big tap out to Danny Green for 3.

Things I didn't like:
1. Larry Drew not playing much. He hurt his back during practice. That again limits our depth, which we seemingly don't have a lot of. He will probably be fine for the Zag's, but you would have liked to have seen him get some more minutes tonight to face some pressure because LSU is not Radford.

2. Danny Green not shooting well. He was 3-10 from the field, 1-4 from 3 land. His shot might be stuck in Chapel Hill the way he has been playing, but he did have 6 boards, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Like I've said before, Danny Green is the stat-stuffer and glue guy.

3. Ty Lawson playing. I know, you're thinking "What? Why? We wouldn't have won without him?" Well, like Roy said, we will never know, but this was kinda of a win-lose situation. If he doesn't play, you can't guarantee that UNC advances, but if he does play, you wonder what the effects will be on his toe come Sunday morning. Ty even said himself that the pain on a scale of 1-10, was at a 6 or 7. Not very encouraging. Sure, the game would have been different in the fact that Hansbrough would have gotten the ball more, and so would have Deon Thompson, Green, and Ellington, but we will never know.

4. Deon Thompson not playing much. Thompson didn't do much in the game and didn't play much. He was 3-3 and the jumpers looked silky smooth, but I think he didn't play much because of his defense and the athletic ability of LSU's bigs. Ed Davis seemed to match up a little better, but of the 4 bigs in the rotation, I think Hansbrough is the best to guard someone on the perimeter (like a Kyle Singler-type player). Now I haven't watched much of LSU at all (just this game actually), but it seems that Mitchell is an inside-outside player, so Hansbrough would be better suited to guard him and let Davis roam the paint (nice blocks by the way Eddy).

Things I liked:
1. Ty Lawson playing. Win-lose situation. He looked sluggish out there, easily not at 100%. He didn't look to push the ball in transition very much. He was passing the ball up past half-court. He went out and looked to be done for the game. He was a step slow, and couldn't hit anything. Then came the 2nd half and wow did he carry them. Very similarly to the Duke game at Cameron, he put the Heels on his 5'11" body and carried them. On ESPN, Steve Lavin was saying that he thought North Carolina could get to the Final 4 without Lawson. I beg to differ. He's a game-changer and I have no idea what would have happened without him, but I sure know what happened with him.

2. Defense. I believe from the 7 minute mark on, UNC went on a 21-7 run to close out the game. And they did it with defense, which led to scoring on the break. A few steals, some good rebounding, and Ty Lawson cruising. You could see Roy Williams pleading for a stop on the sideline. They forced 15 turnovers and had 11 steals, but they were out-rebounding, but they battled back on the boards because they were getting crushed for awhile. I think I saw a stat that UNC had out-rebounded LSU 10-1 the first 4 minutes of that final run. Well done Heels.

3. Advancing to the Sweet 16. I was watching the end of the Purdue-Washington game (I picked Washington, and I'm still not sure why) and when Purdue won, they were celebrating like they had just won the National Championship. We at UNC expect so much: Winning the ACC conference, beating Duke twice, winning whatever pre-season tournament we are playing in, going undefeated in our non-conference schedule, thinking we can go undefeated during the whole season. We should consider ourselves fortunate to cheer for a program like North Carolina. Roy Williams has done a great job of making our team competitive year in and year out. Are we satisfied with a Sweet 16 berth? No, absolutely not. But seeming a team like Purdue, who will not win the National Title, be super excited about advancing. This is a dream for all college basketball players and I think it's unfair that we are unhappy with things. Take last year for example, some people were calling for William's job after the loss to KU (the sticker may have had something to do with that), but he led us to the most wins in the school history, the ACC regular season, the conference tournament, and the Final 4. That's a really great season. Don't get me wrong, I want to win the National Championship and will be disappointed otherwise, but I'm just saying we should be thankful that our team is this good. Sweet 16 for the 4th time in 5 years.

Ok, LSU was a good team. They did win the SEC regular season and were probably more deserving of a higher seed, despite how bad the SEC really was, but they did give North Carolina a run for the money. But one of the biggest downfalls of LSU may have been the fact that they hadn't beaten a ranked team this season and now they still haven't. Onward Heels.

Other tournament notes
1. Wake Forest - Thanks for showing up.

2. Texas - Thank you for blowing the game against Duke. You should have won that game because Duke played poorly

3. ACC - Thanks for being a disaster in the tournament so far, except North Carolina

4. Western Kentucky - Thanks for not being able to play defense for 7 seconds at the end of your game and then failing to call a time-out.

5. UCONN has looked really good their first 2 games.

Round One - Fight!

I didn’t get to watch all of the game today. I only caught about 5 minutes in the first half, and the last 12 in the second, so I didn’t see much of the game. Anything I really am writing about the game is from the box score and highlights I’ve seen.

First, Congratulations to Hansbrough on the ACC scoring record. I remember when Redick broke it and I didn’t think it would be broken again, but at the time, I didn’t really know about this Hansbrough guy. If this were the regular season, he would probably get another column written about him on espn.com, but the Heels have their minds on bigger things.

Second, Artsiom Parakhouski, the guy who was supposed to give North Carolina fits, didn’t really too much. He struggled to a double-double, but with only 10 pts and 10 boards.

Even though Radford wasn’t the best competition, I think our make-shift point guards did well. If you don’t count the guys who get regular minutes, UNC only had 8 turnovers. One other thing to remember about our point guard situation is that Ellington, Green, and even Hansbrough can push the ball up in transition, but, yes, I would rather have Lawson running around out there.

Things I didn’t like
-It looked like Tyler was forcing it (again, remember I watched less than a half of action) with his shots. In the second half, it seemed like there were 4 or 5 possessions and Tyler shot on all of them. Typically, I don’t mind if Hansbrough takes shots, but he should be in the paint. I know he has improved his shooting, but still, take it to this team, especially in preparation for LSU, who can be hammered on the inside.

-Not much else, I could say the shooting percentage, but when it’s this type of game, it happens. Plus Mike Copeland shooting 2-7 doesn’t do much for it. But I did enjoy watching him play.

Things I liked
-Danny Green bouncing back, which I think everyone thought he would. He didn’t rely on the outside shot so much and took it in and was active on the boards. Nice job.

-Wayne Ellington dominating. He shot 11-16. I don’t care who you are playing against. That’s good. I think I’ve seen the fire in Wayne’s eyes, especially in the ACC tournament. Part of that may be because they are playing without Lawson, hence another chip on the shoulder.

-Defense. Held the Highlanders to 28% shooting (yes, they are a 16 seed, so what?) and had 11 steals and 8 blocks. The commentators said they thought North Carolina set the tone defensively. I do not know if that is true or not.



Up next is LSU and I do not know much about them. They only have 3 guys who score in double figures but from what I can gather, they can be beat on the inside. I mean, if Matt Howard can torch them for 22, then I don’t see why our bigs can’t eat their lunch in the paint. Thorton is a scorer and Wayne most likely draws the assignment from him, so good luck to him. I’m sure Bobby can play against him too. I am preparing for Ty Lawson not to play, but keep in mind; I’m a pessimist when it comes to the tournament.


One other note, I was reading Our Daily Bread this morning and they had a little devotional about Jason Ray, the old mascot, so check that out. And Go Binghamton Bearcats!