In 2004 UNC won the final by beating Iowa 106-92. Iowa was not #8 in the country at the time.
Tyler Hansbrough is back. Ty Lawson is back. Deon Thompson kept it rolling. The result was a sound beating of #8 Notre Dame who only made it close by having Kyle McAlarney shoot threes from anywhere on the court during the final four minutes. For all of McAlarney’s 39 points it was what Hansbrough and Lawson did they was most impressive.
Starting with Lawson who had 22 points and 11 assists. Can you ask for a better game out of your PG? Lawson used his speed to get into the lane all night long and unlike some previous games where he missed close shots, he hit all of them. Lawson also distributed the basketball early and often against only one turnover. His A/TO in six games? Try 4.88 which is simply incredible. Lawson earned MVP honors for the tournament.
Tyler Hansbrough shook off the rust and dropped 34 on the Irish. The most impressive part? Hansbrough got most of his points hitting jumpers and even dropped in a three pointer during the first half. Hansbrough use a variety of moves to score and really made a statement with a breakaway dunk late in the 2nd half. Hansbrough and Lawson were also a combined 14-14 from the FT line helping the Heels improve what had been some pedestrian free throw shooting.
Deon Thompson had another outstanding game and showed he has learned well from Hansbrough. Thompson had 16 points but more importantly pulled down 13 rebounds. In short Thompson was a beast and made use of several nice moves to find open shots and hit them. Thompson has arrived as a legitimate weapon on the interior and gives UNC a fifth reliable offensive option if needed. That in itself is scary.
Danny Green and Wayne Ellington had quiet nights though Ellington did hit a pair of threes and was very active on defense. Green cooled off from the first two games of the tourney and was, at times, in the 2nd half trying to do too much with the ball. He will need to settle back into the offensive flow a little more as he was doing against Oregon.
Overall, the Heels made a huge statement in Maui. The ranking is legit, the hype is dead on and we can beat you using any number of weapons on the court. Now go enjoy some turkey.
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The only thing left that I can say about Hansbrough is that he reminds me of Jordan in the way he rises to challenges; whether it be playing injured/sick, or playing against someone the media wants you to believe is his equal (Harangody). He is truly an elite competitor…
It is too early to talk about this team going undefeated, but, it is not too early to say that when this team plays it’s A-game, there is not a single team in the country that can keep it within 10 points.
Happy Thanksgiving, all!!
Well put THF. We were impressive. We put out a great effort on the defensive end. If that kid doesn’t go crazy in the end we beat them by 30+. Great win Heels. I was nervous about the Michigan St. game next week but not so much now.
McElarny (or however you spell his name) was on fire. He hit a ton of deep threes that most shooters wouldn’t even take.
Even though Notre Dame scored 87, I thought UNC was great defensively until the last five minutes. A lot of threes had hands in faces, Frasor, Ellington, and Green played active and stifling defense, and Hansbrough shook off a lot of rust.
Michigan State won’t be easy next week, but they better be afraid. It will be very interesting to see how the Heels can handle a hostile crowd this year.
The Heels will probably get mad & feel like they have even more to prove. This team is playing like they have a BIG chip on their shoulders. They have a statement to make.
Who is this Luke Harangody person I kept hearing about? I do not recall him playing last night…
Happy Thanksgiving THF.
ACC officials, take note of how last night’s game was officiated. Great non-biased games have been officiated thus far in Maui. I wonder if this year those fouls that Lawson & Hansbrough were awarded will be given come ACC play. I sure hope so.
I actually thought yesterday’s game was very poorly officiated. Notre Dame got one of the worst 3-point free throw fouls that I have ever seen and there were several questionable calls that went against Carolina.
UNC also seemed to have poor hands and lost several loose balls that they should have had. Carolina should have won this game by thirty points. Lawson may have played his best game ever and Hansbrough looked great, but all in all, it was only a so-so performance, but what certainly seems to be the best college team since the 1999 Duke team.
Carolina is now number one in Sagarin:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/bkt0809.htm
Pomeroy has Utah and Siena at number one and number two:
http://kenpom.com/rate.php
When you consider UNC has five high caliber offensive weapons on the floor, UNC beat Notre Dame by 15 with only three of them being truly effective. Green and Ellington each had nine, hit a few buckets here and there but were largely quiet. And I am not sure that is so much a problem but if they all five were rolling on the same night, it would be ugly for the opposing team. As long as 2-3 guys step up on any given night based on what the opposing defense is giving you, it will be tough to stop the Heels.
I also think the way they handled the point in the game were Notre Dame cut it to 11 was important. The Heels basically stopped it there, made baskets on the offensive end to answer any move Notre Dame tried to make to get closer. The fact ND cut it back to 11 should not have been surprising. They are still a top ten team and capable of making a run, what is important is UNC stopped it and eventually increased their lead which would have been more had McAlarney not gone out of his mind with the three point shooting. There is nothing you can do about that, especially when he is shooting it from 25 feet out.
You’re right THF. There really is nothing you can do about his shooting. Hell, we stuck him like glue and he still hit the shots. We could have pulled a Stephen Curry like defense on him and not allowed him the ball, but as Davidson has proven, it is not good for the other team to shadow your best player. So we sent one guy out on him, he hit some miraculous good shots, so be it. We won!
I thought the whole week could really serve as a springboard for the rest of the season. We won two games with Wayne and Danny being the main offensive forces, then another with Tyler and Ty leading the way.
The thing I was most impressed with this week (and I was able to make the trip to Maui, which I highly recommend) was the defensive commitment. Yes, we still have issues (ball screens, dribble hand-offs and Danny’s weakside defense is atrocious. Watch him sometime–he has no idea where his man is) but I sensed much more energy and focus on that end of the floor.
One thing about the ND game when they cut it to 11 that showed me something–we didn’t panic and jack a 3, but instead got it inside. Both times they drilled a 3, we answered with a 3-point play. We ran into Tom Crean and Bill Rafferty at the airport on Wednesday night, and they separately said UNC is something very special this year.
My only concern is keeping everyone happy. Without Tyler at full force, Danny and Wayne had freedom to create the first two games. With Tyler back, though, everything went through him. Hopefully they can keep their egos in check, because the whole reason we’re dangerous is we have five guys who could carry us, if needed, at any point this season. Nobody else in college hoops (maybe Gonzaga) has that kind of offensive depth.
We (my brother and I) felt Lawson is very much improved. Against some very good point guard those last two games (and even the Chaminade guard is good–just ask Crean) we counted maybe twice where he was beaten off the bounce. His defense is much better, even though his offense received all the pub this week.
I think we’ll handle MSU by 20+ after watching them get drilled by Maryland today. Not just because of the result, but they lack the depth and quickness to stay with us. I think this is going to be a very, very special year if we can stay healthy, focused and unselfish.
I’ve always been a proponent of letting a guy take 25 footers all night if he wants them. If that’s all his team can get, then you’re playing good defense. Sure, he hit a ton of them, but let’s be honest here, there are only a handful of guys in the NBA that could consistently hit jumpers from that far out.
“Carolina should have won this game by thirty points.” Amen, william.
Seems to me so far we’ve seen that it’s either the Hans-Law Offense or the GTO Offense (Green, Thompson, Others). It’s one or the other. When the offense goes through Hansbrough, there is a diminished output from Green and Thompson. Ellington is displaying a disquieting streak shooter syndrome – not reliable game in, game out. Don’t tell me we don’t need 15-18 points from Green AND Thompson when Hansbrough gets rust-free. Ain’t so. We haven’t been truly tested yet but it is coming, for sure. When we do meet up with a team (Louisville is my guess) that has the coach, the players, and the gelled team intelligence, we are going to need to be firing on all cylinders. When Hansbrough becomes the double-team decoy, the GTO must show. What I have not seen is the Cuisenart team, the blending of Hans-Law-GTO that is implied by the talent and experience available. What can be done with a 4th year team! It’s a coach’s dream. Roy is the key. Can he accomplish?
Tar Heels! Perfection personified!
Zoomba!
Russfuss, I think you’re being overly pessimistic. In fact, the Notre Dame game was a Hans-Law-Deon show, not just a Hans-Law show, although the two of them were spectacular. Indeed, one of the most encouraging things about that game was that Deon did so well while Hansbrough was in for 30 minutes. There was reason to worry that Deon would not perform up to the standard he has set for himself this season once Hansbrough returned. There is now less reason for worry on that score.
More generally, when Hansbrough and Lawson play as they did on Wednesday night, who is better than we are? What we saw were two NBA-calibre performances, one by college basketball’s fastest player, the other by its strongest.
This is not to say we will go undefeated. It is to say that we will justifiably be favored in every game we play, no matter where or against whom.
In the 2005 National Title Game here were UNC’s scorers:
May-26 pts and 10 rebs
Felton-17 pts and 7 assists
McCants-14 pts
J.Williams-9 pts on 3-5 3P shooting
M.Williams-8 pts and 5 rebs
Noel-1 pt
UNC does not need all five players scoring in double figures to win the national title. What UNC’s depth of talent does give you is options if Hansbrough gets shutdown or Lawson is missing shots. See the first Clemson game as a prime example of this. Ellington had 36 while Hansbrough was held to 14. There are simply not enough possessions in a game to have everyone go nuts.
Against Notre Dame you have dominant performances from Hansbrough, Lawson and Thompson. Ellington and Green were not non-existent, the both had eight and Ellington was 2-4 from three point range. The point is if a team cannot stop Lawson from driving, scoring and dishing the rock and they have no answer for Hansbrough hitting shots 20 feet in and Thompson grabbing 13 rebs and scoring 19 then what Green or Ellington end up doing is simply complimentary to that. Green has three offensive rebounds, Ellington had five boards and two steal. These guys all contributed just at different levels.
The key is that we have enough guys that if one or two are not scoring, the others are. You can only take so many shots in a ballgame, and we averaged a ton of points per game in Maui. As long as somebody puts the ball in the bucket, I don’t care who it is.
Great game for the Heels! Tyler was a BEAST!
Enough of this “should have won by thirty” crap. Seriously. Take away about seven freak three-pointers, and we win by more than forty. UNC is the only team who could have endured such a freakish shooting night and STILL won by 15. This game WAS a test, and the boys passed with flying colors. They won each game by an average of 30 points, getting (overall) good production from everyone in this tournament. If that’s not good enough for some of you, then I don’t know what to tell you. I’m damn proud of my beloved Tar Heels.
Amen, DF! Amen…
I see this on my baseball blogs where people lose their minds every time their team loses a regular season game! It’s like they expect and demand their team go 162 – 0… I call this the “video game-ifcation” of logic…
What I’m sayin’-
“We loaf back down the court and give up a six-footer. We piddle around in the backcourt and don’t get picked up and (Kyle) McAlarney makes a three. It’s silly things. I almost broke my dadgum hand on the scorer’s table because I was just mad for guys jogging back. So we can maintain our intensity a lot better. … But the game of basketball is a game of many opportunities to do good things and many opportunities to make mistakes. We made a lot of mistakes and I think we can get a lot better.” – Roy
Thank you, Coach.
THF, check out the 2nd half offense stats. Also, reference the 2005 Villanova game for a more pertinent analysis of UNC’s offense being tested in the way I observed it against ND. A title game is not necessarily the benchmark. (Matter of record, they tend to be very conservatively played games.)
And their Big had pneumonia.
We should have won the game by 30.
Some here know I’m sayin’.
Zoomba!
““We’re just extremely happy, to say the least. We felt like we played very well for three days. I think the first night we were just more gifted, and then last night I thought we were sensational in the first half, and then tonight, Notre Dame got off to a good start and I liked the way that our guys didn’t panic. They just continued playing. We had a pretty significant run the last 10 or 12 minutes of the first half, and then they scored the last four minutes of the half and then we came out in the second half and played well again.” – Roy Williams
As for the 2005 Nova game… I was there, and unless I was tripping, I believe UNC won, so… what’s your point?