Comments on: UNC 102 Notre Dame 87

By: C. Michael

C. Michael — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:01:45 +0000

““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?

By: russfuss

russfuss — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:51:58 +0000

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!

By: C. Michael

C. Michael — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:37:34 +0000

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…

By: DeanForever

DeanForever — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 05:15:21 +0000

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.

By: uncgirl50

uncgirl50 — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:01:48 +0000

Great game for the Heels! Tyler was a BEAST!

By: HeelYeah

HeelYeah — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:25:46 +0000

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.

By: Tar Heel Fan

Tar Heel Fan — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:05:17 +0000

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.

By: rathskellar68

rathskellar68 — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:13:12 +0000

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.

By: russfuss

russfuss — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:19:34 +0000

“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!

By: HeelYeah

HeelYeah — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 03:55:54 +0000

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.