Lots of freaking basketball.
- The big headline is that Duke lost to Michigan in Ann Arbor on Saturday. Now, Michigan is a much improved team and John Beiline is obviously a very good coach for turning around the huge pile of horse dung Tommy Amaker left behind. Still we were told after Duke torched Purdue on Tuesday that the Blue Devils were legit and serious contenders for the title should UNC falter. The spin coming from Duke apologists or those who sung their praises last Wednesday morning. For every great peformance from Duke i.e. whipping Purdue, winning some tournament in New York you have Rhode Island and Michigan. Duke still lacks an inside game of consequence plus I am not sure if you can lean on Kyle Singler to do everything. And spare me the talk of Duke players being mentally fatigued from exams. If these guys cannot walk and chew gum at the same time, they should quit basketball.
- The ACC won the ACC-Big Ten Challenge 6-5 this season marking the closest contest between the two conferences. There were two losses that jumped out. Miami lost to Ohio State after being ahead by double digits in the first half. The Canes Jack McClinton was ejected for slapping an OSU player but strangely not suspended for the next game. I am sure Krzyzewski will mention that this is further proof of how poorly Gerald Henderson was treated two years ago. Georgia Tech lost to Penn State which means either PSU is pretty good or GT is not that good or both. And someone please fire Leonard Hamilton. Losing by 14 to Northwestern?
- Maryland is 2-0 versus the state of Michigan and was able to do what Duke could not, beat Michigan.
- Wake Forest, at present, might be the 2nd best team in the ACC. Not that beating Indiana or Bucknell earns you serious points but they have the most complete rotation outside of UNC. Wake’s biggest problem is they are turnover prone averaging 18.4 per game. The Deacs rebound really well and they might provide stiffest challenge to the Heels from a matchup perspective when the two teams meet in early January.
- Virginia Tech is perhaps the biggest disappointment so far. The Hokies have three losses to Xavier, Seton Hall and Wisconsin. These are not bad losses but not a sign of an upward trend I am sure Seth Greenberg was looking for.
- NC State was not part of the Challenge because they finished 12th last season(*snicker*) The Pack did lose to Davidson allowing Stephen Curry to go off for 44 points. The Pack are a difficult bunch to assess at this point with the exception of the point guard play. It sucks. It may not get better. That kind of thing usually breaks a season, it did for them last season.
- And speaking of Stephen Curry. Yes, the media is in love with him and he has been a scoring machine. However there was a Davidson fan on 850′s blog hyping Curry and even saying that Lawson or Ellington would sit on the bench if Curry were at UNC. That got me to thinking about who was the better PG Lawson or Curry. Here are the stats:
Curry: 32.7 mpg, 29.2 ppg, 7.0 apg, 2.80 A/TO, FG: 51%, 3P: 44%, 3.0 spg, 2.8 rpg.Lawson: 25.6 mpg, 16.1 ppg, 6.9 apg, 6.11 A/TO, FG: 55%, 3P: 54%, 3.0 spg, 2.4 rpg.
I won’t offer much in the way of comment other than to leave you with this question: Besides the points someone tell me why Curry is a significantly better player?
![[Bloglines]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[MySpace]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myspace.png)
![[Technorati]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
You can’t really compare Curry and Lawson, IMO.
This is like comparing Allen Iverson to a PG like John Stockton. Iverson was the main source of offense for the 76ers, while Stockton was more of a “distributor” and defensive force for the Jazz.
If I want a pure three point shooter, I would probably go with Curry. If I wanted someone who could run the offense, distribute the ball, play tougher defense, and create transition opportunities, then Lawson is my guy.
For those of you that want to argue that Curry gets more assists per game and is the better pure point guard, then look at the minutes played. If Lawson plays those seven minutes that Curry gets, then Lawson’s assist numbers go up as well.
Not saying that Curry isn’t a good point guard, but I come from the school of thought that your PG’s fit the mold of Lawson. Curry would make a better two-guard for me.
Welcome back THF.
State and dook losing yesterday has helped decrease the sting from November 22nd, so it looks like I might survive.;-)
As far as analyzing dook, well, I think in the end they won’t have an answer for Hansbrough and the lack of true inside presence, unless Plumlee comes alive will mean another early exit from the NCAAT. (snicker)
State needs 3 players on the perimeter to finish in the upper echelon of the league. They’re OK, but we could be looking at another NIT since Lowe isn’t all “that”..(snicker).
I would like to see Curry along side Lawson in the Tar Heel backcourt although I love Wayne.
There is never a situation in which I would take Curry over Lawson. Our point guards are meant to dish the rock not jack up 3′s. Now I would perhaps take Curry over WE…but this is a moot point since we have the best team in the nation at the moment.
Worth repeating from some fan on some blog after the MS game:
“UNC’s first team knocks you down; the 2nd Team steps on your throat, the 3rd Team mops up and – if you don’t play with a lot of heart and intelligence – goes home with your girlfriend.”
As a McDonald’s All American Fan, I’m lovin’ it. But I still hold that the Heels have yet to be truly tested. ND’s Harangody suffered with pneumonia and MS didn’t play with their full deck and had no legs 2nd half due to over-scheduling. Not that we would not have won them anyway, just not great testing of THIS team.
Maybe Wake will give us a game. I wanna see us CRUSH the next best, go home with the girlfriend…and leave her at the front door.
Then I may find satisfaction. At last.
Zoomba!
I don’t know if I’m saying this right but, I would rather have my point guard run the offense and not the offense run through the point guard.
I take Curry as a two guard but to be honest not over Ellington.
russfuss,
I don’t know, I think you play what they give you. Both ND and MSU were ranked in the top ten. We mopped the floor with both of them. I think even if hansbrough (oh yeah, Ginyard is out) was out for those games we do the same. Your team can’t be one guy,(see Davidson).I feel were loaded for bear. Could we stumble this year at some point? Sure. But Looking at what’s out there, were in the drivers seat.
to quote Gump…”dominant is as dominant does”. Given the mix of talent, depth and juniors/seniors (who, as we all know, have felt the sting of an untimely exit in March). We might face again a ND / MSU that is more rested later in the season; however I would question if either team is able to close the gap between their respective talent and UNC’s.
I dislike the phrase that “only our team is capable of casuing to lose”, so to speak, but that’s how this team looks. If Tyler and Deon combine to average 30+ points and 15+ rebounds…how in the heck does anyone stop that? Since if you do, Green Ellington or Lawson are likely to torch you.
Curry: the new Adam Morrison or JJ Reddick, perhaps? Recall, the 2006 season was basically a media love-fest between the 2 players. Morrison is likely the better comparison here, at least for recent teams: high-scoring threat in every game, a mid-major team outside of the power conferences but close enough for media buzz and feverish publicity. Being the son of a talented, well-known NBA sharpshooter does not hurt Steph either.
Curry’s performance in the NCAA run last year makes his hype worth-while. He is options 1-3 on Davidson, at least for how deep they can go.
Welcome back Tar Heel Fan. I trust Goofy was on good behavior, unlike his encounter with C.Michael.
On basketball, a few observations:
– The reasons Dook lost yesterday are no surprise. First, live by the three pointer, die by it. I think they were 7 for 31 yesterday. If they had even one decent big man, they would be Final Four material. But they don’t and they aren’t.
The second reason for Dook’s loss was inadequate conditioning. For the last ten minutes of the game they were physically out of gas. This will also prove to be a big advantage for us when we play them.
Third, Michigan is better than people think. They are unpolished and somewhat mistake-prone but athletic, and they play hard most of the time. To any team except ours, they’ll be a foe you don’t want to encounter.
Fourth, I respectfully disagree with the notion that the Dook players weren’t at a disadvantage from the mental fatigue of exam week. If you had to pull an all-nighter to learn how to spell C-A-T, you’d be tired too. And this is to say nothing of the more scholarly types on their team, who were learning to spell E-L-B-O-W.
Two-syllable words are a real bear.
– Like others here, I’m nervous about the Wake game. Wake is tall, and our primary advantage over the rest of the college basketball world — Tyler Hansbrough — has trouble with taller players. We’ll be favored, but Winston Salem is a hard place to play, and will be especially hard this year.
– We deserve our ranking, but in truth Michigan State and ND were overrated. MS had lost by 19 to a modestly talented Maryland team, and ND lost yesterday to an even more modestly talented Ohio State team. I know both MS and ND have been ranked in the top ten, but they actualy belong in the next ten.
– Obviously I would love to see Hansbrough win the POY again this year, but it’s going to be tough. Curry is legitimate competition and Blake Griffin is even more formidable. At the minimum, I don’t see how Hansbrough wins it unless (1) he starts routinely to play at least 30 minutes a game (which should happen in any event, because the time is coming when we’ll be in a close game and need it), and (2) the press comes to understand that because of Hansbrough’s stellar supporting cast, including another legit POY candidate, he’s not going to have the statistics that Griffin and Curry have playin with a bunch of nobodies.
The press seemed to understand this last year, but whether it can be expected to do so again is a question that makes me nervous.
If Curry played for UNC, he probably would most resemble Hubert Davis, another guy who had good bloodlines, outperformed expectations and ended up having a pretty decent pro career, although Curry seems a lot better on the drive than I remember Davis being. Hubert was a big time scorer, but was sublimated to the Carolina system. But this is not what Davidson needs for its team to be successful.
You guys do not give Curry enough credit for being, in a sense, his entire team. He is the closest thing to Larry Bird at Indiana State or Bill Bradley at Princeton, that I have seen in a long time, where almost the entire burden of winning and losing is on his back. Pete Maravich was like that, too, but his teams at LSU never seriously contended for a title.
Ty Lawson missed about 12 games last year depending on how you measure it and most of his games missed were against quality opponents. I believe Carolina won 11 of them.
How many games out of 12 would Davidson win against quality opponents without Curry? How many games would you guys expect Carolina to lose this year if Lawson misses another 12 games? Probably about one again.
william, you were around to see Bradley?
Only when he was a Knick in the mid-70′s, but I’ve read about how he took Princeton to the Final Four and it was a lot like Curry last year with Davidson. Dean Smith wanted to recruit Bill Bradley but Frank McGuire pretty much only recruited Noo Yawkas and the Missourian ended up playing just outside the Big Apple….
I think the salient point is that unlike last year, Roy doesn’t have this team measuring themselves against their opponent, or playing to their level. This team has the look of that UCLA team william was talking about, whereby their own standard of play is their competition–at least it appears that way to me.
Curry is an awesome talent & is going to be an all star in the NBA
- i love the heels and WE (especially his dagger in the heart of all clemson fans last year) but i would take curry as a SG over anyone in college right now. he’s a reggie miller type who with the rock and an inch of space will score for his team in crucial moments. but i would never take curry over lawson. i think hansbrough, curry and lawson all deserve to be all americans at the end of the season.
- THF, you mentioned how dook is better this year without nelson. it was supposed to be because the addition of a couple of big freshmen inside. but krat doesn’t give them any chance even during early season blow outs, so i don’t see how these kids are supposed to contribute this year when they may be most needed later in the season.
- also, the comment about not being tested enough yet. seriously, very few teams have stepped up to declare that they are the legitimate #2. pitt, gonzaga and oklahoma are the only teams that have taken care of business to date. obviously dook lost to a non-top-tier michigan team and uconn struggled against buffalo. there are very few elite teams this year and so, i think notre dame and mich st were good enough tests for us before the acc season.
- which brings me to the acc. i think wake, maryland, dook and miami are the biggest threats to unc this season. we may drop one or two games against this lot this year. but i think all 4 of these teams are weaker and less consistent that unc will ultimately prevail at the end of the season as the top team in the acc. in my opinion, that’s all you can ask for.
- i know many people are talking about an undefeated season… i personally would like to think (no matter how this unc team compares to past unc ones) that this team is so much better than the next best challenger this year that being undefeated is a possibility. however, if this great team were to drop one, two or god forbid three games before the ncaa tourney, you won’t find me melting down like our team is so vulnerable all of a sudden.
go heels.
Aware of the admonition to be careful what you ask for, I will nonetheless hope that somewhere along the way we meet up with Gonzaga. We owe them one and Few pisses me off so I want a game… no, I want a smack down. Few is obviously a smart coach but an ****** for refusing to ply his trade in a competitive conference. That makes smart ******.
UNC v. Gonzaga. Now there’s game.
Something stinks about Few to me, too. I would bet that Hansbrough wants another shot at Heytvelt, as well.
It amazes me that these Hansbrough haters rely on this for their supporting argument. They knock him because of one game. It’s not like he didn’t do anything that game.If your argument for not supporting someone as an All-American boils down to ONE mediocre game, and that disqualifies all of the other games he played where he dominated his competition, then that argument is weak if not silly.
I don’t think that is the argument against Hansbrough being an All-American (particularly because there is NO argument about TH being an All-American), but it is more used as fodder to explain why he won’t be successful in the NBA, which I find equally ridiculous.
People sometimes over-estimate size advantage. If size advantage meant that much, you’d see Greg Oden/Zydrunas Ilgauskas and those types wreak havoc on players of Hansbrough’s similar capabilities such as Ben Wallace/Omeka Okafor/Kenneth Perkins. I don’t expect Hansbrough to be responsible for shutting down Tyson Chandler or Tim Duncan. However, I think his intensity will garnish the same respect from his defenders. What will they have to do to stop Hansbrough? He will get these folks in foul trouble. Dennis Rodman did the same thing. Undersized, underskilled, not great man on man defense, but his intensity caused fouls, disruptions, and generally angered opposing teams. Other people’s size never stopped him. Never stopped Wes Unseld. Never stopped Dave Cowens. Hasn’t stopped Ben Wallace. You get my drift!
Some people also like to point out that Hansbrough will not get the foul calls in the NBA, since they allow rougher play (not sure it can get rougher than college sometimes). I think if you look closely at most of Tyler’s games, 99% of the fouls against him are hard enough to get called in either league. In fact, he should probably go to the line more than he currently does.
I also think he has shown the ability to elevate his game, specifically with his outside shooting. If he continues to improve that, with his ability to put the ball on the floor, his NBA stock will go up even more.
Nobody knows how well Tyler will do in the NBA. I doubt anyone thought he’d be one of the greatest players to ever play college basketball either. I don’t think he’s done anything to show that he will not bring the same work ethic and skills to the pros that he has brought to college.
He is a Mitch Kupchak type NBA player, which in my opinion will give him a lot of years as a valuable role player and coveted player by any good organization.