Comments on: Lawson Wants Wake

By: heeledsoul

heeledsoul — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:00:57 +0000

keith,
let’s see how our bigs do against wake’s numerous interior players. i also tend to think that especially at the college level, an advantage in guard play trumps an advantage inside. plus, you have a very good picture for an icon. no jumping off the ledge yet.

By: HeelYeah

HeelYeah — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:40:24 +0000

I want to get to a final four, but right now all we need to worry about is winning the regular season title in the ACC. If we lose to Wake, we are in a tough position to do that.

By: keithunc

keithunc — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:48:40 +0000

The thing about Carolina is they seem to get everyones best shot. With the way B.C. handled us I do not have a warm fuzzy about the Wake game. I’m a sky is falling type guy with the Heels. If were winning I believe we can beat anyone if we get our tails whooped by someone, a win against less than equal competition does not get me excited and back on the feeling good bandwagon. I have a feeling that we are in trouble this year. A team with a good to fair interior play can get us. We don’t have the size inside. Our shooting so far has been so-so. Our defense has been so-so. The B.C. game showed a lot of weaknesses. I hope we can turn it around, we have a lot of time left.

Someone bring me down off the ledge.

By: uncgirl50

uncgirl50 — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:39:50 +0000

I want Wake too! Get ready for the tye-dye crowd!

By: william

william — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:03:26 +0000

Carolina should be able to beat Wake this weekend but I wouldn’t worry too much about tiebreakers. Carolina went to the Final Four in 1998 and 2000 after finishing outside of first place, as did Maryland in 2001. We also lost at Wake in 2005 and never got another shot at them that year and it didn’t seem to hurt us.

One other thing about Pomeroy and these efficiency numbers. His site does not have anything close to decent samples yet and neither do any of the other power sites. Unless you believe that West Virginia and Gonzaga actually are as good as UNC, I wouldn’t sweat it too much yet–for one thing, he doesn’t break out numbers from garbage time and UNC gets skewed by that more in the early season than anyone else….

By: TarHeelInMinny

TarHeelInMinny — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:30:43 +0000

@THF – Good call on Wayne. His best games are at MSU (although he went 1-5 from 3) and at UCSB. Actually, if you look at his game-by-game breakouts, I think he’s fine. When he’s struggled from 3, he’s been better from 2, with the BC game pretty much the only exception. Part of the issue, as Andy has seconded, is mental, both on his part and ours. It all looks good, it’s just not going down. I know he’ll put up his extra shots before/after practice like any good shooter does and he’ll come around.

As for his defense, his off-ball defense is much better than Danny, but laterally he’s not quick (this will really hurt him in the NBA, especially if he’s not a better shooter than he is now.)

@william – good point on not having a game-changer like B Wright in the middle. Just all the more reason the rest of our defense needs to be better. You don’t have to have a shot blocker to be a good defensive team, although it helps erase mistakes (which we make plenty of). I think we need to be better about picking our spots to gamble, and if one guy does, the other four need to be in good position to help.

By: C. Michael

C. Michael — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:21:41 +0000

Based on a comparison of UNC’s and Duke’s Offensive/Defensive efficiencies, and assuming the same number of possesions, Duke would have beaten CofC 104-67.

By: Andy In Omaha

Andy In Omaha — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:02:23 +0000

Chris, I don’t think we can accurately compare how Duke would play Charleston to how we did. Duke’s “incredible team defense” allowed Davidson, down by around 20, then to eight. And Davidson is a team where you primarily have to only worry about ONE player; they practically have no inside game.

By: Tar Heel Fan

Tar Heel Fan — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:00:16 +0000

Interesting note about Ellington I saw last night in a graphic. Ellington is shooting 52% on the road. The three point shooting is 32% in those games. However his general shooting is better on the road than it is at home where he is shooting 38%. What I don’t know is why it is different especially when you consider all of the tough teams were played away from the Dean Dome with the exception of the BC game.

By: Andy In Omaha

Andy In Omaha — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:52:02 +0000

With Wayne, I think the three point shot is getting entirely mental. He’s getting good looks, his form looks great, and it will start falling. It seems like he’s started off red hot then cools down as the season wears on. Hopefully this is a reversal.
There are two things Ellington needs to worry about more than his outside shooting (because I think Green, Lawson, and sometimes Graves can pick that up); putting the ball on the floor and drive to the hoop to create opportunities, and playing taller on defense. Ellington is one of the best free throw shooters in the conference, and driving to the hoop more will generate more scoring opportunities for him.
In terms of defense, I would love for him to contest more shots. He seems to do a pretty good job of staying in between the ballhandler and the hoop, but it seems like he doesn’t contest a lot of shots. Maybe Roy likes not having his players in foul trouble, but those open perimeter shots after UNC gets screened get old when they’re uncontested.