Comments on: This Is Your Advanced Warning

By: william

william — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:20:13 +0000

That’s why Karl didn’t get the UNC job!

By: TxTarheel

TxTarheel — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:43:01 +0000

Regards the 1998 final four loss to Utah, I remember a story floating around about George Karl hanging out with Majerus (at a restaurant…of course) and Karl drawing up ideas on a napkin for Utah to beat UNC.

i’m no conspiracy theorist…thought i;d toss it out there. That 1998 team was so, so much fun to watch !

By: uncgirl50

uncgirl50 — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:15:28 +0000

This makes no difference to me as I have Woody on before, during and after the game but I think I finally found out what made us lose. POTATOES! I ate potatoes on the nights of both the BC game and the WF game. This is a warning to Tar Heel fans everywhere: NO POTATOES ON GAME DAYS!

By: wb3

wb3 — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:21:04 +0000

After the Final Four last year, I kind of guessed that this team would mimic the 97/98 team. We had a player of the year and got to one or two final fours, but couldn’t get over the hump. I hope I am wrong, but this team has just had so much bad luck over the past two years with injuries.

By: william

william — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:32:47 +0000

Utah was actually a very good team. They were 30-4 and had two future NBA’ers, and had been in the Final 8 at 29-4 the year before, but I assumed we would just wipe them out to play Kentucky, who like us, was on television much more.

Maybe our players did too. We may have simply lost to a team that was just about as good as we were.

Carolina had some good games from three point range that year, like this team, but they also had some dreadful games from three point range.

The 98 Heels were 3-13, and 2-13 from three in comeback wins against Georgia and UVa. They were 3-11 in the game they gave away at Duke.

They were 1-8 against NC State in the tourney but won by 27 anyway.
They were 7-25 from three point range against Maryland in the tourney and needed two overtimes to win.

The 98 Heels started out great from three point range in the tournament. They went 7-14 against Navy. Then they were 10-20, which was pretty awesome from three against UNCC, but trailed at halftime and needed OT to win. Shammond hit 6-9 from beyond the arc against UNCC and hit 32 points, so they probably don’t even make it to play Utah if not for him.

Then things went downhill. Maybe as the tournament went along we faced teams that were better at defending the three but it wasn’t noticeable at first because Carolina won its next two games pretty easily. Against MSU in the regional semi’s, the 98 Heels were only 2-10 and then only 4-14 against UConn. They went 3-23 against Utah, which maybe should not have been such a big surprise, given that the 6-24 from their previous two games against MSU and UConn had not been all that much better.

Shammond Williams ended up 4-22 or 18% during his last three games in the tournament that year, going 11-31 overall in the tourney that year from three point range, which is decent at 35%, but the variability in the results is problematic.

But of course, none of us saw it coming. We loved them to much to see their faults.

By: Thank the Passer

Thank the Passer — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:03:09 +0000

Or hopefully this is like 2005. Winning the Maui, losing at Wake.

By: Tar Heel Fan

Tar Heel Fan — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:54:55 +0000

Why do I get the feeling we are watching the 1997 and 1998 teams in reverse with 2008 being 1998 and 2009 being 1997?

By: Thank the Passer

Thank the Passer — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:53:35 +0000

And that team choked in the final four.

By: william

william — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:44:38 +0000

In keeping with trying to feel better based upon what past teams have done, here is a “fun” box score from a game played in Chapel Hill in 1998 between the 26-1 Tar Heels and NC State who would end up 5-11 in conference that year. Carolina played State two other times that year, winning by 14 points and 27 points respectively.

Some fellow named Harrison, whose first name I cannot remember, dropped 31 points on the Tar Heels, making 10-14 from the floor and 8-9 from three point range. The formatting may be off, but overall, State hit 10-16 from three-point range.

Chapel Hill, NC
MP FG FT OR R A PF Pt 3FG TO BL S
NCSU 9826 Feb21 UNC Inge * 40 3 6 10 10 4 12 3 1 16 0 1 1 4 0
NCSU 9826 Feb21 UNC Kelley * 18 2 4 3 4 2 4 1 5 7 0 0 3 0 0
NCSU 9826 Feb21 UNC Williams * 29 1 7 2 2 1 6 1 2 4 0 0 0 1 1
NCSU 9826 Feb21 UNC Harrison * 37 10 14 3 4 1 5 1 4 31 8 9 2 0 0
NCSU 9826 Feb21 UNC Benjamin * 38 4 11 8 8 0 2 4 1 16 0 2 2 0 7
NCSU 9826 Feb21 UNC Miller N 25 3 6 4 4 0 0 3 2 12 2 4 0 0 0
NCSU 9826 Feb21 UNC Gainey N 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 1
NCSU 9826 Feb21 UNC Buffum N 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
UNC 9828 Feb21 NCSU Okulaja * 32 2 10 0 1 2 6 3 2 4 0 3 0 0 0
UNC 9828 Feb21 NCSU Jamison * 30 6 10 7 11 5 8 0 4 20 1 2 1 1 0
UNC 9828 Feb21 NCSU Ndiaye * 29 5 6 0 0 0 1 1 4 10 0 0 0 1 0
UNC 9828 Feb21 NCSU Carter * 35 4 10 1 1 2 4 3 5 11 2 4 2 0 2
UNC 9828 Feb21 NCSU Sh.Williams * 36 8 16 4 4 1 3 4 2 23 3 7 5 0 1
UNC 9828 Feb21 NCSU Cota N 34 1 6 2 2 2 4 5 4 4 0 2 4 0 1
UNC 9828 Feb21 NCSU Haywood N 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
UNC 9828 Feb21 NCSU Frederick N 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
UNC 9828 Feb21 NCSU TEAM L 200 26 58 14 19 12 30 16 21 72 6 18 12 2 4
UNC 9828 Feb21 NCSU OPP W 200 23 48 30 32 9 31 13 18 86 10 16 9 5 9

N.C. State 44 42 = 86
N. Carolina 38 34 = 72
Officials= Carl Hess, Duke Edsall, Leslie Jones
Technicals: none

By: Wilf

Wilf — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:08:32 +0000

Woody Durham will do just fine for me.