I was there– the FSU fans were every bit as obnoxous in person as it seemed on tv. According to my neighbor in the seat next to me (FSU fan) Seminoles never made a foul all night! (maybe since the dawn of time) When things looked bad for their team they were throwing the f word around for their team and coach as well as our team. They were also throwing items on the court. It was hard for figure out. I thought they would NEVER count Ty’s last shot on the scoreboard. That is probably why the FSU chant was still going on. They thought we were going to OT! Anyway, it was really fun at the end and a W in the ACC is always a good thing no matter how ugly. Glad we didn’t have to drive home on a L.
Florida State is a pretty good team. They nearly beat Pitt down there and I believe that a lot of people saw them as being an easy touch due to their miserable performance against Duke. Winning on the road, on a night where Carolina was statistically mediocre both on offense and defense is an accomplishment.
Having said that, I certainly would not choose this as one of Roy Williams’ coaching triumphs. Anytime you experience an 18 point turn-around in one half, going from +13 to five down, you are likely to have done a lot of things wrong.
The one thing I simply do not understand is why Carolina insists on choosing the best free throw shooter from the other team and then fouling him over and over down the stretch, even when said individual is not even driving towards the basket–notice the Thompson foul on Douglas with a couple of minutes left near half court. Carolina did the same thing against Wake and BC, fouling 80% plus foul shooting guards over and over. That is just not smart, heady basketball and it needs to stop now.
I will also say that I no longer am confident that Carolina will beat Duke this year. Ginyard is gone, and Hansbrough is having an Eric Montross-like senior dip that no one could have expected, and the newcomers and Frasor are not playing up to the level expected to take up the slack.
Look at the tapes. There are several instances where UNC fouled these guys when they were not even attempting to shoot or like last night with Thompson, even move towards the basket. What was Thompson doing out there at halfcourt anyway? He had just made his big free throws to put us ahead with three minutes to play and then he just gave it right back. It was not the kind of play or decision-making that we want from him.
We had touch fouls when they were in the bonus in the games with Teague, Rice and Douglas down the stretch.
Last night, Douglas was 13-14 from the free throw line and the rest of FSU went 2-7. You have to know who is on the floor and who you can foul, otherwise you are just giving away easy points.
Granted, Thompson was a brain fart, but the other fouls, as you said, were touch fouls, and were more a result of aggressive D and questionable refereeing, than stupid basketball. Sometimes you also have to give credit to the opposing team.
There were plenty of guys they could take chances on. Echefu and Douglas both shoot 80%. Kitchen, Alabi, Reid and Singleton all shoot about 60%. Alabi’s two missed free throws at just under the five minute mark were pretty huge.
I agree, but you can only do that when they have the ball. The guys you mentioned are all bigs, and late in the game are only going to be touching the ball down low, and usually off an offensive board, which limits the time the foul, and increases the probability of a 3-point play. It is the same reason that other teams are going to be forced to foul Ty, Wayne and Danny late in games. It’s not that that wouldn’t love to foul Deon or Ed, but how many chances are you going to get to do so?
With a really good free throw shooter, the points per possession analysis becomes stark, especially in the double bonus.
By way of comparison, in UNC’s best offensive game in ACC play, Carolina had an offensive efficiency of 1.21 points per possession.
Let’s look at a situation where we foul an opposing guard who is an excellent free throw shooter when his team is in the double bonus and see what the points per possession analysis indicates.
For Teague, at a .827 shooting percentage for free throws, 1.37 would be his expected points per possession, which would be far above his normal 1.17 production. For Rice at 86%, his efficiency for that possession would be 1.48, far, far higher than his 1.16 normal efficiency.
Furthermore, the normal efficiencies include a fair number of lay-ups and easy shots, so even for a guy like Lawson, who does have an efficiency of over 1.3 points per possession, it is still not a good move.
Unless UNC is in a situation where they have no choice but to foul to try to come from behind, putting a guy who shoots above 80 percent from the line in a double bonus situation in a close game, is really the kiss of death.
The foul on Deon happened out front on the step-out or hedge that Roy likes to use to disrupt the ball handler. Let’s face it, Deon does not have particularly great feet on defense. A good guard like Douglas (great last night) will anticipate that against us and initiate the contact by ducking under the defender whose momentum is still moving towards him. Roy did make the adjustment to switch-out the defender there at the end with Hansbrough which was critical to getting that last stop.
Just from a rough look at the play by plays, UNC fouled Teague, Rice and Douglas three times each in double bonus situations and the result was much worse than my point per possession analysis (which is based on averages). If I am calculating correctly, these three guards made 11-12 free throws down the stretch against UNC. You probably would do better double teaming and giving up a lay-up.
“Unless UNC is in a situation where they have no choice but to foul to try to come from behind, putting a guy who shoots above 80 percent from the line in a double bonus situation in a close game, is really the kiss of death.”
Okay, we are sort of talking about two different things. This last point is what I meant when I spoke about having no choice but to foul whoever has the ball. In other scenarios, I admit, fouling is less than optimal, but it’s not like that is what Roy is telling them to do. I really think that the fouls are much more a result of Rice, Teague and Douglas being aggressive and forcing the contact. Let’s not forget, these, along with Lawson, are the four best point guards in the ACC. In the case of the first two, it worked. For Douglas, it did not. In the last case, a lot of credit should be given to Hansbrough, and to the officials for not getting roped into calling the ticky-tack foul.
And what I am saying is, back off and let them shoot it if they are forcing the contact. People seemed to understand this point when it was related to Redick because 90% seems to stick in people’s minds and everyone knew you couldn’t foul Redick.
And I am not talking about the final play last night, because Carolina was tied at that point and didn’t appear to have an opportunity to get the ball back, although they did, due to FSU’s terrible last possession. I wonder who drew that play up? I am talking about play down the stretch where we have further possession coming.
The funny thing is that it is not like UNC has a reputation for playing especially tight man defense during the game in general but then seems to misapply the technique down the stretch. I just think these guys should be playing smarter basketball.
C.Michael, I agree. Last night the Heels were not trying to foul Douglas on purpose. Deon was just struggling on the pop out.
I felt that the defense was good for the most part. We are struggling on offense. Except for Davis, the bench has been awful. Tyler is going to need offensive support from Deon and Davis. Credit FSU to deny the ball. I thought FSU was effective throwing bodies at Tyler. It looked pretty rough on the inside. I felt the refs, the three stoogies, were pretty bad, missing calls both ways and missing the right amount of time at the end of the game.
I agree with William that Dook will be tough to handle if we play like last night. But we should be able to pound the ball inside. We may have trouble with their drive and dish out offense.
What bothers me the most about last night is that I had hoped that the BC and Wake games represented some sort of “lost mojo,” that inexplicable sort of thing where you just lose your golf swing for a while. Unfortunately, last night was pretty much a repeat of the BC game, except for this time we almost blew a big lead and that time it was BC that almost blew a big lead.
I think the referees are calling the game differently this year against Hansbrough. This, and perhaps a slight decrease in his game due to his injury, has made us worse on offense. Then subtract Ginyard. Then factor in no improvement in the front court or back court and you have a team that is not only not unbeatable, but arguably not as good as last year.
I don’t care what anyone thinks the future holds for Larry Drew II. He may turn out to be All ACC. Obviously, we all hope it is a productive future for him, but he is not coming close to giving us the play that Q. Thomas did last year, and that is a crucial loss.
Florida State did not even bother to guard Bobby Frasor on his three point attempt last night, and he ended up with zero points, one assist and two turnovers. Ed Davis looks like a world beater one minute and then he doesn’t, but right now, our front court is probably only about even with last year’s, although I still think Davis can get his game into top shape before the year is over. I think the prognosis for our back-up guard play is more iffy.
I’m not sure Bobby should take another jumper this season. He has lost all confidence in his shot, and he has missed so many wide open attempts that it is basically like a turnover since his defender can crash the boards.
Drew is doing about what I expected. Let’s face it, he faced an extremely tough defense last night, and he is a freshman. Q was a senior last year and had some real experience to draw on, and that makes a big difference. I think Drew is going to be fine, but just don’t expected him to be a seasoned veteran against one of the toughest defenses in the league.
We do need to play smarter basketball at the end of games. The fouls everyone is talking about have been touchy at best, but defenders need to have the presence of mind to know when to be aggressive and when to just try and play solid defense. You can’t put yourself in a position to allow the refs to make a call that might not go your way.
Imagine if Ty’s shot last night had been a few tenths of a second late. The game would have gone into OT, and considering our foul trouble, it would have been tough. The fact that the refs completely blew it regarding the time issue (inexcusable since they have replay for that) could have truly cost us the game if Ty had been a little late. Pretty unbelievable, but I guess not for ACC officials.
Good comments, HeelYeah, although sometimes overtime seems to have its own logic (or lack thereof). I remember a couple of years ago being sure UNC would beat Virginia Tech in overtime in Chapel Hill, just as I was sure we would win that game to begin with.
The only thing that I could figure about the time issue is that since FSU got the shot off in time but the ball didn’t touch the rim, the infraction was only called once it was clear that the shot would not touch the rim, which required some fraction of a second to verify. Has anyone read the rule?
You are correct. The official clock doesn’t stop until there is a deadball. I the case of a shot clock violation, the ball is live as long as it remains in the air after the shot clock expires. If it hits the rim, the play continues with new shot clock, which is why the clock has to continue running.
Thanks, C. Michael. Maybe the announcers should read the rule book more so they don’t mislead the viewers. I know that officials feared Dean Smith because it was said that he knew the rule book better than they did.
HeelYeah…I totally agree, that is absolutely inexcusable! The announcers actually called them on it, saying there should be 4.2 to 4.3 seconds on the clock as that was the discrepancy between the shot clock and the game clock. That crew was brutal last night, Hess in particular, third foul on T-Hans was unbelievable, as most people watching saw Reid shove him under the basket, yet saw T-Hans whistled for the foul. I know I shouldn’t nitpick fouls and officiating, but that was one of the worst officiated games I have seen in quite some time.
William…I think you are on to something when you say the officials are calling plays involving T-Hans differently this year. It’s almost as if there was an off-season meeting saying T-Hans has been getting way too many calls, need to let some calls go. Seems as though he has to be fouled multiple times underneath before the whistle is blown. I think in some respects these lack of calls account for a lower shooting percentage.
I also agree with those concerning the defense and the defensive rebounding (poor blocking out), the poor shooting and other things that may need to fixed. All that being said, I think it was a big win, a HUGE shot by Lawson and a great effort overcoming a ROUGH second half and wildly inconsistent, poor officiating.
Having spent some time watching other college hoops games, involving other conferences, like the Big East and the Big Ten, the supposedly “rough and tumble” conferences, it is abundantly clear that the ACC is by far the most physical conference. It doesn’t appear to be due to the play of the athletes, but more so the unwillingness of the officials to crack down on physical play on the interior. The contact that occurs in the paint or on the block in the ACC is routinely whistled in both the Big East and the Big Ten. Is this better or worse for ACC teams as they head into the NCAA tournament? Don’t know, but as I recall, it seemed to hurt Clemson in the tourney last year as they had multiple guys get in foul trouble against Villanova in the first round of the tourney last year on their way to the loss. Not sure how this plays out for Carolina, but winning games like last night will hopefully build the character needed to win the difficult games come tourney time.
thanks for the clarification folks. i had been mad about the non-adjustment of the shot clock until now. that makes sense now. although i thought it at least would’ve been worth while to check the video. i totally agree with heelyeah that we had very little chance to win in OT given our foul trouble to tyler, danny and deon.
i also agree with heelyeah’s comments regarding bobby and drew. drew seems to have regressed somewhat but that again was a tough match up. if he shows similar relative ineffectiveness against nc state, then we need to worry. also bobby just needs to take a couple of steps in for an easier and still wide open two pointer from here on out.
as for tyler’s steal that was called a foul. is it just me or was it ABSOLUTELY clear in the replays that there was ABSOLUTELY no foul on that play. the ball actually got away from the ball handler slightly and tyler just slapped the ball which actually was in mid air. he must’ve been several inches away from the dribbler and with any angle OTHER THAN the angle from the official who called the foul, it was CLEAR that there was no foul. the official called the foul from behind tyler who couldn’t see the ball very clearly, not to mention the slap. the opposite is true with the double dribble or traveling call that was made on tyler when the defender slapped his arm. the official called it from behind the defender so he couldn’t have seen what went on. those were 2 bogus calls.
but the point is that hansbrough might be a better defender out on the perimeter than he is in the key. and he did an outstanding job with the steal and BOTH times he guarded toney douglas outside at the end of the game. he HAD the presence in mind to play smart defense at all 3 of the above situations. tyler needed to do that all legally without being worried about what bogus call the refs might make up this time around.
i thought tyler actually did well last night given the circumstances. his 4 fouls were absolutely not fair and was the result of some inconsistent and bogus foul calling. by the way, did anyone catch ryan reid throw down tyler under the basket in the 1st half? give me a break!
OK, I feel better now after the rule clarification.
Talking about our point guards vs. State, we had better dominate that match-up. Lawson will need to make State pay with his dribble penetration, and I really hope we run the full court press. I remember the game last year in Chapel Hill, when we were pressing State looked like a deer in headlights.
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I was there– the FSU fans were every bit as obnoxous in person as it seemed on tv. According to my neighbor in the seat next to me (FSU fan) Seminoles never made a foul all night! (maybe since the dawn of time) When things looked bad for their team they were throwing the f word around for their team and coach as well as our team. They were also throwing items on the court. It was hard for figure out. I thought they would NEVER count Ty’s last shot on the scoreboard. That is probably why the FSU chant was still going on. They thought we were going to OT! Anyway, it was really fun at the end and a W in the ACC is always a good thing no matter how ugly. Glad we didn’t have to drive home on a L.
“Glad we didn’t have to drive home on a L.”
Glad you are alive!!!
Florida State is a pretty good team. They nearly beat Pitt down there and I believe that a lot of people saw them as being an easy touch due to their miserable performance against Duke. Winning on the road, on a night where Carolina was statistically mediocre both on offense and defense is an accomplishment.
Having said that, I certainly would not choose this as one of Roy Williams’ coaching triumphs. Anytime you experience an 18 point turn-around in one half, going from +13 to five down, you are likely to have done a lot of things wrong.
The one thing I simply do not understand is why Carolina insists on choosing the best free throw shooter from the other team and then fouling him over and over down the stretch, even when said individual is not even driving towards the basket–notice the Thompson foul on Douglas with a couple of minutes left near half court. Carolina did the same thing against Wake and BC, fouling 80% plus foul shooting guards over and over. That is just not smart, heady basketball and it needs to stop now.
I will also say that I no longer am confident that Carolina will beat Duke this year. Ginyard is gone, and Hansbrough is having an Eric Montross-like senior dip that no one could have expected, and the newcomers and Frasor are not playing up to the level expected to take up the slack.
Well, it is hard to foul someone else when the opposing team’s main ball handler is also their best FT shooter.
Look at the tapes. There are several instances where UNC fouled these guys when they were not even attempting to shoot or like last night with Thompson, even move towards the basket. What was Thompson doing out there at halfcourt anyway? He had just made his big free throws to put us ahead with three minutes to play and then he just gave it right back. It was not the kind of play or decision-making that we want from him.
We had touch fouls when they were in the bonus in the games with Teague, Rice and Douglas down the stretch.
Last night, Douglas was 13-14 from the free throw line and the rest of FSU went 2-7. You have to know who is on the floor and who you can foul, otherwise you are just giving away easy points.
Granted, Thompson was a brain fart, but the other fouls, as you said, were touch fouls, and were more a result of aggressive D and questionable refereeing, than stupid basketball. Sometimes you also have to give credit to the opposing team.
There were plenty of guys they could take chances on. Echefu and Douglas both shoot 80%. Kitchen, Alabi, Reid and Singleton all shoot about 60%. Alabi’s two missed free throws at just under the five minute mark were pretty huge.
I agree, but you can only do that when they have the ball. The guys you mentioned are all bigs, and late in the game are only going to be touching the ball down low, and usually off an offensive board, which limits the time the foul, and increases the probability of a 3-point play. It is the same reason that other teams are going to be forced to foul Ty, Wayne and Danny late in games. It’s not that that wouldn’t love to foul Deon or Ed, but how many chances are you going to get to do so?
With a really good free throw shooter, the points per possession analysis becomes stark, especially in the double bonus.
By way of comparison, in UNC’s best offensive game in ACC play, Carolina had an offensive efficiency of 1.21 points per possession.
Let’s look at a situation where we foul an opposing guard who is an excellent free throw shooter when his team is in the double bonus and see what the points per possession analysis indicates.
For Teague, at a .827 shooting percentage for free throws, 1.37 would be his expected points per possession, which would be far above his normal 1.17 production. For Rice at 86%, his efficiency for that possession would be 1.48, far, far higher than his 1.16 normal efficiency.
Furthermore, the normal efficiencies include a fair number of lay-ups and easy shots, so even for a guy like Lawson, who does have an efficiency of over 1.3 points per possession, it is still not a good move.
Unless UNC is in a situation where they have no choice but to foul to try to come from behind, putting a guy who shoots above 80 percent from the line in a double bonus situation in a close game, is really the kiss of death.
The foul on Deon happened out front on the step-out or hedge that Roy likes to use to disrupt the ball handler. Let’s face it, Deon does not have particularly great feet on defense. A good guard like Douglas (great last night) will anticipate that against us and initiate the contact by ducking under the defender whose momentum is still moving towards him. Roy did make the adjustment to switch-out the defender there at the end with Hansbrough which was critical to getting that last stop.
Just from a rough look at the play by plays, UNC fouled Teague, Rice and Douglas three times each in double bonus situations and the result was much worse than my point per possession analysis (which is based on averages). If I am calculating correctly, these three guards made 11-12 free throws down the stretch against UNC. You probably would do better double teaming and giving up a lay-up.
“Unless UNC is in a situation where they have no choice but to foul to try to come from behind, putting a guy who shoots above 80 percent from the line in a double bonus situation in a close game, is really the kiss of death.”
Okay, we are sort of talking about two different things. This last point is what I meant when I spoke about having no choice but to foul whoever has the ball. In other scenarios, I admit, fouling is less than optimal, but it’s not like that is what Roy is telling them to do. I really think that the fouls are much more a result of Rice, Teague and Douglas being aggressive and forcing the contact. Let’s not forget, these, along with Lawson, are the four best point guards in the ACC. In the case of the first two, it worked. For Douglas, it did not. In the last case, a lot of credit should be given to Hansbrough, and to the officials for not getting roped into calling the ticky-tack foul.
And what I am saying is, back off and let them shoot it if they are forcing the contact. People seemed to understand this point when it was related to Redick because 90% seems to stick in people’s minds and everyone knew you couldn’t foul Redick.
And I am not talking about the final play last night, because Carolina was tied at that point and didn’t appear to have an opportunity to get the ball back, although they did, due to FSU’s terrible last possession. I wonder who drew that play up? I am talking about play down the stretch where we have further possession coming.
The funny thing is that it is not like UNC has a reputation for playing especially tight man defense during the game in general but then seems to misapply the technique down the stretch. I just think these guys should be playing smarter basketball.
C.Michael, I agree. Last night the Heels were not trying to foul Douglas on purpose. Deon was just struggling on the pop out.
I felt that the defense was good for the most part. We are struggling on offense. Except for Davis, the bench has been awful. Tyler is going to need offensive support from Deon and Davis. Credit FSU to deny the ball. I thought FSU was effective throwing bodies at Tyler. It looked pretty rough on the inside. I felt the refs, the three stoogies, were pretty bad, missing calls both ways and missing the right amount of time at the end of the game.
I agree with William that Dook will be tough to handle if we play like last night. But we should be able to pound the ball inside. We may have trouble with their drive and dish out offense.
What bothers me the most about last night is that I had hoped that the BC and Wake games represented some sort of “lost mojo,” that inexplicable sort of thing where you just lose your golf swing for a while. Unfortunately, last night was pretty much a repeat of the BC game, except for this time we almost blew a big lead and that time it was BC that almost blew a big lead.
I think the referees are calling the game differently this year against Hansbrough. This, and perhaps a slight decrease in his game due to his injury, has made us worse on offense. Then subtract Ginyard. Then factor in no improvement in the front court or back court and you have a team that is not only not unbeatable, but arguably not as good as last year.
I don’t care what anyone thinks the future holds for Larry Drew II. He may turn out to be All ACC. Obviously, we all hope it is a productive future for him, but he is not coming close to giving us the play that Q. Thomas did last year, and that is a crucial loss.
Florida State did not even bother to guard Bobby Frasor on his three point attempt last night, and he ended up with zero points, one assist and two turnovers. Ed Davis looks like a world beater one minute and then he doesn’t, but right now, our front court is probably only about even with last year’s, although I still think Davis can get his game into top shape before the year is over. I think the prognosis for our back-up guard play is more iffy.
I’m not sure Bobby should take another jumper this season. He has lost all confidence in his shot, and he has missed so many wide open attempts that it is basically like a turnover since his defender can crash the boards.
Drew is doing about what I expected. Let’s face it, he faced an extremely tough defense last night, and he is a freshman. Q was a senior last year and had some real experience to draw on, and that makes a big difference. I think Drew is going to be fine, but just don’t expected him to be a seasoned veteran against one of the toughest defenses in the league.
We do need to play smarter basketball at the end of games. The fouls everyone is talking about have been touchy at best, but defenders need to have the presence of mind to know when to be aggressive and when to just try and play solid defense. You can’t put yourself in a position to allow the refs to make a call that might not go your way.
Imagine if Ty’s shot last night had been a few tenths of a second late. The game would have gone into OT, and considering our foul trouble, it would have been tough. The fact that the refs completely blew it regarding the time issue (inexcusable since they have replay for that) could have truly cost us the game if Ty had been a little late. Pretty unbelievable, but I guess not for ACC officials.
Good comments, HeelYeah, although sometimes overtime seems to have its own logic (or lack thereof). I remember a couple of years ago being sure UNC would beat Virginia Tech in overtime in Chapel Hill, just as I was sure we would win that game to begin with.
The only thing that I could figure about the time issue is that since FSU got the shot off in time but the ball didn’t touch the rim, the infraction was only called once it was clear that the shot would not touch the rim, which required some fraction of a second to verify. Has anyone read the rule?
william,
You are correct. The official clock doesn’t stop until there is a deadball. I the case of a shot clock violation, the ball is live as long as it remains in the air after the shot clock expires. If it hits the rim, the play continues with new shot clock, which is why the clock has to continue running.
Thanks, C. Michael. Maybe the announcers should read the rule book more so they don’t mislead the viewers. I know that officials feared Dean Smith because it was said that he knew the rule book better than they did.
You’re assuming the announcers can actually read…
HeelYeah…I totally agree, that is absolutely inexcusable! The announcers actually called them on it, saying there should be 4.2 to 4.3 seconds on the clock as that was the discrepancy between the shot clock and the game clock. That crew was brutal last night, Hess in particular, third foul on T-Hans was unbelievable, as most people watching saw Reid shove him under the basket, yet saw T-Hans whistled for the foul. I know I shouldn’t nitpick fouls and officiating, but that was one of the worst officiated games I have seen in quite some time.
William…I think you are on to something when you say the officials are calling plays involving T-Hans differently this year. It’s almost as if there was an off-season meeting saying T-Hans has been getting way too many calls, need to let some calls go. Seems as though he has to be fouled multiple times underneath before the whistle is blown. I think in some respects these lack of calls account for a lower shooting percentage.
I also agree with those concerning the defense and the defensive rebounding (poor blocking out), the poor shooting and other things that may need to fixed. All that being said, I think it was a big win, a HUGE shot by Lawson and a great effort overcoming a ROUGH second half and wildly inconsistent, poor officiating.
Having spent some time watching other college hoops games, involving other conferences, like the Big East and the Big Ten, the supposedly “rough and tumble” conferences, it is abundantly clear that the ACC is by far the most physical conference. It doesn’t appear to be due to the play of the athletes, but more so the unwillingness of the officials to crack down on physical play on the interior. The contact that occurs in the paint or on the block in the ACC is routinely whistled in both the Big East and the Big Ten. Is this better or worse for ACC teams as they head into the NCAA tournament? Don’t know, but as I recall, it seemed to hurt Clemson in the tourney last year as they had multiple guys get in foul trouble against Villanova in the first round of the tourney last year on their way to the loss. Not sure how this plays out for Carolina, but winning games like last night will hopefully build the character needed to win the difficult games come tourney time.
Go HEELS!
thanks for the clarification folks. i had been mad about the non-adjustment of the shot clock until now. that makes sense now. although i thought it at least would’ve been worth while to check the video. i totally agree with heelyeah that we had very little chance to win in OT given our foul trouble to tyler, danny and deon.
i also agree with heelyeah’s comments regarding bobby and drew. drew seems to have regressed somewhat but that again was a tough match up. if he shows similar relative ineffectiveness against nc state, then we need to worry. also bobby just needs to take a couple of steps in for an easier and still wide open two pointer from here on out.
as for tyler’s steal that was called a foul. is it just me or was it ABSOLUTELY clear in the replays that there was ABSOLUTELY no foul on that play. the ball actually got away from the ball handler slightly and tyler just slapped the ball which actually was in mid air. he must’ve been several inches away from the dribbler and with any angle OTHER THAN the angle from the official who called the foul, it was CLEAR that there was no foul. the official called the foul from behind tyler who couldn’t see the ball very clearly, not to mention the slap. the opposite is true with the double dribble or traveling call that was made on tyler when the defender slapped his arm. the official called it from behind the defender so he couldn’t have seen what went on. those were 2 bogus calls.
but the point is that hansbrough might be a better defender out on the perimeter than he is in the key. and he did an outstanding job with the steal and BOTH times he guarded toney douglas outside at the end of the game. he HAD the presence in mind to play smart defense at all 3 of the above situations. tyler needed to do that all legally without being worried about what bogus call the refs might make up this time around.
i thought tyler actually did well last night given the circumstances. his 4 fouls were absolutely not fair and was the result of some inconsistent and bogus foul calling. by the way, did anyone catch ryan reid throw down tyler under the basket in the 1st half? give me a break!
Guess I should have checked into that clock rule as well…thanks for clearing that up.
Love how Tyler grabs him! Its adorable! Ty Lawson is my hero. GO HEELS!
You gave up and went to bed, UNCgirl50!
OK, I feel better now after the rule clarification.
Talking about our point guards vs. State, we had better dominate that match-up. Lawson will need to make State pay with his dribble penetration, and I really hope we run the full court press. I remember the game last year in Chapel Hill, when we were pressing State looked like a deer in headlights.
William, see my other post. Never actually gave up. Just was too stressed to watch it. I now have a stress zit on my forehead.
Well, there goes the fantasy.