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Wake Forest 92 UNC 89

I am not sure what to do with this.

This game, taken by itelf is not a huge deal.  Heading into this season most everyone expected this game to be a problem for UNC.  Playing a road game versus a top five team in the ACC is harder than nailing Jello to the wall.  In many respects this is not a horrid result, especially when you consider the 2005 team lost at Wake Forest by 13.  At that point people questioned whether that team had the toughness to win against good teams on the road, something that was reinforced when they lost to Duke.  Unfortunately we cannot take this game in a bubble and it does get viewed in concert with the loss to Boston College.  When that happens you worry about the commanlities and the fact that teams like Clemson are on the schedule with the same mix of a physical inside game and good guard play.  So in that respect I think it is not out of line to have concerns.

This game came down to making shots.  And for now I am setting aside the defense.  Yes it is a problem but just as there are some games you need a stout defense to win, in some games you simply need to post a bigger number on your side of the scoreboard.  In this game the only Tar Heel that bothered showing up was Danny Green who played the game of his life on both ends of the floor.  Green scored 22 points, had six board and five steals.  Green hit 3 of 4 from three point range.  Why Danny Green was not setup to take more shots is a genuine mystery.  Aside from Green there was not much else.  Tyler Hansbrough played what may have been one of the worst games of his career.  Ty Lawson got shown up again by another high caliber scoring PG.  Wayne Ellington found his shot a wee bit too late.  Deon Thompson played soft.  On and on and on.

If I had to name one concern it is the fact this team has, in two games, failed to make shots.  Wake Forest is very good on defense and in a game that was very tightly called by the officials the flow gets really disupted.  Still UNC had open looks, they had shots at point blank range they could not make.  Like the BC game UNC did not break 40% from the floor and had some atrocious shooting going in the 2nd half.  The bottom line is there is a celing for the level of defense this team can play.  Even if Marcus Ginyard comes back at top form, there is only so good this Tar Heel team can be on defense.  So if that is the case the offense needs to blow the doors off people.  We know it is possible because it happened in Maui and versus Michigan State.  The difference is Ty Lawson was not challenged the way he has been in the two losses and to no surprise the offense has suffered.

In some respects to only lose by three given the poor nature of UNC’s play might be a silver lining.  However there are no moral victories and the reality is UNC is in an 0-2 hole in the ACC with a boatload of hype burning like a pile of old tires that can be smelled 10 blocks away.  Questions aplenty with no clear answers in sight. Roy has his work cut out for him.

On a side note: Props to Jeff Teague for playing a big time game.  And the officiating was inconsistent, screwed with the general flow of the game and really could have been better.

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55 comments to Wake Forest 92 UNC 89

  • rathskellar68

    THF — Yes, it’s the commonalities with the BC game that make this troubling. And also yes, playing a legitimate top-five ACC rival at their place is a very, very tough assignment. But it’s no tougher than winning the national championship. With that as our goal, it’s hard not to be disturbed by this game.

  • william

    I don’t think this Wake team is in the same league as the 2005 Wake team. Maybe they will be as we caught the 2005 Wake team basically at their peak before their defensive issues caught up with them and this team is younger.

    The 2005 game against Wake was a bizarre game as well with strange officiating. McCants got a couple of phantom calls and missed most of the second half. Wake hit 32 of 32 free thows and the end result was about the same as this one. Carolina was within striking distance at the end but couldn’t quite do it. Don’t let the 13 point margin make you forget. Wake hit six garbage free throws in the last thirty seconds when we were fouling.

    It is tougher to play at Joel in a lot of ways than in the NCAA tourney, in fact, because in the NCAA tourney all the games are played on neutral courts. There are a whole host of reasons why home sites generally favor home teams and it is not merely the make-up of the fans watching.

  • But that game was very much one of those you felt like UNC could never get over the hump.

  • william

    We had a three point lead tonight in the second half and I thought that might be the mark, with Wake in big foul trouble but then we made careless fouls and did nothing much for several minutes. There is a lot to the notion that offense is holding us back now. In 2005, we could usually get the ball inside to May or have outside options when things got tough.

    One thing that I think we often overlook with these guys is that some of them are actually still growing physically in height and filling out, while some of them get to Carolina and are already physically mature.

    Michael Jordan improved an amazing amount and some of that was because he grew two more inches. Another highly touted guy, Curtis Hunter never seemed to improve the entire four years he was at Carolina. I thought Deon and Ty and Wayne would have improved more this year than they seem to. Danny, on the other hand, as a senior, seems to be the one still improving.

    I also think we all expected more from the new guys, even if we didn’t think we would need it. Davis is decent but its not a big change.

  • And who would have thought that? They simply don’t have all of the weapons firing and I have no idea why. There is a point where UNC can claim control of a game and keep control of it by continuing to produce. That is not happening and it is like they wait until it is too late to try and make something happen.

  • Chris

    THF: It is morning and you are done.

  • william

    I can’t explain why Ellington can’t consistently hit his shot. It is great to hit a couple in crunch time but I would rather have him hit them all along so we don’t get to that point. Danny seems to shoot them when he realizes that Ellington and Lawson are on, which has been the pattern in the Kansas, BC and now Wake games. Maybe he needs to be more of the first look.

    Everybody on the 2005 team except May and Manuel could make the three better than 1/3. On this team, basically only Danny can. Lawson can as long as he isn’t guarded or has a perfect screen, but Ellington is only hitting about 1/3 and Graves’ percentage has fallen this year as well. Drew doesn’t seem to be much from outside and Frasor missed a couple tonight again. They just are not big enough inside to be able to win against great teams without making at least 1/3 of their three’s during the main part of the game, not desperation time.

  • william

    I love the Tar Heels and I love college basketball and I enjoy learning more about what makes a team successful on the floor.

    Statistical analysis is a tool that can help us understand success but sometimes it is merely an echo. You tend to win when you have a good shooting percentage or you get most of the rebounds or the other team turns the ball over a lot.

    I appreciate the input from you guys regarding offensive and defensive sets, as I stopped playing after tenth grade and we really hadn’t gotten to things much more complicated than a zone press and didn’t do a whole lot of switching and the like on defense.

    So you guys who played a lot or coached a lot, keep chiming in in a positive fashion to educate us about the sets UNC is playing or our opponents are playing and why you think they are successful or not successful.

    And for a corny last latenite comment:

    It is only the crushing defeats that make victory that much more worthwhile and sweet when we encounter it….

  • Chris

    THF That’s fine with me. As long as you allow William to run this blog you are making a big mistake. I will not be back, and I know that many others will not contribute because you allow someone to try to dominate with Internet history like William does. It turns your blog into a boring sessions like one used to have with one’s third grade teacher. Sayanora.

  • What makes you think I am allowing him to run anything? I banned you because you called me out. I merely deleted the comment earlier that was borderline and let you to continue commenting. You made the decision to go after another commenter instead of participating in the discussion in a civil manner. That’s not my fault and the last I checked I am the one writing the posts and that is what people come to read not every comment posted beneath.

  • The Heels have not played well since pasting Michigan State in Detroit. They have struggled defensively against teams they should have squashed, turned the ball over, and all too often have not played cohesively on offense. Perhaps this is the storm before the calm… I hope so… but all of those lofty predictions are hanging by a thread if this team continues to miss open shots and not play stay at home defense, consistently allowing open three pointers and the like.

    All in all this finishes just about the worst sports weekend I can remember (well, if it were Duke it would’ve been worse, but you get my drift).

  • I thought we made some great defensive stops in the paint against their bigs, only to get called for a foul for them. I replayed them on my tivo, and all it did was leave me wondering where the contact was that caused the whistle to blow. We can’t stop Teague. He definately has palming the ball on those crossovers down pat. I wonder why Lawson doesn’t do that? It gives you a great advantage in shifting causing the defender to wonder which direction you are going to go.

  • I agree THF. Chis has some post that I really enjoy, and I have no clue why the sudden frustration other than the fact that we are down 0-2. I guess that can bring out the worst in us. Hopefully, a winning streak will cure all ills.

  • dj_joek

    As bad as we all feel right now, just realize how the team must feel.

    I believe UNC can win the ACC and then the NCAA this year. They’re all high caliber competitors and will be hungry for redemption.

    It’s a bummer to witness meltdowns among us Tar Heel fans (mainly over at IC but on the live blog here last night too). Remember we’re Carolina! We’re better than most anybody throughout history on the court and we’ve got class as fans.

  • C. Michael

    This loss really isn’t bad, it’s just that it comes on the heels of the BC loss, so everything is magnified. UNC lost to Wake in January of 1982, 1993, 1997, and 2005 (per IC). Now, I know that history, beyond the last 2-3 years tells us nothing about how this team will respond, but it does go to the point that there is still a lot of bball left, and UNC has a team that can make that special. Will they? Anyone who says with certainty that they will or won’t shouldn’t be taken seriously. No one knows for sure.

  • Wilf

    “This game, taken by itself is not a huge deal.”

    I respectfully disagree. We are stinking it up and have been for some time. Last night’s game was a chance to move forward, not take another step back. Is the season over? Of course not, and we can still be a great team, but the character shown last night is very troublesome.

    I’m really outdone.

  • In 1993 UNC lost by 20 at Wake Forest then lost to Duke in the next game by 14.

  • C. Michael

    Man, if the imagine if the interweb were as big then, as it is now… Dean might never have made it to 800!! ;)

  • 52bgJ

    point taken THF–I guess for me, one of the potential advantages in situations like this, is one Mr. Dean Smith sitting in the background as available counsel. I wonder if Roy uses that counsel–it is certainly an advantage over most teams.

    for the out of staters:

    http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/tudor/story/1363302.html

  • C. Michael

    Ummm… when did a 3 point win at home become, “emphatic?”

  • Wilf

    C. Michael: em·phat·ic

    3: attracting special attention

    it was…..

  • C. Michael

    You’re going to have to expound a bit more, Wilf.

    Is anyone really annoyed that UNC doesn’t get a crack at Wake at CH?

  • Heels Perspective

    THF – I think we have discussed the good luck charm that losing to Wake Forest has brought in the past? That’s all I can really smile about.

    Congrats to Wake for playing a great game especially Teague. Now, THAT was NBA worthy! I think Wake’s defensive strategy was to make UNC make perimeter shots and lo and behold, except for Green, the Heels struggled all night.

    The preseason prognostication was based on these facts:

    Hansbrough, Ellington and Lawson would play at a very high level every game. Haven’t seen that. Thompson would finally get consistent and Marcus Ginyard would be the glue guy. So much for any of that.

    The BENCH would bring Green, Zeller, Davis, Graves and a renewed Bobby Frasor with a guy like Drew “learning” So much for that as well.

    What we have is reality and the reality is a VERY GOOD team that on certain nights can be GREAT, but lacks defensively and is only an average shooting team. Championships are still a possibility especially if the shooting improves and Ginyard can get back in the lineup.

  • Thank the Passer

    I know we all love big #50, but sometimes I wonder how good of a team player he is. The chemistry among the players seems out of whack.

  • wb3

    Whew, I am tired. Drove to the game last night, didn’t get home till very late, and got to work early. The atmosphere in that building was nuts. I saw this morning it was a record crowd.

    As for the game, it seemed that we were getting our rears kicked the whole game. To that end, it was a miracle was only lost by 3.

    It is never good to lose, but it is good to play other good teams. One problem we had last year is we didn’t face much good competition. This year, with ND, Mich. St., Wake, Duke, and possibly a stronger Clemson team, we should be well-tested by the tournament. This will help assuming our team start playing better ball, especially Deon.

  • TarHeelInMinny

    Ouch.

    At least last night we showed some passion and heart. I don’t think we lost because of lack of effort like we did vs. BC.

    Tyler’s three late was stupid. Danny was hot, Wayne had hit two in a row, and Tyler jacks? Also, he was getting triple teamed and trying to force it up. PASS THE BALL! Also, Tyler was majorly exposed on the defensive end last night. He needs to move his feet, get lower and not reach. I thought this was maybe his worst game ever at UNC.

    I think we’re struggling in transition because other guys (hello, Deon, Tyler, Ed, Green) aren’t running hard enough. They’re just watching Ty try to get to the hole. The defense is shading a second (and sometimes third) defender on him in transition. This should leave other guys open, but they’re not running hard enough to the rim for Ty to find them

    How on Earth can we have 3 turnovers and burn as many timeouts on underneath-out-of-bounds plays. ABSURD!

    We’ve regressed from Nov.-Dec., and others (MSU, Dook, Wake) have improved. We need to get better as a team. My question is does this group have the hunger, the passion, the will to do so? Maybe it’s happening in practice but not translating to games. We don’t know, only Roy and the boys do. We need to set aside our personal goals/agendas and do what’s best for the team.

    There’s no way Wayne is ready to jump to the NBA. Who the heck would he ever guard??? Everyone that he checked last night went right by him.

  • TarHeelInMinny

    Just read the boys’ remarks in the Herald-Sun recap:

    “We’re just frustrated,” Tyler Hansbrough said. “Obviously, we’re mad about some things.”

    “I feel like sometimes we got out there and expect to win instead of being hungry enough to go on and get it,” Wayne Ellington said. “I think we’ve got to get back to that. Nobody’s going to give us anything — we’ve got to go take it.

    “If we’re not hungry now, I don’t know when we’re going to be hungry. We’ve got to get more hungry.”

    Umm, it’s just me, but how about being hungry from the opening tap instead of all this bluster after the game? The way we started was pathetic, which kind of is lost since we seemed to be in position to take control of the game midway through the half.

    It’s all about defense. We don’t have to be great, but we certainly need to do better. Also, it’s not one guy’s fault that Teague went off–defense is a team effort and when a guy is hot like that, the team needs to band together to stop him. How could we not take one, single charge on him?? We certainly aren’t prolific shot blockers, so take a darn charge!!!

  • wb3

    MN TarHeel: The bottom line is that Green and Ellington do not have quick enough feet to keep up with Jeff Teague. Lawson is quick enough, but is giving up 4-5 inches and wasn’t that effective. We probably should have dropped off and made him shoot, but we didn’t. That is a coaching decision.

    If Marcus had been healthy, he probably would have been on Teague a good part of the game.

  • william

    I think there were a lot of positives last night, aside from our obvious disappointment. This is the second UNC team that I thought could go undefeated. The first was the 1994 team and they really did not perform up to expectations. Nevertheless, they won the ACC tournament and finished ranked number one, I believe. But something was off with the chemistry all year.

    I think Roy’s teams generally improve as the season goes on. Remember the 2003 Kansas team that Matt Doherty et al. destroyed early on and that ended the season with a lackluster 25-7 record but made it all the way to the NCAA finals where they very near won it all.

    Unfortunately, Kansas couldn’t shoot that day either, not even free throws. Sometimes, it happens, lol.

    As they say, past performance is no guarantee of future results, but for anyone who would like to read a more detailed account of some of the very poor regular season results that other ACC national champs have endured, as well as UCLA, when it had Keith Wilkes, Marques Johnson and Bill Walton, you might check this out:

    http://quakerfox.blogspot.com/2009/01/big-upset-in-acc.html

  • C. Michael

    Nice piece, william. I believe you could also add the 2006-07 Florida Gators to the mix. They lost two non-conference games (Kansas and FSU) and the 3 of 4 in late February, which sent everyone into a tizzy… except the Gators, who beat UK and then ripped through the SECT, setting the stage for their second title run.

  • Steve

    Three things.
    Teague was amazing last night and came to the attention of a lot of people last night, he’s been overlooked up to now. We could be looking back at this game in a couple years as his big moment.
    second, Wake could be the toughest team Carolina plays all year, prior to the tournament. They lost by 3 on Wake’s homecourt in front of a big crowd.
    Third, the big problem I saw was the inability to flip the switch. For example, Ellington perked up considerably in the final 2 minutes; that’s too late. Play like that the whole time. You gotta have talent, preparation, and intensity. Right now the intensity is the weak link.

  • william

    Here is a little ammo if any of your Wake friends give you a hard time:

    FINAL STANDINGS 1986
    ——————–
    ACC ALL ACC Nonconf RankedAP RankedAP
    Reg Seas Games All Games All Nonconf
    Duke 12-2 .857 37-3 .925
    Georgia Tech 11-3 .786 27-7 .794
    N. Carolina 10-4 .714 28-6 .824
    N.C. State 7-7 .500 21-13 .618
    Virginia 7-7 .500 19-11 .633
    Maryland 6-8 .429 19-14 .576
    Clemson 3-11 .214 19-15 .559
    Wake Forest 0-14 .000 8-21 .279
    ——————————————————————————
    Total 178-90 .664

  • william

    For what it is worth, UNC actually moved up in today’s new Pomeroy ranking, as did our defense. We are ranked third and Wake is 9th. It seems strange but our luck ranking is very low(high) due to a couple of fairly close losses.

    Remember last year, we thought we were undervalued by Pomeroy where we had several fortunate outcomes and the year before that it was the reverse.

    Our offense was the worst last night that it has been all season, with the BC game being the second worst. No surprise there. The defense was better than against BC, but statistically not great, so all you guys who want to blame it on the offense are right and so are all you guys who want to blame it on the defense.

  • PRGuy

    I know everyone is bummed this morning but I wanted to give a shout out to Sylvia Hatchell on winning her 800th game as a women’s college basketball coach. Folks, only four women have done that… ever. With the Hurricanes, Panthers and UNC men’s team losing, who knew the most satisfying game I’d see all weekend is a women’s b-ball game against a rival that went into OT. Congratulations, Sylvia!

  • william

    UNC has broken out Carolina’s in-conference stats and it is even uglier than perhaps expected:

    Hansbrough–9-27 from the floor–0-2 from three point range
    Lawson–7-25 from the floor–1-7 from three point range
    Ellington–11-29 from the floor–4-14 from three point range
    Thompson–5-19 from the floor–3-10 from the free throw line
    Frasor–2-5 from the floor–1-4 from the three point line

    Green–9-19 from the floor–5-10 from three point range
    Davis–5-8 from the floor

  • DeanForever

    Hello one and all. Well, I predicted a seven-point win and, win I had to hit the sack, we had a three-point lead. Given the nature of all the good basketball that we have seen over the past two and a half years, I presumed that Tyler would explode and the outside shots would start falling. I really never had the feeling that last night was one of “those games.” In fact, I thought that Tyler would explode for about 30, and the bench would contribute more.

    However, it did not happen. I wasn’t all that peeved about the three-point loss, but I was peeved about the fact that it made us 0-2 in the conference. Panic button? No. But our collective spirit has been shaken quite a bit, and I’m not going to pretend it hasn’t.

    What we need to do (and me especially) is throw the whole talent disparity notion out the window. We saw the prototype in 1994 and we are seeing signs of the second coming this year. Poor shooting and lack of aggresiveness pave the way for “those games”, the ones that we as UNC fans must endure despite having superior talent. There is a pronounced lack of aggresiveness on this team, and they have no collective swagger. The mid-late 90s teams did not win the big one, but in big ACC games they rose up and BROUGHT IT. This team, if it plays with some defensive assertiveness, takes control of that game for a good portion of the second half and then endures one last assault from Wake before putting it away with free throws. Never happened.

    They need to get their heads out of their tails and start playing with some passion!

  • From my perspective, there are two ways to look at this game:

    1. To channel Denny Green, Wake is who we thought they were. Big, athletic, and a top-10 caliber team. They exceeded their season averages last night in nearly every category, had a career night from an outstanding guard. UNC, on the other had, shot less than 40% for the game, had sub-par efforts from four starters, had 20 turnovers, and yet had it to one possession in the last minute on the road.

    2. OMFG! WTF???

    Twelve hours to digest has led me to this:

    1. We are not appreciably better than last year. Only Green is markedly improved, and trading experienced backups in Thomas and Stepheson for freshmen Drew II and Davis is not necessarily an upgrade.

    2. While the storyline is certainly “from undefeated to 0-2″, any thought of an undefeated UNC season had to include healthy Ginyard and Zeller (think the two of them at full-strength wouldn’t have made a difference last night?) and Frasor contributing more than what he has been.

    3. I am really worried about the decline of Thompson. An ineffective Thompson allows teams to double- and triple-team TH. Moreover, I am worried at the jawing gogin on last night. Score some points, get some rebounds, and then run your mouth, Deon.

  • FiddlerCrab215

    I read somewhere that Lawson’s draft stock is not higher because scouts feel like his production is a result of Roy’s system. After these losses, I’m beginning to think that this is true for our entire team – we can have 5-6 players putting up double digits when we’re scoring in transition and off of turnovers. But when our system is disrupted, we aren’t getting the one-on-one play that other teams have (e.g., Rice and Teague). Generally, I’ll take our team over any other’s like Davidson with Curry or Texas when they had DJ Augustin – I don’t want every game to hinge on one player’s performance. Unfortunately it seems that while we succeed as a team, all too often, we fail as a team as well.

    And does anyone else feel like the huge, alien mothership in “Independence Day” – where we were annihilating earthlings until freakin’ Jeff Goldbloom figures out how to mess up our system? And now, we can’t stop Randy Quaid from blowing up our lasers.

  • Fiddler,

    Good analogy, bad movie.

  • william

    None of this is unprecedented.

    DailyDoc, I think you make an excellent point about the Stepheson/Thomas switch. I do think that Davis seems to be outperforming Stepheson statistically, but I took a glance at Q.T.’s stats from last year and I was surprised by how good they were. Assist to turnover ratio of 2, 78 percent from the line and he made some big plays for the Heels.

    Unfortunately, like so many of our guys, it was not his day against Kansas and it sort of made me forget just how well he played last year.

  • 52bgJ

    please–pimping QT is almost as bad as some Panthers fans pimping Jake at this point…damn glad Drew is here!

  • william

    I have never really understood that expression “pimping” when used out of context, but last season would have been a disaster had Thomas not played acceptably in the position during the dual periods where Lawson was hurt.

    Most of the statistics I have seen indicate that the Tar Heels were about equally effective last year regardless of who played the point, although they played a slightly different and slower style with Thomas running things but were better defensively.

  • CarolinaBlueDude

    I feel like Ed Davis is playing pretty good basketball (at least defensively) right. I would actually like to see him get a few more minutes the next couple weeks atleast until Thompson gets his game back on track. The kid is going to be RIDICULOUS after this season for sure

    And what the hell happened to our free throw shooting??!!?

  • 52bgJ

    well the analogy is appropriate as Jake’s supporters like to trot out his playoff stats too. My eyes are the only stats I need in both cases, and my eyes tell me Drew is 10 X’s the player Quentin was—great character for sure, but for both Jake and Q, a “good game” actually meant not screwing things up too badly.

  • william

    If people don’t believe in statistics or statistical analysis, then there really is no rebuttal to the argument that my eyes tell me that so and so is better.

    I have heard the same thing about horses that look great but don’t run all that well. Pomeroy has the break-down for Thomas and Drew. Drew may very well end up being a much better player than Quentin Thomas. Statistics do not indicate that he has reached that point yet

  • 52bgJ

    I didn’t say I don’t believe in stats, just that I don’t need them in this case.

  • william

    Stats are pesky things when they tend to disprove a person’s gut belief….

  • 52bgJ

    lol william–yer right, QT was a superstar in disguise! nay, he’s the veritable missing link!

  • william

    I never said that, nor did Dailydoc. I think his point was that many Carolina fans anticipated not missing Stepheson and Thomas, in spite of their significant contributions last year, at all. Some seemed almost gleeful they were gone.

    Dailydoc’s exact words probably state the situation perfectly:

    “trading experienced backups in Thomas and Stepheson for freshmen Drew II and Davis is not necessarily an upgrade.”

    Here is what I said:

    “I took a glance at Q.T.’s stats from last year and I was surprised by how good they were. Assist to turnover ratio of 2, 78 percent from the line and he made some big plays for the Heels.”

    No one thinks Quentin Thomas was a superstar. But without a significant upgrade over the guys we lost and without Marcus Ginyard, you are going to have to see a lot of improvement by all the other guys just to keep even with what was achieved last year.

    How Dailydoc making that interesting and effective point was interpreted as “pimping QT” or my simply saying that QT’s stats last year were better than I remember, meant “QT was a superstar” is beyond me.

  • 52bgJ

    fair enough, but you have also been slipping in references to Quentin of late too…conspicuously so to me…hence the “pimping” comment, or “agenda” if you prefer. Drew hasn’t had enough minutes to even make a decent comparison statistically, to a senior who did a “decent job” in an emergency situation. Sorry, but I’d take Davis & Drew, even with the learning curve in a heartbeat. If our starters will play good defense, we won’t need debates about reserves.

  • william

    I don’t think there is anyone who will disagree that both Drew and Davis are likely to end up being better Stepheson and Thomas. Given this, it is not surprising that some had hoped or expected to see this happen just as quickly as it happened for Lawson and Brandan Wright back in 2007, both of whom became starters almost immediately.

    All I am doing is trying to look at the statistics and find clues to indicate what made our team successful last year and this year. I look mostly at Pomeroy but there are other guys out there with interesting ideas worth a look at least.

    http://home.roadrunner.com/~unc92sax/CurrentSeason.html

    If I have an agenda, I don’t know what it is. I expect Drew to be our starting point guard next year and I certainly would like to see him be the next Kenny Smith, but will settle for the next Derrick Phelps or Ed Cota.

  • 52bgJ

    ok–moving on from this one.

    A lingering irritation for me, is the palming call on Lawson the other night. It was a horribly called game in many respects, but our play was the bigger factor in the outcome…however, that call on Lawson was disturbing on several levels. He had just made a great steal, and put a helluva move on their center and beat him to the basket. If you’re not going to call palming consistently, why the hell would you call it on such a marginal play? Any of us who have watched Ty know that is a signature move of his—the “one-handed cross-over dribble”, if you will. Given the “love of the ball” many other premier pg’s show when dribbling (and starting their drive), that was a phantom call for sure. I won’t even bring the NBA into this discussion. Watch Rice–he could be called on every play. I think that particular call was bad enough to merit a review of the officials–what say you? THF, I believe this merits discussion, as it would certainly be a handicap to Ty’s (and by extension UNC’s) game if this becomes a POE for the officials. I’d raise some hell on this one!

    I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that call came about as a result of another coach raising the issue with the officials…just sayin.

  • william

    Yeah. Aminu was dribbling with two hands underneath but they let that go.

  • 52bgJ

    well, if the call on Ty is just a 1 game aberration, it’s no cause for concern, but if the officials laser in on him, that’s a major tool out of his toolbox.

  • The same call should have been issued to Jeff Teague, who made a living doing it in this game.