What: Preseason Basketball Exhibition Game
Where: Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC
When: Friday, November 6th, 7:30 PM
There is not much to preview here. UNC will certainly outmatch Belmont-Abbey in every conceivable way so this will be about getting our first look at the 2009-10 Tar Heels. All eyes will likely be on the freshmen, followed by Larry Drew, Marcus Ginyard and Will Graves.
The game is not televised but Tar Heel Blue will be streaming it live for nominal fee of $9.95. Incidentally tickets to this one cost $10.00 so it seems sort of overpriced to charge the same amount to watch something streaming over your computer. The question you have to ask yourself is: “How desperate am I for a UNC basketball fix?” Can you wait until Monday or do you have to have it now. I am leaning towards buying it just so I can tell you all about it.
Reports from the game and in-depth box score analysis is certainly welcome.
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First half observations.
1. We’ve got a long ways to go. We’re playing very much like the 2006 team. A lot of ugly plays mixed in with some ridiculously awesome plays. But one thing is for sure we’re long, we’re fast and we’re playing hard.
2. Drew Strickland is really quick. He has a great first step and I think he’s one player that will be able to get his own shot if we isolate him on the wing, much like McCants used to do for us.
3. Deon is looking confident and putting the ball in the hoop. Let’s hope he can keep that going throughout the season because we’re gonna need it from him.
4. The Wear twins are every bit as fundamentally sound as people have described. I can definitely see them playing some 3 during the season because they slide their feet pretty well and they can run too. At one point we had deon and the twins in the game and they played well together.
5. Henson can cover some ground. He is so long. His weak side defense is going to be key this year. I don’t think Graves is gonna keep that starting job. He doesn’t look too good but that could be the back but I really just don’t see it.
6. Drew looks like he’s forcing it a little bit on the floor. Rushing shots. Ginyard may bring the ball up some during the season.
7. I forgot what Ginyard brought to the team until I saw him today. He’s quick and really gets his hands in the passing lanes. I think he got his hands on the ball at least 6 or 7 times in the first half.
8. We’re definitely going to have a good defensive team. We’ve had a lot of deflections and altered shots. Good signs.
9. We haven’t made a 3 and the few we launched were not good.
Basically, we’re trying to learn on the job. Roy has substituted liberally and everyone has played well at times but they’ve also made some silly mistakes. But I think with time, we’ll get better. Looking forward to the season.
It was SO nice to see Marcus looking strong and healthy. He had a nice game. Can’t believe how much I have missed seeing him play..
The Wear brothers looked very poised and strong. Henson was very athletic esp. in the second half. Zeller looked really good. He and Deon put alot of points on the board. Deon had 23. We were terrible on the foul line. I hate that.
I have to admit that we are total basketball junkies. Haven’t been into the NBA since #23 retired but this year have been following the terrific play of Ty Lawson. He is really impressing the Denver fans. It is so funny to hear the announcers say “I didn’t know he was this good”. We tried to tell them. Also, Tyler Hansbrough got his first NBA start tonight since being out with that darn stress reaction. He had 13 points in 13 minutes. Great to see these guys doing so well!
Yeah, you know that Tyler Hansbrough isn’t going to get those foul calls in the NBA. Oh, wait, he was 7-10 from the line in his first NBA game. He almost averaged a free throw shot a minute, and averaged a point per minute. His college game will never translate to the NBA (sarcasm). Granted, it’s only his first game, but so far the Hansbrough haters can suck it.
he went to the FT line more than anyone on either team, including guys that played 36 and 40 minutes. ha!
HeelYeah and HTTE –
Right on guys. Hansbrough did not look entirely comfortable out there, but on the whole his play was quite good. He outscored his teammate, starter Roy Hibbert, while playing half Hibbert’s minutes.
He did have a couple of shots blocked, but that’s a great start for Tyler. They got him in and out pretty quickly and that had to be a bit disruptive to any sort of rhythm. But drawing fouls and scoring works in the NBA too. Sweet!
1) Justin Watts saw some good minutes. He had a NASTY block. I swear it was the highlight of the night for me.
2) LD II needs some work. He had some brilliant moments but some not so brilliant moments as well. His ball control was really bad at some points.
3) Marcus looked really good.
4) Deon was FREAKIN AWESOME! If he doesn’t go streaky on us he’s going to be a huge player.
5) The D looked FANTABULOUS! We forced a lot of turnovers, blocked some shots and rebounded really well. It’s going to be a great defensive year for us!
Fun night!
Henson looked like he was trying too hard and needs to settle down some. Also, he undershot most of his free throws. Bleah! We won’t be hitting lots of threes this year but it looks like we’ll be having block parties almost every game. Roy substituted en masse and I think at one point swapped out all five players. Walk-on Petree showed some decent skills in mop-up duty.
Actually I think he swapped out all five players twice.