That is a huge difference with the NBA, where it is the last few minutes or maybe the last period of many games.

Sure if you are favored and able to win the NCAA, maybe you will not play every injured player in your league tournament. But that is rare. I profoundly hope that college basketball never becomes a silly march to only March.

So all in all we’re still learning who we are, and to play the #2, #3, #5, plus MSU who was preseason #2 before a loss and Ohio State who is or could have been a top 10 team before the Evan Turner injury, that is a LOT to ask and expect to not have some of our flaws on full display for all to see. Not to mention at UK, at texas stadium, and wasn’t syracuse at MSG (basically a homegame)? So should we have showed more effort, more continuity on offense, etc…? HELL yes, but EVERYone on that team is inexperienced, either inexperienced in general, like freshman status, combine that in particular w/ Strick and Henson who are also learning new positions, and/or inexperienced at your role on the team- Ed primary scorer, Deon leader/primary scorer, Ginyard-more ballhandling scoring duties, and yes, i expect to take some lumps.

Positives, Deon if he can trim down the T/O’s and stay in his sweet spot/zone of making a strong quick move and generating an open shot, he’s going to be effective w/ 16ppg if he can get down to less than 1 TO per game…Larry and Ginyard combined for 11 TO’s, so if they can take better care of the ball that is an opportunity for 11 more possessions. Strick is looking REALLy good, which gives me hope for not only him, but for Henson, Wears, McDonald, and even Graves, none of whom are instant impact, but if they can all make strides like Strick, we’ll be very very good.

Lastly, regarding Will….he’s got the most pure perimeter offensive game on the team. you can never have enough shooting and scoring ability. This is the first yera he’s ever had to log serious prime time minutes, so while he might not be the next DG, I’m going to firmly plant myself in Roy’s camp which is to play the kid and let him develop. He is NOT starting next year with the arrival of Marshall, Bullock and Harrison Barnes, and he might not even start by the end of this year….but if he can develop into reliable outside scoring, then we need it. Just remember guys, we’re playing to win in March. and while we need to maximize our gains and improvements and win as many games as possible, it’s not time to start ditching the game plan and sacrificing long term growth for better short term results in December/January.

and lastly (and i mean it this time), if we just pieced together some improvements where we went stretches for minutes at a time of sloppy play and no offensive continuity, and play like we played 80% of the time against UT, we have a chance to beat anytime in march. For a team of almost all new comers, i strongly believe we could have won the games versus UK, Cuse, and Texas, so hopefully we don’t have as far to go as some would think.

Go Heels!

I am sure next year’s schedule will be a little different for UNC. Well, it better be!

Games in the league are always tough. Clemson away will be tough, but most of January’s difficult games are at home. Which should help.

So I hope we have heard the last of Roy Williams talking about his job security in press conferences.

There is plenty of talent in Chapel Hill and lots of games to go. UNC can still win the ACC.

Julius would’ve made Dexter Pittman and his Big 12 arrogance cry. DP is Shaq-esque with the attitude too before any accomplishments.

great start, Paul.

“He blocked one of Eddie’s (Davis) shots and just laughed,” Williams said. “I don’t think he did it maliciously.”

Said Pittman, “Ed asked me, ‘Why are you so strong?’ I said, ‘This is Texas. This is the Big 12, bro.’”

The Longhorns beat the Tar Heels at their own game, not just inside, but by outscoring them 16-8 in fastbreak points.

Ginyard has a tough role too. Clearly the responsibility of leadership is not a natural for him. His injuries and efforts to expand his game are not easy. On the other hand, he made a nice spin move against UK, he has made some strategic threes, and yesterday he had spurts of offense in the second half. Maybe his defense isn’t as strong this year.

Zeller though is still laboring with the same issue he himself expressed when he came back after his injury: he has a very hard time anticipating and executing on defense. This defies reason though as he knows what to do to score and get high percentage shots; why can’t he turn this around and defend? He is not good enough to be saving himself for offense. Especially in a team with lots of tall players, when he flubs on defense he needs to sit down and think about it! Maybe for a long time.

It is also very tough to see a program geared to run “getting run out of the gym”, as Williams likes to say. That hurts alot.

Williams made some comments about rebounding in his pre-Tx presser, viz that if you want it you will go and get it. Guess who he told a story about?

Several of these guys played with Hansbrough, so they know what needs to be done. Yes Pittman was a load, but last year’s player of the year had one of the worst games of his career against UNC in the NCAA tournament. The coaches and several of the players are the same. In that game it was anticipation and effort. The players cooperated to double team when necessary. Every time they double team this year, it seems the opponents are going to the foul line or rebounding or scoring anyway. OUCH!

Losing at the foul line hurts a lot too. Sure it is hard to see in a giant stadium. But missing 1 and 1 first shots, both shooting fouls, and so on is sad.

I think this year’s team is in for a steady diet of inside aggressive play in the ACC. It will not take much to fire up the Clemson and Miami big guys when they see how easy it is to push UNC players around. I hated to see Hansbrough hit in the head all last year, but he never gave up. Concussions, loose teeth and all: you have got to try!

Someone suggested that Henson should have had a red shirt. You cannot take a highly regarded player of his stature and do that. Unfortunately, he is still adapting to a role position which he has little experience with. But he seems to play with enthusiasm, and I think he will come along. He isn’t the only one who needs to get stronger.

I would have loved to see Wall come to UNC as well, but you can’t get every top player. The real trick this year is to figure out how to effectively use the players we have. Other than Davis, everybody else on the team is up for frequent rotation in my mind if they are not giving 100%! Davis may indeed be playing his last year for UNC.

Overall though, things could be worse. Losing 4 starters and 80+% of the offense is hard to recover from.

Zeller, Ginyard and the other Wear would be my first players off the bench, Ginyard at either the 4 or 5.”

I feel as if that gives us the best opportunity to win. Strickland (to me) seems ready for the big time. In games where we seem lethargic and non-energetic, the Wears seem willing to bring the tenacity to the smorgasboard, like Ed Davis does most of the time. Strickland is our “Brian Reese”. When we are facing a zone and attacking the glass looks slim chanced, Strickland drives in and makes things happen.

I wish I knew where the Kevin Durant comparisons with John Henson have gone. There are moments that he looks like he can do a lot more with the ball on the peremiter than he currently does. I would like to see him just for one game be cut loose to do what he can do without fear of repurcussions. I really think he is capable of it. I think, but don’t know for sure, that I would rather be in a position of having to harness his energy and abilities rather than having to motivate them along. Its as if he has been told there is a limited number of things he can do, while being told not to do the things he is best at.

I know this is kind of an errant rant, but just my current thoughts. Thanks folks!

Does anyone think that Dean Smith could get more out of this current group of players? I am not sure that Smith could and I am not ready to say that Roy isn’t succeeding with his current group but, man, there have been some of the most horrid stretches of play in Carolina history. I know they have made the games respectable, mostly, but still, why are they looking so god awful for long stretches of a time with all the guys they have back, such as Ginyard, Zeller, Davis, Thompson and Drew. All of these guys have had significant playing time in the ACC tourney and the NCAA tourney during their careers, so the competition level argument is sort of a cop-out.

I am not going to be impressed at all when we beat Marshall by forty points. And of course, it doesn’t help that Duke beat Gonzaga by fifty points. At the time, I thought Tar Heel Fan was spending too much time on the John Wall recruiting story back in April. Now, it is hard to understand how Wall was not a good fit for Carolina.

I still think we may be better than Kentucky by the end of the year but like some of the others, I think they could have won both the UK game and the Texas game if they had not played so spotty.