There are a lot of parts we could discuss about this game but leaving the Smith Center tonight one thing struck me as the most important benefit UNC gleaned from this game:
Confidence.
For the young players especially and for the team as a whole, this game gave the Tar Heels an good indicator of their potential which should serve as a great basis to further development. The first half was as good a half of basketball we have seen from UNC since…well…the last first half of basketball the Heels played versus Michigan St. During that game in April, UNC took a 55-34 lead to the locker room. In this one it was 50-34 and 363 days ago versus MSU it was 53-39 at the half. In three straight games against the Spartans, UNC has dropped 50 or more in the first half. If you are Kalin Lucas, Raymar Morgan and Delvon Roe you have to be thinking as you head to the locker room: “Oh crap, it’s happening again.”
The “it” that was happening, happened mainly at the guard positions with Larry Drew and Dexter Strickland. For Drew this really began versus Nevada when the sophomore PG hit two threes and posted a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists. In this one, Drew was more than up to challenge of playing against the Spartans quick guards. Drew scored 18 points through a combination of perimeter shooting and drives to the basket. He also dished out six assists versus three turnovers. Given the pressure on him in particular to step up in a game versus a highly touted backcourt, it was as good as you could possibly hope for. On top of the offense, Drew did a fairly decent job defensively. MSU ended up 2-20 from three point range. The Heels were able to contest many of those shots and when they were not doing that, Drew and Marcus Ginyard in particular forced MSU out of its offensive rhythm and deep into the shot clock. The perimeter defense got a little ragged as the game worn on and UNC began to serious overplay the three point shot leading to penetration. Despite that it was a stellar performance from the guys on the perimeter.
MSU essentially had no answer for Ed Davis or Deon Thompson. Tyler Zeller was effective in spurts. The overall production of the post game was pretty much what we expected. The only complaint is rebounding was a 39-39 dead heat despite the Heels enjoying a significant size advantage. MSU hustled to crash the boards and snagged some long rebounds off misses. The play of the big men along with Ginyard who actually one upped Drew in assists and made a few key baskets carried the Heels through the heavy stretches.
The surprise of the evening came from the freshmen however. Call it a coming out party or the night the switch was flipped or holy crap these guys are as good as advertised. I don’t much care what we refer to it as and while I do understand there are still some rough patches ahead, it was clear the younger players finally got to the point they felt comfortable. First and foremost on that list was Dexter Strickland. During the first few games I was really concerned Strickland wasn’t going to make much of a impact this season. After this game, you can see the potential and some glimpses of what it looks like when realized. Strickland in fourteen minutes had nine points, four rebounds, three assists and most importantly zero turnovers. Strickland, who looked overwhelmed at times this season, found his comfort zone. He was aggressive, showing no fear when driving to the basket. On one play he took the ball in and had it blocked. The next time down he drove the length of the floor and got a layup. Strickland capped off his incredible first half by hitting a three at the buzzer that was made more impressive by the fact he collected the ball beyond midcourt, checked the clock, dribble down and took a good shot instead of panicking.
Joining Strickland in making major contributions were both the Wear Twins who played solid minutes in the first half and John Henson. In Henson’s case, he still is getting a feel for the offense and seems to be lost at times in the flow of the offense. On defense he is a freak. Henson had four block and every one of them were ball normal human beings would have never gotten to. His length gave MSU a ton of trouble. Overall his fourteen minutes on the floor were his best of the season. If Henson figures the offense out, then he could be out there more and that will be something to watch.
In short the freshman were sensational as indicated by this 11-2 run, all scored by the four rookies on the floor.
Now it is easy to be drawn to the scoring but look closely and you see Henson with an offensive board, a block and a steal. Travis Wear had two rebounds and David Wear snagged an offensive rebound along with the put back. During that same span, MSU only scored once and committed two turnovers. It was a nice stretch which shows some of the potential this class has being realized just eight games in.
Overall, it was a great win. By no means was it perfect. MSU, to their credit, hung around which must have been tough considering they were put into the “down by double digits at the half” boat twice before against UNC. The Heels are still prone to some mistakes as indicated by 17 turnovers. The rebounding and defense on dribble penetration was not as good as one would hope. The Heels also gave up way too many layups either via backdoor cuts or drives to the hoop. This was a nice win and should be enjoyed as much but also know there is plenty of work to be done yet. The good news is we have seen the first signs of this team coming together and everyone getting on the same page. If that progresses at the pace it has so far, the Heels will be riding high come late January.
![[Bloglines]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[MySpace]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myspace.png)
![[Technorati]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://www.tarheelblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Closing out games, putting the final nail in the coffin, for some reason, always seems to be the last thing a team learns to do well. It took 2 years for both the 2005 and 2009 teams to learn this, so it is not surprising that this team s struggling with it. What is impressive is the fact that they are still winning these games. And for all their FT woes, at least it appears that LDII is capable of hitting late game FTS (4-5 versus OSU, 4-4 last night). If you are going to pick one player you want to be able to hit those, it’s your. PG.
Kailin Lucas is a very, very good player, but something tells me he never wants to see a UNC jersey again:
Last night: 6-17
April 2009: 4-12 (and a broken foot)
Decem 2008: 2-10
That’s the stuff of nightmares.
2005 UNC torches Michigan State in the National Semi-final.
2007 UNC outdistances Michigan State in the second round.
2009 UNC humiliates the Spartans twice in the Spartans’ own house.
2010 UNC handily defeats the purported national title favorites after losing four players to the NBA.
You can add in another fairly easy win in a regional final back in 1998 and it seems like Tom Izzo would never want to face Roy and the Tar Heels again.
By the way, I was only watching on television, of course, but it seemed as though the home crowd was incredibly noisy, perhaps more so than ever. The Smith Center may be becoming more of a decisive asset than it was during the first 15 years of its existence.
As the game ended the student section started a chant of:
“You Can’t Beat Us!”
I thought it was Korie Lucious who broke a foot in the title game?
As I state yesterday, the Michigan State game would be the coming out party for John Henson, I mean Larry Drew and Dexter Strickland.;-)
The win last night certainly helped ease my pain from Saturday. Ed Davis and Deon are simple dynamite and anything down low from Zeller is just icing on the cake. I liked the sequence when the Heels matched transition baskets. Big win!
^Stricklands natural position is shooting guard (thats what he played in high school). His natural role is scorer, not passer. He was allowed to do that last night and wow! He looked good. Hope he gets to do that more often.
I thought all four frosh played so well last night. Lots has been written about Strickland and Henson, but I thought the Wear twins were solid and showed what they can give the Heels–solid mid-range shooting, length and athleticism on the defensive end, and just solid play all-around. Not sure either of them will ever be stars, but they’ll be the kind of players to stick around all four years and be important cogs in at least 2 Final Four teams.
That first half was exciting because you can see what this team can do. My only concern is they didn’t have to do it vs. a zone defense. Not sure why Izzo didn’t sprinkle in some zone–guess he’s just too stubborn. I think Saturday should be a great game.
william – It was very loud in the Smith Center last night and I would venture it was louder than most any ACC game outside of Duke and Clemson that I’ve attended. As an attendee I felt that we “the crowd” needed to put some energy into the game as we were the underdog. Obviously it paid off. The attendance this year and the level of involvement has been very low and very poor so this was a big deal. When you head coach calls out the fans on his 600th win with a nice turn of phrase “fill in the blanks” and mentioned turning people down for tickets last night as they didn’t go to the Nevada game well there you have it.
I really like Henson and look forward to seeing him get some passes on the offensive end of the court. I think the people that sit around me are feeling better about my yelling for more Henson now. There was a woman two rows behind me that called out at least three fouls just before they were called adding nice punchlines like “number 23 ref, are you blind…”.
I would like to thank the rowdy MSU fan that showed up late for the game just as MSU went up over UNC and was just as loud and outspoken as you can be. Yes, taunting the fans around you in their house is always a bad idea and particularly last night when you got it handed to you. Amazingly when he finally had some hope :54 seconds he left the game.
Final observations: Henson – love this guy. Wear twins – just how Noelesque will they be in another two or three years. They seem like they like the weight room already should be fun. Great win, nice play, the rotation keep the blade on Sparty’s throat last night and they finished well.
Anyone else see a triple-double in Henson’s future? 4 blocks in 14 minutes makes me think a 10 block game is not out of the question.
“Wear twins – just how Noelesque will they be in another two or three years.”
I assume you mean in terms of physique, in which case I completely agree. In terms of raw bball skills, D&T are miles ahead of where Noel was as a frosh.
This was my first foray into the Dean Dome for a “real” game. All the other games I have been to were cupcake specials so the crowd was a little calmer. That place was really amped up and I especially liked the crowd standing up and cheering if MSU had the ball and the shot clock got down to around 15.
I did see a few MSU fans and there was one right behind me but I did not hear them at all.
I keep saying it but Henson is such a freak of nature. I told the guys I was with I wanted just a tenth of his athleticism. I don’t need it all just about 10% and I would happy. With Henson is does not matter if you get him up on a shot fake, he stays up so long and has such long arms he will still get a hand on the ball when you do shoot it.
Dexter Strickland was very good. The coast to coast drive was, shall we say, Lawsonesque?
As I mentioned previously, the light appeared to go on in the 2nd half of the Nevada game. Great game to instill confidence in the young guys that the work they are putting in during practice is paying off.
Couple of Observations:
1) Free Throws is now a problem for anyone not named Drew or Thompson, need to see dramatic improvement and that starts with Senior Marcus Ginyard.
2) Press offense and the handling of the ball was concerning in the final 5 mins, but that will continue to improve.
3) Surprised to see zero Zone from MSU, especially since that I think through 7 games it is clear that the way to play Carolina is to play an aggressive zone on defense (maybe even a zone press) and then spread the floor with 4 or even 5 high on offense in order to penetrate on Carolina’s Bigs.
4) Will Graves and T. Wear are liabilities on defense at the 3 spot.
5) This game proved that the development of Strickland and Henson are the key to whether this team can be good or Final Four good in March.
This team is just starting to tap into its potential and the great thing is that they will continue to improve with every game and practice. There still will be bumps in the road, but the immediate future continues to look as bright as anticipated.
“Dexter Strickland was very good. The coast to coast drive was, shall we say, Lawsonesque?”
I made the comment last night that seeing a #5 in a UNC jersey burn the court, coast-to-coast, just felt right.
There’s a lot to look forward to this year, but with the addition of Marshall next year as a true PG, UNC should be able to run a lot of 2 PG sets, much like Roy did at KU with with Miles and Hinrich. To me, that is when Roy’s system is at its absolute best, which is pretty scary considering the success he’s already had at UNC.
“Surprised to see zero Zone from MSU.”
I wasn’t. I disagree strongly with the idea that Syracuse offered a game plan to beat UNC. To me, this is similar to someone saying after the MSU-UNC game last December that UNC offered the game plan to beat MSU. UNC not only had the players to run that system, but the did it ALL OF THE TIME. The same is true with Syracuse. They not only have the players to run the 2-3 effectively, but they do it ALL OF THE TIME. Putting in a new defensive scheme for one team is almost always a recipe for disaster. Syracuse is a perfect example of this: we all saw what they did to UNC while playing their style of basketball, they looked awesome. However, what happened when that same group of players was told to play nothing but man-to-man? They lost to LeMoyne…
Just wanted to leave this comment about these 2 teams were not the same teams as last year. UNC is definetly not the same but MSU returned ALL of their players with the exception of Sutton!! WOW, Roy is really good to prepare these young player to compete with a team like MSU!! Thanks.
clatham,
While I agree with your overall statement, I do think it is a little bit of an overall simplification. First of all, Suton was a very good player for the Spartans. He was the burly-type of low post player who was abused by Hansbrough, but would have given our current bigs some trouble. More importantly, MSU also lost Travis Walton who was MSU’s all-time leader in games played, a 3-year captain, and a tremendous defensive player.
wow…poor michigan state.
our biggest critics say ‘yeah this team has big upside, but not as much as we think’ i.e. not a final four contender. if we continue to see the development of LD2 as a true solid contributing PG w/ confidence and leadership, strick as a good backup who plays on instinct and is not bogged down by the pressure of learning a new role, DT and Eds increased drive to be stars, and the rest of the frosh+graves come along, then yes, we will be what we THOUGHT WE WERE! and that’s tight
C. Michael,
I agree with your point that you do what you do best and practice, but I was still surprised with Carolina shooting over 60% that Izzo did not try to mix in a couple of possessions of zone, at least to disrupt Carolina’s flow and limit some of the passing angles on entry passes into the post. Also, I think the Syracuse game was a blessing in disguise, considering the Heels will not face a zone defense of that elk for the rest of the season and all other zone defenses should seem pedestrian by comparison.
The game last night was the reason I didn’t feel like it was a good idea to overreact to that awful ten minutes against SU. That meltdown didn’t mean we stink. The play of just about everyone was encouraging, with pretty much everyone who got on the court doing something positive, and it looked like a glimpse at what this team could end up being. That said, there are still going to be ups and downs, and that game could have been a high point and not the level of play that we should expect. It also didn’t hurt that we didn’t face a zone defense last night. Also this team is probably going to drop a couple of close games they should win because of shaky late game play. I guess with all that said, if the young guys, specifically Henson and Strickland, are not having to think so much anymore and able to play more on instinct, we’re heading no where but up.
So, I was in Raleigh this morning like incredibly early (I don’t know what I was thinking) to see a few friends and I had 620 The Buzz on in the car. So this nutty guys calls in and says “I’m not a Carolina fan, but I don’t see how they put up with Roy. I know he wins games, but how much of him are they going to take? Did you hear his comments from last night? he insulted the fans and said that he didn’t give tickets to 6 little kids, because they didn’t go to the Gardner Webb game.”
This infuriated me. Yeah, Roy did say that the crowd hasn’t been as great as usual lately, but he also thanked them and said that the crowd was a huge factor and they helped us a lot. He did mention that he was called by about six people asking for tickets, and he not giving any to them because they didn’t bother to come to any of the cupcake games. NEVER did he say that they were “little kids”. I think it is perfectly fine to refuse to give people tickets to one of the biggest games of the season if they don’t bother to show up to any of the other games. See, we don’t “put up” with Roy. We LOVE him. It’s not just because he wins. It’s because he wins with class and loses with dignity. It’s because he cares about the players, the alumni and the fans. It’s because he upholds the highest standards, both on and off the court. And frankly, if you’re not a Carolina fan, you really have no buisness telling ANYBODY about how Carolina fans think, and feel.
Sorry, I had to rant to somebody.
uncgirl50
Nice one.
Passion counts!
Flay Kentucky.
Was it Joe in Raleigh? Sounds like something he would say.
Krzyzewski calls Duke fans out when they were not showing up for cupcake games a couple years ago. Besides I don’t think Roy said he didn’t give tickets to six kids he said six different people asked for tickets.
Also, Roy was complimentary of the crowd in this game and he was right. The crowd was awesome, especially when the Heels were on defense in the half court.
AZACCFan, thank you!
THF, yup. That would be him. I nearly ran my car off the road when I heard that.
Joe in Raleigh is the most obnoxious Duke fan on the face of the earth. His love for K is vomit inducing. He calls up all the local radio programs and peddles garbage like this daily. I guess it makes for good radio because all the hosts still let him on the air. What’s funny is he complains about things like this that Roy does and acts like K has never done the same or worse.
Now there is a different dynamic at UNC where the crowd is concerned than at Duke. At Duke it is 90% students in the building. At UNC the best seats are occupied by the big Rams Club donors. Is it a good idea to call out the big donors and the guys who supplement the bulk of your $2 million salary? I don’t know but I think his primary point is that he wants people supporting the team for every game not just when someone big is in town. Roy commented previously that attendance was down an average of 3000 over last season because last season the Heels were prohibitive favorites and this season the are questions. This goes back to Roy’s loyalty value. He thinks the fans should be there and he is probably right.
1. I intended the Noel/Wear twin comment to be consider for physical stature. They are going to be giagantic.
2. I’ve heard about the ticket policy for the students and it is a failed policy based on the student attendance. They should flip back as soon as possible. I think the majority of the open seats are the boosters and season ticket holders. Sunday night after Turkey day is going to be a low attendance affair, no way around that really. I was concerned about the Nevada game just because of the bad mojo with Bobby last time around.
3. You have to love the Duke fans sensing that they may have a shot at winning a game against Carolina this year. It’s a wonderful thing to see in action. Good luck on that Dookies.