Originally this was supposed to be a live blog but a friend came through with tickets at the last minute so I am heading to the game instead. Yeah, I know, it is a tough sacrifice but someone has to make it.
Anyway, I will be posting updates to Twitter when I get the chance. So watch that and comments here if you have them.
GO HEELS!
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Was anyone else never really comfortable despite the huge 16-point lead at halftime? I knew that our team’s youth, MSU’s talent and experience, combined with the fact that 67-percent field goal shooting is unsustainable, would cause the lead to shrivel up in the second half. I just prayed that the lead was enough to weather the inevitable MSU rally, and luckily it was (despite another terrible free throw shooting night from Carolina… who wants to bet the whole team gets assigned double the normal amount of free throws in practice tomorrow?).
Graves looked good. Zeller forced some shots and I think we can still expect a lot of upside from Zeller.
The problem with Zeller right now is he’s still too much finesse and not enough aggression. His troubles in rebounding is well-known, but he also allows defenders to push him out of prime scoring position offensively, and that leads to a lot of the kind of wild-looking shots you saw him put up tonight. Granted, he’s got enough touch that some of those shots fall in, but he wouldn’t need that if he would aggressively defend his space in the lane and go up strong with the ball every time.
I was very comfortable with our effort, but didn’t expect a double digit win….
This game was really great.
LD right on track…late January he’ll be hitting his stride.
C.Michael –
You said at the end of last season that Drew would be a more than capable PG. I had my doubts. The evidence from the last two games in that you were right.
When Drew is scoring and avoiding turnovers, this is just a completely different team.
That isn’t the end of the good news from this game either. In the first half, I wasn’t sure whether it was Strickland out there or Wayne Ellington.
Henson showed glimpses of why he’s regarded as an athletic freak. If he can show that stuff consistently, his minutes will have to go up.
Davis also stepped up tonight. And we shouldn’t overlook the fact that Graves had a key play near the end of the game, when MSU might really have made a contest of it. I think we were up six points. Drew missed a free throw, but Graves got up and swatted the rebound back to our possession. I thought that was the most important play of the game, although it won’t show up in the box score.
The bad news from this game, such of it as there is, is that we continue to miss free throws, and we are a weak second half team. It’s very curious that this should be the case, because our depth should give us a comparative advantage in the second half. But that’s not the way it’s working out.
It’s too bad we can’t bottle our first half and break it out in the NCAAT. When we play like that, I doubt there’s any team in the country that could beat us.
I was just waiting for 52bgj to pop in and say I told you all so about Drew….
I don’t think we were a “weak second half team” tonight — what we did the second half is basically a normal performance at this point of the season for this young UNC team. The only things that we did worse than we usually would are turnovers (too many in the second half) and free throws (too many free points squandered in the second half), and fans are mostly disappointed with the second half because they expected a reprise of what happened in the first half, and that’s unrealistic (Carolina was, simply put, out of their minds offensively in the first half, and the numbers they put up were simply unsustainable for an entire basketball game against an opponent of this caliber).
Maybe teams are figuring us out in the second half. I do think that the early start may have indeed hurt us given our youth.
This is a team that looks like to me they’re learning to win. That’s not an insignificant process. All the freshmen except maybe McDonald, have improved by leaps and bounds from the game against FIU, and the entire team is starting to make some of the gritty plays that you have to make to ensure victory. It was disappointing to see some of the mistakes by Deon, with a terrible shot, and mistake inbounding the ball, but I feel good about where the team is after this game. Young teams are not finished products but this was definitely a step in the right direction.
The Wears didn’t get a lot of time tonight and I don’t remember seeing McDonald tonight or against Nevada.
The Wear’s made some very good plays in limited time tonight rebounding and securing the ball. McDonald got a few minutes, but didn’t do much to distinguish himself, good or bad.
Great effort, great win. And to think, this team isn’t even playing its best basketball yet.
I don’t buy in the Vitale hype, but he’s right. Everyone pile on UNC for now and try to kick them while they’re “down.” Come March, this is going to be a DANGEROUS team.
“I was just waiting for 52bgj to pop in and say I told you all so about Drew….”
never let it be said that I welsh on a bet
I think we all are rooting for Larry Drew Two, especially because he seems like a really good kid. I think he started off fairly well last year but then appeared to really lose confidence during ACC play and then rebounding somewhat towards the end when Lawson was hurt.