The 2009-2010 University of North Carolina men’s basketball season was officially pronounced dead Saturday, February 20, 2010, at 2:02 P.M. in Chestnut Hill, Mass. The season had been in declining health after suffering a what would prove to be a mortal injury in Charleston, S.C. in January. The program was 100.
(Please forgive the macabre opening, but that’s just where I am right now)
Somewhere down the road the 2010 Carolina basketball season will be the subject of someone’s honors thesis in coaching and sports psychology. It is hard to believe that the team that has played the last two games in a North Carolina uniform is the same team that beat two top-15 teams and fought valiantly against two (now) top-5 teams earlier in the season. This team has had a complete systemic failure in every aspect of the game, so much so that twice against BC, the Tar Heels inbounded the ball to…nobody. That’s right, it’s so bad the Tar Heels can’t even throw the ball unguarded from one player to the another. It’s difficult to remember, as UNC sits at 14-13, that this team was once 12-4 just a scant six weeks ago.
There has been much teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing, even right here at THF, about the fact that this team is just not very good. I just don’t buy it. This team was good enough to roll up Michigan State and Ohio State, and to compete on the road against Syracuse, Kentucky and Texas. Through the non-conference season, UNC didn’t always blow people out, but they weren’t really in danger of losing, either. There was no reason to think on New Year’s Day what the year ahead would hold.
I would love to know what went on in Charleston because the team has never been the same since. Prior to the College of Charleston game, Carolina seemed on track to fulfill expectations and improve game by game. After the Charleston game, however, the team started a downward spiral that has resulted in the squad’s 3-9 record in 2010.
Obviously when things fall apart to this level, people look for the quick answer, and it’s just not able to be found with this squad. Duke in 1995 lost its coach. UConn this year also lost its coach, but the Huskies weren’t tearing it up prior to then, either. UCLA this year has been decimated by injury. Carolina has had its share of injuries this year (THF has a great summary here) but only Tyler Zeller and Ed Davis have missed extensive time.
Certainly some areas of UNC’s expected development have not happened. The supposedly powerful front line was exposed against Texas and has been ineffective ever since. Marcus Ginyard was playing relatively well before his injury and has never returned to that level. Despite decent numbers on the stat sheet, Larry Drew has never really passed the sniff test as Carolina’s point guard. The Heels have also never developed a consistent big-time scorer either inside or outside.
It would have been different if UNC had struggled out of the gate and was intermittently winning and losing to get to 14-13. But to go 3-9 over the last 12 – and really not terribly competitive in most of those 9 losses – is beyond comprehension. The team can’t shoot, can’t score, can’t defend, and doesn’t play with any urgency or fight. I have only seen supposedly top-notch players fall off like that once before – and it was because aliens stole their talent to play against Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan.
Maybe this is the problem?
I have heard that should UNC finish qualified for an NIT bid that the Heels should accept and get the younger guys more development time. I couldn’t disagree more. If the season ended today, I would hope Carolina would decline the bid and start working on next year’s team tomorrow.
So from here Carolina plays out the string with games against Miami and FSU at home and at Wake Forest and Duke. Please, please, find a way to win two more games to finish above .500. Sad to believe that this is what it has come to…
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I would consider the wins against Michigan State and Ohio State as aberrations in hindsight. How they did it? Beats me. However since then both these teams, esp Ohio State has improved, but I will bet top dollar that even now, these two teams will struggle against top tier ACC teams.
As for Syracuse, I really don’t think UNC kept it competitive, they were outplayed and out-hustled in every aspect of the game. The Kentucky game was closer, but let’s put in perspective, their team is just as young as our team, moreover they played most of the second half without John Wall, who had cramps as I recall. In any case, a loss is a loss, there are no moral victories.
However, this UNC team’s inexplicable failure in the ACC is just baffling. They got out-hustled in nearly every game, except the 3 they won. There is a general apathy on defense, our leadership is woeful and our guard play and PG play is extremely mediocre. But mediocre teams can still win games just by sheer hustle and a “never say die” attitude. This team surrendered long ago. I won’t take any players’ names any more, because I don’t know whom to blame, they have all been pretty awful. The one bright spot is the spark provided by John Henson, but even he has a lot to improve.
Roy Williams on his radio show Mon. night: D. Wear may be out for season with possible torn labrum http://bit.ly/bBmMqa
“Despite decent numbers on the stat sheet, Larry Drew has never really passed the sniff test as Carolina’s point guard.”
Nailed it.
“The team can’t shoot, can’t score, can’t defend, and doesn’t play with any urgency or fight.”
And there.
“I have heard that should UNC finish qualified for an NIT bid that the Heels should accept and get the younger guys more development time. I couldn’t disagree more. If the season ended today, I would hope Carolina would decline the bid and start working on next year’s team tomorrow.”
And there. Self-respect commands that we decline any post-season play — self-respect both in the sense of conscience (we don’t deserve it) and prudence (we’ll get drubbed in the first game, as we’ve been drubbed by middling teams all season, creating the grist for yet more Dookie jokes than we’re headed for already, which is plenty).
That Roy couldn’t win at least a few more games with this talent (which is not great but not as bad as it’s been playing) should be a source of serious concern for him, and us.
A post-mortem would be more appropriate at the end of the season, the actual end of the season, don’t you think? While it’s obvious it’s not going to end well, I just think this is a bit melodramatic and disrespectful. Considering a lot of folks here have more or less accused the team of giving up, giving up yourself on the team is just as inexcusable for a true fan.
Yep–when they win the ACC tournament, Doc, I expect a humble apology post in this space!
BuonRotto –
What has Doc given up on that we have a realistic hope of achieving?
I don’t think it’s that we went backward (except insofar as injuries retarded the development of certain players)–it’s that other teams developed. And we didn’t. Some of that has to be on Roy–I don’t see any other way to look at it. But it also seems clear that our talent does not work well together. Why does our team have 5 tall skinny guys who have the (underdeveloped) bodies of interior players and the (underdeveloped) skillsets of perimeter players? The more I think about it, the more recruiting the Wears bewilders me.
@ Buon Rotto: Ditto. I agree with your post.
Interesting point made by Eric Crawford in the Louisville, KY, Courier Journal. Headline: ” North Carolina men’s basketball woes becoming all too common”
“What’s going on? North Carolina, UCLA — if any names have been the blue-chip stocks, the five-star recommendations in college basketball, it has been these.
But what’s happening at North Carolina is breathtaking precisely because it is North Carolina — defending national champion, winner of two titles in the past five season, participant in back-to-back Final Fours — and because Roy Williams has experienced nothing like it in his career.
…. You might reload once, twice, three times. But if a program keeps losing players early to the NBA team, one day the highly touted replacements are going to be more tout than talent.
So as painful as it is , college basketball fans at some of the sport’s most prestigious addresses are going to have to grow accustomed to the occasional breathtakingly bad year. It’s not that the coach can’t get it done. Williams is as good a coach as he ever was. And it’s not even really the fault of painfully young replacement players.
It’s a storyline we’ve seen played out on a less conspicuous scale (Florida, UofL after its Final Four, Ohio State after Greg Oden left).
But now that it has happened at North Carolina, if we didn’t know it before, we know now. It can happen anywhere.”
Short autopsy report on the ’09/’10 Tarheel basketball team:
1) Too many ills to list.
2) Too few cures worked or maybe even tried.
3) R.I.P
I’m pretty disappointed in this team right now, like most of us are, but really didn’t expect to see something like this written here.
Others can keep playing their instruments while the Titanic sinks, but I don’t think its inappropriate for Doc to point out that the ship is three quarters filled with water and its fair to wonder how this happened.
It is fair, and I’m not saying something isn’t wrong, but as long as they have games scheduled I’m pulling for them, not trashing the lifeboats. Something can be salvaged from all this.
I’ll go to state fan nation for my dose of Carolina trashing.
I am pulling for them too. And I hope to see them play with some more fire and skill – maybe do what UConn is doing (looks like they’ve decided that they are tired of losing and are going to fight everybody tooth and nail). Nevertheless, nothing will prevent this season from missing expectations (my expectations were to finish no worse then 3rd or 4th in the ACC and win at least 1 game in the NCAA tournament – I am guessing those are similar, if not more conservative, then the goals the team set for themselves)
CoC hit these heels square in the mouth, and knock all the confidence out of them; and that is why having leaders are so important. Since the Heels do not have any, they havent been able to dig themselves out of this hole, and it snowballed.
During the summer pick up games, the alumni needs to get into these kids head, about the tradition and importance of never letting this happen again.
The interesting thing to me about fan sites is that most all the criticisms that emerge from them, justified as they sometimes are, conveniently remain disconnected from the reality of what a head coach and his staff have to do to deal with the team. Maybe that’s the luxury of distant criticism – you can have your cake and eat it too as far as not having to face and deal with the kids, and try to get everything figured out.
Thats’ why I try to put myself in the coaches’ shoes when I offer criticism, and think about what I would say to the players after each game and before the next. I don’t think we would want our coaches’ to be one tenth as negative and defeatist as the tone sometimes is around here. (And I know, a lot of is just venting.) Can you just hear Roy addressing the team and telling the guys that they have no heart and the recruiting was a big waste becasuse they don’t have what it takes.
So for all you that would discard so many recruits (conveniently after you’ve seen their odd and awkward performance this year…..where were you during the pre-season scouting process?) I would ask you to think what you would do if you were the coaches. Work with them. Teach them. Give them another year to develop.
OK. I’ve made my little speech, now carry on with the predominantly good work.
Also, my 2 cents worth is that if we have an NIT opportunity, we take it. It will be interesting to see how they approach this should it present itself.
I agree that maybe this article was a tad early, but make no mistake folks, this season is history. The BC game, to me, was the worst game of the season and that’s saying something. Yes, it was a road game, but playing at BC should never really strike fear into an opponent. BC is a crappy team, and they didn’t even play very well against us, yet we found a way to play even worse. To me that’s a sign that this team has pretty much given up on the season, so I can’t fault some fans doing the same.
I’m going to pull like hell for my Heels for the rest of the season, but I haven’t seen anything that makes me think we have more than 1-2 wins left (especially with the injuries).
If we do get an NIT bid, I say we take it. I assume that you can only practice if there are games left, like football? If so, these kids need as much practice as possible. Yes, this team should be ashamed that the NIT is all they can get, but not accepting the bid wouldn’t change the fact that the season has been a disappointment.
would the team even show up, mentally, to an NIT game? what if they lose their first game?
going back in time, and wondering what would happen this year, i think we just expected that the guys that were left would, at the very least, play with poise, play as confident defending champs, and play as guys that would step up into leadership by example, having worked on their games over the summer.
Marcus: if he played all year like he had prior to the ankle injury, scoring mostly double figures, 4 rebounds and 4 assists a game, shooting 47% from 3, we would have been fine with that.
Deon: basially, Deon still plays as if Tyler is under the basket with him. his game didnt improve in any way that i saw, and with a lesser PG, that became obvious. and he isnt a guy who battles except in small bursts.
Ed: if he made any improvements to his offensive game, i missed them. but he was not a negative, i dont think.
Zeller: my expectation was that he would spell Ed and be a pretty effective interior player, based on size, and the shooting touch we’ve seen. and i think he wouldve been. i was disappointed that prior to his foot injury, and against the pre-ACC opponents, he was only playing 16 min a game. shooting 53%FG and 72%FT, 1 turnover a game…why not more minutes?
LD2: we heard he went and worked on his shot with his Dad, and it looks like it IS better, but he either isnt using it, or isnt getting the looks he might get with a more dangerous backcourt partner. i still think he can be a pretty good player.
the Freshmen: i guess i thought Strickland would put the ball in the basket a little more than he has. and i thought Henson would get more minutes, and would shoot more from 8 to 12 feet. that was my expectation, anyway.
“Despite decent numbers on the stat sheet, Larry Drew has never really passed the sniff test as Carolina’s point guard.”
Name a single person on the team that has passed that test? … the managers do not count.
^Henson has been passing it. for 4 games. too bad he didnt break the 20 minute playing time mark til 4 games ago.
Since, we are 1-9 outside the state of North Carolina, I suppose it’s good news that are next five games will be at “home”.
I totally agree Doc, and I’ll go one further.
How is it that all the other teams got better and the Heels went into reverse? I remember at the beginning of those Ohio St, Mich St and Ky games the color guy would say something like “this team is young and talented, you want to play them now in December but watch out in March.” Right? The conventional wisdom at the beginning of the year was that the Heels upside was a lot bigger than most teams. That’s where the top ten pre-season ranking came from (that, and Roy Williams’ career .800 winning percentage). I second you: What happened in Charleston on Jan 4? Or was it getting physically dominated at Tx on Dec 19?
HTTE, unfortunately UNC has played 27 games and Henson’s potential is blocking one nasal.
As I stated in an earlier post;
What do you think kentucky’s record would be this year if roy had coached them. I’d bet they would have 5 or 6 more defeats because roy would have benched the freshmen.Cal let his players learn on the court and they will probably be a final four team with alot of freshmen players because of that.
I don’t think the problem is really that Roy didn’t play the freshmen enough. He played the freshmen plenty. I think the problem is that a large portion of the freshmen minutes were being played by the Wears and McDonald, instead of by Henson. Strickland has gotten 17 minutes a game, which doesn’t seem too bad, considering that he has started and been given chances and hasn’t made much of the opportunity yet.
The real head-scratcher is why did Williams refused to play Henson any more minutes than the Wears (until Davis and Travis got hurt). It was immediately apparent that Henson was bringing at least as much game as Davis had been and certainly much more than anybody else on the inside. Somebody should ask Williams point-blank, “Why weren’t you playing the kid, why?”
Henson and Zeller probably should have been getting thirty minutes a piece when Zeller was healthy and for some reason known only to Roy, the two of them were getting about 25 minutes a game between them at the time of Zeller’s injury. I am not saying that it would have made up for the incredible drop in offensive efficiency by Ginyard, but UNC might have three more victories if Roy had played Henson and Zeller more.
^That would be my question too, regarding Henson’s earlier-in-season PT. The only possible thing I can think of is that John really didn’t take off until he switched positions. He was so much more effective after that happened.
So let’s add them up, according to perceived additional wins for various situations:
- 4 to 5 more wins for 75% free throw shooting
- 2 to 3 wins for Henson and Zeller playing more
- 2 to 3 wins for not having so many injuries
Well, we’ll never know for sure.
^Could be, but that still doesn’t explain why Zeller was so underused when he was healthy.
^Couldn’t agree more. He was our most effective offensive player, on a per-minute basis (and continued to be in his first game back against BC), and a very adequate rebounder. I said before that it must have been the D, but in hindsight no one else has really played D much better.
I know the CofC loss is generally perceived as the turning point that started a downward spiral, but we won the game after that against Va. Tech by 14. Then Z went out. Who knows.
In CofC game, D.Wear got 2 pts. and 1 RB in 16 minutes. Zeller got 9 Pts. (on 50% shooting) and 5 RB (3 offensive) in 14 min. I know it’s not really fair to go back and pick out a game here and there to support a point but I just don’t get it.
^Yeah – I might have the wrong attitude here, but I always just assume that a Roy Williams team isn’t going to play lockdown defense (his teams at Kansas never did), so just give the most able scorers the most playing time.
^Especially since our biggest problem this year has been putting the ball in the basket. I know our D hasn’t been very good, and our effort and rebounding have been poor. However if we could have consistently shot a little better, especially during those many game changing runs, I think we’d have won a few more games.
“The real head-scratcher is why did Williams refused to play Henson any more minutes than the Wears (until Davis and Travis got hurt).”
In all seriousness, I believe it is because the Wears are Roy’s new pets. So in the past where fans have spent time complaining about Ginyard getting more minutes than Green or Strickland, you can expect the same thing to happen in the future with the Wears taking minutes from Henson and Zeller. We’ll all be back here next year scratching our heads and asking why.
I sort of understood about Melvin Scott and Jackie Manuel. They suffered a lot for the program and even though they weren’t my favorites, I understood why they played a fair amount in 2005. Bobby Frasor, after his first year, I just didn’t think he had the numbers, in the same way that Ginyard doesn’t this year.
It is strange to me, though, that when Williams has a really great team, like in 1997, maybe 2002, and then 2005 and 2009, they play really beautiful basketball, and yet, he seems to be always looking for a way to get one guy out there who just doesn’t belong, whether it is Jackie Manuel or Bobby Frasor or whoever the new ones might be.
As much as I love watching his teams at their best, I absolutely despise this pattern of playing guys whose numbers are terrible, with the claim that they “grade out the best.”
I also think a lot of these PT considerations and priorities simply have to do with trying to keep so many players happy. Quality depth is supposed to be considered a good thing, but I’m getting to where I’d almost rather have an 8 player rotation, with really good players, and forget about juggling so many minutes. It’s also a challenge to get much continuity and flow when you play 11 or more players, like it could have happened had everyone stayed healthy.
^I’m with you. For players to function effectively as a team they have to have a chance to learn each other tendencies on the court. That can’t happen if they don’t get a lot of playing time together with each other. Shorten the rotation and, as far as keeping players happy, well winning lots of games tends to take care of that.
^I guess this is more of the “natural selection” process in a normally good year, and I realize when your top players, and their chemistry, have been identified, then it sort of works itself out as far as shortened rotations.
We sort of thought that would happen this year once it became apparent who would play the best together. It’s just that no good combination ever surfaced.
The 1982 team played pretty much five guys….
how many times should Zeller and a Wear be interchangeable? is Z ever a 4?
obviously, it wasnt going to happen like i wanted it to, but i wanted to see Z sub for Ed, but also play alongside Ed. that wouldve meant less time for Deon, but we know that was never going to happen.
^It’s hard to tell what C/F combinations substitute, or go together, because they always seemed to be in flux due to injuries or experimentation.
Here are the number of players, playing more than 9 MPG, each year since Roy got here:
2004-7
2005-8
2006-9
2007-10
2008-9
2009-8 (I did not include Will or Marcus since they went out for the sesaon, although they both had more than 9 MPG when they went out)
2010-11
Miami sends VA to their 6th straight loss.
so, we are 1/2 game up on State, and a 1/2 game back of Miami.
we have FSU, Wake, Miami and Dook left.
State has Miami and VT on the road, BC at home.
incidentally, the 12th place ACC team misses out on the ACC/Big Ten Challenge next year.
Good post, LarryS. That 2007 team had monster talent.
I have to wonder what it has been like in practice since the BC loss. Roy disclosed in his post game remarks that he really believed they could win and that it would be the beginning of a run. He knew, as we all did, that a loss at BC could spell the inevitable. (not would, but could) Could Zeller’s return to the lineup on Saturday be symbolic of what is in store for the remainder of the season? To this point we have passed from icon to punchline. Frankly I’m tired of the ABC fans tracking me down to get their latest dig in. (I tolerate it because I know that they know how important Carolina is to big time college basketball, the same way Tiger is to golf) It was not predicted to be this way, yet we need to keep believing that it can end on a more promising note. I’ll bet that practice this week has been anything but learning how to accept a losing season. On the contrary, I suspect the focus has been optimistic. This team knows they are getting better. They know the loss on Saturday could have easily been a win. In fact, I will go out on a limb and bet you that this team feels they are better in their halfcourt offense than last year’s team, but only because last year we scored so early we never had to settle into a half court set. No…….this year’s team is not playing the kind of basketball we saw last year, but I have to believe they want to. I have to believe that practice has been about finding a way to win Wednesday night against FS and starting that “run”. Maybe Roy has remembered the George Constanza theory of opposites: “If everything you’re doing is wrong then the opposite must be right”. Maybe we will see Roy separate from tradition, be his own man, and call a timeout to disrupt the flow of an opponent’s offense. Maybe we will see “blocking out” take on a whole new meaning. Maybe we’ll see players sprinting back on defense. Maybe we’ll see an air of confidence once again. Maybe we’ll see a season play out the way it did for State in 83.
Let’s not forget that strange things can happen in college basketball. In any sport for that matter. It’s not as predictable as some may think it can be. After Whittenburg’s injury in January of 83 it was a seesaw season for the Pack. State needed to win the ACCT to earn a birth to the NCAA’s. Many of you remember what happened. That team won its’ last seven games when trailing in the last minute. Five of those wins were over teams that were ranked #1 at some point in the season. The final game of the ACCT was a win over Ralph Sampson’s Virginia. Some of us remember staying up late in the first round of the NCAA’s to see State take a 2-OT win over Pepperdine out in Oregon. How many thought it would end there? I didn’t become a believer until the win over UNLV, decided appropriately by only 1 point. Let’s be serious, not many thought that bunch from Raleigh had a snowball chance in hell of beating Houston in the final game to win a National Title. And I know of not a single soul who predicted it. There has not been a team with a heavier underdog label in the NCAA tournament final than State when they were matched against Houston.
One can choose to write this season off, but I am not. I am going to dream like Valvano in 83. And why do that?…..cause right now it’s more fun that just hoping Duke loses in the first round of the ACC and NCAA tournaments and if State can do it in 83 why not the Heels in 2010.
We can always look forward to Duke losing……now can’t we? That’s easy to do and while it’s not so easy to remain faithful right now, it’s faithful I will be.
Good for you Wilf…I’ll keep the faith with you. We can do what Uconn is doing…….I know we can.
Ummm…..who would look forward to playing the Heels in the ACCT if they finish the season with wins over Wake and Duke.
Yes…..I still think Duke will go down in Cameron.
Wilf –
Having played more than 25 games over four months, the team is not so new to us that we cannot draw conclusions. Doc did so. I have not seen any criticism of his observations that derives more from evidence than hope. And hope is fine, but it does not win basketball games nor change what we have seen this year.
To be a fan does not mean to wear rose colored glasses. Nor does it mean to glide past the team’s numerous and glaring deficiencies. To the contrary, it means to recognize those deficiencies and wish them success anyway.
“To the contrary, it means to recognize those deficiencies and wish them success anyway.”
Which is what I have done. I just haven’t thrown dirt on the casket, I still believe something can be salvaged from this season.
Thanks Mo ;>)
Sheesh. I write three hopeful pieces and the blog is pollyanna-ish. I write one not-so-positive piece and it’s shoveling dirt on the casket. Tough room, I tell ya! (/Rodney Dangerfield)
For what it’s worth, I am still not without hope. UNC could still win its last five conference games and make the NCAAT – in fact, winning your last five with wins at Duke and Wake Forest is more impressive than when I suggested winning five out of seven with losses in those two games. As I mentioned in this piece, this is a team that at one point this season was capable of beating at least top-15 teams, so maybe that spark can be found again.
On the other hand, I haven’t seen any indication that this team is demonstrably better from game to game; in fact, regression may still be occurring. That’s why, from my chair, I declared the season over. But I will make this one bold prediction – UNC has one big game left in them. It may be at Duke, or at Wake, or in the ACCT, but they do have one more big win left in the tank.
^unfortunately, we only have 4 ACC games left. or are you adding an ACCT game?
how fun would it be to beat Dook over there again. that would make up for 5 or 6 losses for me. i could do some serious poking @ Dook fans over that one.
mathematically, its absolutely possible. but how good are we at math? if we win 6 straight, thats 20-13, 9-9, with wins over Wake, Duke, maybe a Clemson or FSU in the ACCT and one more vs a top 4 ACC team in the quarters.
Up until the BC game I still thought we had an outside shot at the NCAAT, mathematically, based on my belief that there is enough talent to beat these remaining teams (Duke would be the hardest) and get some momentum. We still had a very slim margin of error, but now the margin of error is zero.
I really thought we would beat BC in a close game because I thought Zeller would contribute some and Henson would keep rolling. I also thought someone would finally hit some outside shots we really needed because it was about time, a theory that is generally worthless because you have to have done it before to say it’s about time to do it again.
Well, that didn’t happen. Now I’m looking for other little signs from which to derive some “mo”. Zeller continuing to contribute. Maybe the little talks coach had with Drew and Strickland about defense will provide a spark. Their only hope is to beat some teams we might face in the ACCT, know it can be done, then win the ACCT. That’s pretty much it.
since this IS a post mortem thread…
Will’s FG% has quietly, or maybe not so quietly, dropped to 36.7. 37.8 from 3.
thats just not good when you need every point.
its weird to look at our NCAA stats and rankings.
LD2 is 14th in the COUNTRY in assists. but he’s 134th in A/T ratio.
we are 103rd in defensive FG%. not great, but, top 1/3.
but we are 271st out of 334 in Scoring Defense. with our very low foul numbers, and top 10% rebounding, that can only mean one thing…more possessions for the opponent because of turnovers.
and we dont even QUALIFY to get on the 3pt FG% list. we dont make enough to get on it. crazy.
we lost saturday with just 11 turnovers. so, we lose by a little if we keep TOs down, we lose by a lot if theyre up, because in both cases, we arent scoring.
over at IC, someone brought up a comparison to Pitt. they lost Blair, Fields and Young. they lost 68% of their scoring.
they shoot a hair worse than we do, from 2 and 3.
they rebound a hair less. they have 3 fewer TOs a game.
they play 2 sophs, 2-3 juniors, a senior, a couple freshmen.
players who got 5 ppg last year, are getting 12-16.
Dixon plays about the same length bench we do.
they just beat Villanova while shooting 35%, but got to the line a bunch and shot 76%. they beat WVU while shooting 44%, but got to the line 42 times!
so what does it all mean. heck if i know. but theyre 21-6 in the Big East, 3-1 against Top 5 opponents.
[...] the offense, stupid 2010 February 23 by heelsgeek THF has a post-mortem up about this season. Key line: “The team can’t shoot, can’t score, can’t defend, and [...]