Hailey starts out by saying that last season when Marcus Ginyard got injured it was a benefit to UNC since it allowed the more offensive minded Danny Green on the court and UNC would be better off having another weapon on the floor. I won’t argue with that too much.  On one hand, yes UNC was near impossible to stop when everyone was hitting.  On the other hand, UNC got lit up by players Ginyard might have been able to stop the likes of  Greivis Vasquez and Jeff Teague. At the end of the day UNC figured out how to play defense when it counted so you can argue that Ginyard was not really missed.  Then Hailey drives the bus right off the cliff.

So here we are a year later and Ginyard is back.  The senior is a tremendous leader off the court, but he has always been touted as a defensive stopper.  Well six games into the season I still don’t see it.

With only four games against true competition the opposing players top perimeter player has gone off against the Tar Heels.  Brandon Wood of Valpo went for 30, Evan Turner of Ohio State 23 points, Wesley Johnson had 25 for Syracuse, and here is the capper, little Grayson Flittner who came in averaging just 7 points per game went for 32 and tied the Smith Center record with nine three pointers.  These are not the kind of performances you would expect against a fifth year senior defensive stopper.

Well first of all, it has only been six games which is a really difficult point to drop an opinion like this. And mind you it is all opinion because things like box scores and numbers often get in the way of a good rabble rousing. Haily points to four players who had pretty good scoring nights against the Heels and uses just their point totals as evidence against Ginyard’s individual defense.

Brandon Wood, Valpo, 30 points:  It is true Ginyard and the rest of the Tar Heels let off the gas in this game, were not focused and as a result Roy Williams chewed out Ginyard after the game.  So for this one you can say Ginyard(and his teammates) did not do a great job but one game is hardly worth trashing Ginyard’s defense.

Evan Turner, OSU, 23 points: Read the rest of the stat line Josh. It also says 10 turnovers next to Turner’s name.  Ginyard’s defense was so good Luke Winn, who actually watches games and you know, reads box scores, wrote about it in-depth.

Wesley Johnson, Syracuse, 25 points: Wesley Johnson is listed as a forward and is 6-7. I am not sure Ginyard was even assigned to Johnson though it is possible.  I was not paying much attention to the matchups especially when I started having Kansas Game flashbacks. I do know watching the highlight video on ESPN.com Johnson scores seven points with someone else guarding him besides Ginyard. So without further evidence I am not sure you can hang Johnson’s performance on Ginyard.

Grayson Flittner, Gardner-Webb, 32 points: Yeah, I actually think Ginyard did all he could.  When a player is pulling up from Efland and shooting then that is tough to defend.  Also, Roy Williams said in his press conference than Flittner ended up getting open on two occasions because Ed Davis screwed up. There were other times when someone had a hand in the guy’s face and still others where he just pulled up from some ridiculous distance which is impossible to guard.  Then there is the issue of Ginyard doing what a veteran defensive specialist does: rotating off his man in help defense which ends up leaving the guy open.  Was that a mistake? Depending on how you look at it.  Ginyard was basically doing what he has done for four years and when a team gets penetration(someone else’s fault) and Ginyard rotates over to help leaving Flittner open then pray tell what do you expect him to do?

You can say that all the points haven’t been on him, but a lot of them have.  And if you’re the best defender on the team you move onto the hot hand even if he is lighting someone else up.  There have been plenty of times that he has played well, but he is still not a complete player.

No, I can’t say a lot of the points have been on Ginyard because I don’t have access to the defensive grading Roy uses. In fact you know what might have been a better idea? Having someone ask Roy about Ginyard’s defense and how he has rated out against the four individuals you mentioned before going of half cocked, writing this kind of garbage in a public forum and making people dumber for having read it.

The liability that he is on offense will make it tough on the inside bigs trying to score as the season moves along.  As important as guard play is in the college game, there isn’t a whole lot of room on the court for wings who can’t shoot.

Let’s see what those pesky stats say again. So far this season Ginyard is averaging 11.7 ppg, 4.2 apg, 3.3 rpg, 2.0 spg. Ginyard is also shooting 47% from three point range, 60% overall and 88% from the foul line. His points per shot is 1.56 which is 3rd best on the team behind Ed Davis and Tyler Zeller. During the two games in New York, Ginyard had excellent offensive games. Against OSU Ginyard scored 13 points and hit 3-5 three pointers. He followed that up with a 15 point performance versus Syracuse. Last night versus Gardner Webb, Ginyard scored eight points and dished out six assists which is at least 20 points he had a hand in creating. The only complaint thus far about Ginyard on the offensive end is his turnovers which is not bad enough to declare him an offensive liability.

For North Carolina to have any chance in March they will have to get more out of Ginyard on both ends of the court, because he will most certainly be out there for his leadership.

Ya think, Dinozzo? For my money I think Ginyard has played up to expectations, maybe even beyond them.  He is in great physical shape, is leaner than he was at any point in career. Ginyard has shown some aggressiveness on the offensive end as well as some explosiveness going to the basket. Time will tell whether his three point shooting stays at a fairly high level though if he settles in the 40% range that is still great.  Implying that he is an overrated defender and liability on offense is short sighted at best and journalistic malfeasance at worse based on the evidence. At this point I am not sure how Ginyard’s season will go but I do know there is nothing I have seen so far to make me think he is playing worse than we thought he would.

Lawson didn’t just display a resilience (which was not questioned solely by me, but by others within the Tar Heels program as well). He also showed why he was the ACC Player of the Year and the key to North Carolina’s title hopes.

First of all, do share who these individuals are and please tell us if they had these misgivings this season or last.  Secondly, there is a huge difference between folks inside the program having these questions and some blowhard internet writer take shots as a college basketball player.  Coaches and players on the Tar Heel team have all of the relevant information on his situation.  Besides that, they also know Lawson better than Goodman does and can speak in depth to the situation. Goodman cannot.

I would also point out that Goodman did not simply question Lawson’s toughness.  He did not simply express misgivings about Lawson’s ability to handle pain or his willingness to play with pain.  Goodman questioned his commitment while making Lawson out to be some primadonna drama king. He made comparisons to Tyler Hansbrough and made it sound as though Lawson was sitting out with a hangnail when the injury was much worse.  All of this after Lawson played with the toe numbed versus Duke because he wanted to send his senior teammates out right.

Goodman should have apologized for his comment.  Instead he is standing by it.  I imagine that comes with a price.  I imagine he will find those “others withing the Tar Heel program” not returning his calls the next time he goes trolling for inside information on the program.  Hope it was worth it for you Jeff.

What do you think about the people that are saying that you can’t play with an injury, and the toe injury is similar to a hang nail?

“If anybody says that, I played the Duke game with almost a broke foot right after I hurt it. So anybody that says that, I feel like is retarded.”

I don’t know if I would have gone for the probably non-PC use of the word “retarded” there. “Idiotic” would have worked better. “Has his head so far up his anus he can see his own small intestines” would have been colorful and brought chuckles from the reporters. Anyway, Lawson thinks he is going to be ready for Saturday.  Roy Williams? Still playing this very close to the vest.

“If he’s able to practice [Friday] and do some things in practice, I’ll probably play him,” Williams said. “But if he’s like he was [Wednesday], then I’m not going to play him.”

As I said when I ripped Goodman, everyone is assuming Lawson is making this decision by himself, that he has been cleared to play and Roy is ready to go but Lawson is sitting out. That is not the case unless you are willing to say that Lawson is being a wimp about the toe in practice thus leading Roy to decided not play him. I don’t think that is the case. Based on all the reports I have heard Lawson could not shoot full jumpers on Wednesday but he was doing so on Thursday.  Lawson also indicated it felt better doing layups prior to the Radford game and he is able to walk normally now.  I think he is ready to go but at this point he needs to show Roy that so he can get back on the court.  As for Goodman, maybe he can go to Miami and write a similar scathing piece on how Wake Forest’s Jeff Teague is a complete head case.

Basically Jeff Goodman over at Fox Sports declares that Ty Lawson is lacking courage by not playing on Thursday. He are some of the choice sections.

The drama surrounding Ty Lawson is getting old.

You really think Tyler Hansbrough would be sitting out an NCAA tournament game with a sprained big toe?

Not a chance.

But North Carolina’s speedy point guard isn’t Hansbrough. He’s an enigma and a major point of frustration for the entire Tar Heels team — even though you’ll never hear Tar Heels coach Roy Williams or any of Lawson’s teammates admit it.

–

Lawson injured the big digit on his foot in practice last week when teammate Mike Copeland fell awkwardly and Lawson ended up jamming his foot on the support underneath the basket.

“I felt bad,” Copeland said.

He shouldn’t because for most guys this would be a nonstory.

But Lawson, well, that’s different.

I hate questioning a player’s threshold for pain, but remember, this is the same guy who sat out three weeks and six games last season with an ankle injury which teammates privately questioned whether he was milking.

Lawson wants to be 100 percent before he gets back on the court.

But this is lose and go home. There aren’t any more chances if the Tar Heels don’t win.

It’s fine to sit out the ACC tournament as he did this past weekend in an effort to get back as close to 100 percent as possible.

But sitting out the Big Dance?

If I were Lawson, I’d run for my life from Hansbrough if the Tar Heels get knocked off while he sits on the bench as an observer.

My guess is he’s still fast enough to get away — even with that sore toe.

Goodman does not know what he is talking about.  He rolls into Greensboro, takes in a few interviews, makes a few observations then write this certifiable tripe. This is a cheap shot.  Yes, I will be the first to tell you that last season there were questions of whether Lawson say out too long with the ankle injury. With this I think the situation is different.  The reason I think that is because Lawson played against Duke.  In fact he played by taking the unusual and now revealed dangerous route of having a pain killing injection in the toe just so he could even be 90%.  Was Goodman around after the Duke game to ask him why he did it?  Probably not but since had he been, he would not have written this garbage.  Lawson said he played because Roy Williams asked the underclassmen to get it done for the seniors on their day so he answered the bell.  He did it because beating Duke meant something in the rivalry sense and everything in terms of taking the ACC Regular Season outright.  And if Goodman was paying attention he would know that the decision to play in that game created the situation today.

According to Lawson, playing against Duke made the toe “100 times worse.”  In reflection Lawson now says the better move would have been to sit against Duke.  In his estimation had he done that, he would be 100% by now. That being said, had Lawson opted to sit against Duke and two games into the ACC Tournament Goodman or someone else would have written something like this last week instead of now.  Goodman says he hates to question a player’s threshold for pain then he shouldn’t because (1) he has no idea how the toe feels and (2) he, like everyone else in the media, have been telling us every day since the injury that UNC cannot win a national title without Lawson at 100%.  In that respect not only is Goodman a cheap shot opportunist but he also is dabbling in a major contradiction if he thinks it is wise for Lawson to come back in a game UNC can win without him if it means risking further injury.

Lastly, if Goodman had spent any time examining the things Lawson has said versus what Roy Williams has said, he would realize that the caution in bringing the junior point guard back resides mostly in the coaches’ corner and not Lawson’s.  On Saturday, Lawson said he thought he would be ready.  On Wednesday afternoon, he thought he could be ready and be a gametime decision.  If Lawson does not play versus Radford, he has already said he thinks he will be able to play in the 2nd round.  I am not sure you can ask much more from him at this point. Lawson wants to play but the decision is not his alone.  That and the fact the Heels should be able to handle a #16 seed is reason enough for me to afford as much caution as possible. That is the point Goodman seems to miss.  No one has ever suggested Lawson sit in a game UNC could lose but one they have a 96% chance to win?  Seems like a good idea to me, Roy Williams and most everyone else. Better part of valor and all of that. Why Goodman cannot get a clue is a genuine mystery but at least now he will be a cult hero among the ABCers and major morons on the message boards.

Eddy Landreth dropped a scathing column in the Chapel Hill News during which he hit every Roy Williams hot button issue there has been in the past five year except Stickergate which I am sure he would have gotten to had his editor not cut him off.

“The best team won today,” Williams said in a brief statement afterward. “The toughest team, the smartest team, the best-coached team. That’s all I have to say.”

There is also, no doubt, a good reason why Maryland stayed in the game for a long period of time with one player scoring all its points against a team of “kids” destined to make millions playing pro basketball someday who failed to find a way to guard him.

Of course, we know defensive whiz Marcus Ginyard is sitting out the season as a redshirt because of an injury, so that naturally explains why the rest of a team filled with seniors (who played far superior defense as freshmen) and juniors consistently watches its opponents shoot 50 and 60 percent from the field. The others simply cannot play defense.

“It’s the ACC, folks,” Williams said recently. “North Carolina cannot shut people out.”

Ah, this is true, but is it too much to ask for just a little defense?

Then there is the whole issue of timeouts. Williams did not call a timeout from the time UNC extended the lead to nine until the margin had dissipated to two points and just 37 seconds remained. By then the building had become a sizzling inferno, and Maryland had seized every ounce of momentum.

Maybe college basketball coaches can cash in their unused timeouts the same as Marriott points when they retire, which will extend Williams’ stay in Hawaii once he retires to the islands and no longer has to listen to ignorant sports writers and fans question his team or his decisions.

You will just have to pardon this dumb sports writer for thinking back to the 2005 national championship game against Illinois, when the Illini staged a furious comeback in the final moments before what was basically a home crowd in St. Louis. Williams courageously dared to call one of those prized timeouts before it was too late to calm his team and guided it to the title that he wanted more in his little finger than any fan could ever dream of.

Hey, who knows? Williams is not big on having to explain his reasoning to the ignorant masses and sports writers, especially if the questions arise on that radio show he has to do for several hundred grand every Monday night.

Dadgumit, who can blame him? He has to sit and listen to a bunch of stupid people who have the audacity to love his team and his school and want to ask the coach a few questions. What a degrading experience.

The possibility that some of them are trying to find a little joy in a life otherwise burdened by being laid off from their jobs and maybe having their mortgages foreclosed should not factor into a guy getting better than $1.7 million to coach a game for a living having to answer their stupid questions, such as “Coach, why didn’t you call another timeout before the lead evaporated to two and your team was stumbling over its feet like a team of 5- and 6-year-olds?”

But then again, what do any of us know? Whether we type words for newspapers and the Internet, we’re just part of the ignorant masses. Williams and his team will surely work it out, and we’ll all just have abandoned ship too early once again, as he likes to say.

Let me say upfront this comes off as petty, whiny and generally like a temper tantrum from a member of the media who is acting like Roy urinated in his cereal bowl this morning.  Seriously, this is the alleged high standard of journalism bloggers supposedly do not approach?  At THF, we have discussed at length Roy’s penchant for hoarding timeouts(Dean did the same thing, funny how Eddy forgets that).  We have hashed out the defensive issues as well as the recent stumbles in answering questions from fans and the press.

You know what?

At no point in either what I have written or in the majority of the comments written has anyone on this blog presented the shrill, woe is me, hold my breath, stomp my feet, bile spitting rant Landreth presents here.  I don’t say that to toot my horn as much as to commend the THF community for approaching the issues with respect, common sense and without resorting to the abject negativity of the message boards.  This worthless screed by Landreth is message board fodder because it fits perfectly in with the kinds of rants that have been seen on Inside Carolina lately. At THF, the content is much more circumspect which is credit to all of you out there for driving the discussion that way and being focused on the relevant information.

Along those lines it should be pointed out that if your intention is to write about the Heels’ struggles on defense why on earth are you yammering on about the failure to call timeouts in certain situations or dragging up the call-in show gaffes?  This is like having an argument with your spouse and instead of focusing on the topic at hand, one or the other starts dragging up past indiscretions for the sole intent of scoring points in a fight.  This is no different.  Landreth is not writing a column to talk about the Heels defensive woes.  Landreth is writing an attack column meant to land zingers and garner him “hey, right on Eddy” emails in his inbox.

This kind of garbage is neither constructive nor should be it considered journalism.  While some might say I do not criticize the coaches and players enough, I would like to think it is because I am careful to make sure such criticisms are constructive as well as being couched with relevant facts.  The comments section seems to validate that.  I also believe that if I ever wrote anything like the above piece I would be lambasted as just another stupid blogger who does not know anything.  Funny how an objective journalist can do it just fine.  The Old Media Guard says that bloggers like myself do not have the training and journalistic standards/integrity required to be taken seriously.  If this column is any indication, I am not sure Eddy Landreth does either.

And one more thing. Off you go Eddy. Say hi to Heather for me.

Before I delve into what happened last night at the game I feel it necessary to address what happened last night on this blog.  THF has been in operation for nearly three years and during that time I have never once set forth anything in the way of ground rules about how folks should behave?  There were a few reasons for that.  The first is keeping standards vague makes running a benevolent dictarship easier since there are no pesky loopholes and I don’t have to explain myself should I decide to crush the life out of your online presence here at THF.  Secondly and probably more importantly, it has never been necessary.  I have built THF on the premise that civilized and intelligent UNC fans can have a discussion in an online forum without resorting to message board level baiting and meltdowns.  It would appear last night I was somewhat mistaken in that premise.  Some of that is the frustration over the loss and some of it has to do with the fact there are people who do make positive contributions but also let the worst demons of their nature to take control of their keyboard when the Heels are losing a tough road game. It happens.  And I accept full responsibility on my part for allowing certain comments to filter through on the liveblog which I probably should have left unapproved. That is on me and I will endeavor to do better.  As for the rest of it.  Well I did ban someone for the first time in the history of this site and did so because that individual decided to attack other commenters and then called me out.  Again, it happens.  I would rather not do it but there is only so much I am willing to put up with given this is a side venture for me and I have bigger fish to fry most of the time.  All of that being said, allow me to deal with three specific issues.

1. Attacking other readers of the site is not permitted.

You guys can disagree with one another all you want.  You can disagree with me all you want.  If you make the mistake Ty Lawson keeps making and turn it into something personal then you will be warned to stop and then if you persist I will remove your account.  I actually do not expect this to be an issue since most everyone has been on good behavior during the course of this site’s existence.  In terms of how this work on liveblogs, I will not approve comments that are in this vein.

2. Attacking the players and coaches in an overtly negative or insulting manner will not be tolerated.

During the liveblog there were comments like:

DEON THOMPSON IS GARBAGE

I am not sure if this came from an actual UNC fan or a rival fan base’s troll.  With the liveblog the same registration system that guards the blog comments is not in play.  I have to approve every comment made and that is the nature of some of the stuff I was seeing.  The reason this kind of stuff cannot stand is unless you are a former NBA player you have no room or even so much as an ounce of skill enough to call a Division I scholarship player at one of greatest programs in college basketball “garbage.”  Yes, he might be playing badly or soft or not in control of his body but the last I checked he still was wearing the words NORTH CAROLINA on his uniform, he still works his rear end of trying to win games for the Tar Heels and to quote Gene Hackman from Hoosiers, “That kind of sacrifice and commitment deserves your respect.”  It is easy to sit behind a keyboard and anonymously flail at another individual and a tad cowardly to do so in the manner I saw last night.  There are legitimate criticisms to be made.  There are real technical parts of the way any player plays that can be discussed at length and some of it involves their failure on the court.  However insulting players or talking about them “sucking” is not kosher on this site unless you are referring to Duke players.

3. Try to remain calm and if you cannot step away from the keyboard.

I know this is difficult and some of that is the fact people react differently to these games.  I know Tar Heel Wife chastises me for yelling at the TV and being loud enough to wake the kids during late games.  The worst time to starting allowing a thought stream to flow onto your computer screen via your keyboard is if you are really pissed off.  That is why my postgame write-ups do not necessarily come as soon as the game is over or if they do I follow-up the next day when I have had time to think about it and post something well thought out and coherent.  If you are hopping mad about something and cannot trust what you write to be rational or full of negativity then take some time to cool off then post your comments.  The site is not going anywhere.

Here is my bottom line so to speak.

When posting on the internet one must always bear in mind that if you are unwilling to say something to somebody’s face you probably ought to rethink putting it out there.  Now I probably violate this guideline some myself but not so much in the respect that I drop personal insults but on very rare occassion.  I have always been of the mind that if you cannot make an argument without dropping an insult then you point is worthless to begin with and even if it is not, it is negated by your approach. I believe people can disagree, discuss and generally hash out any issue while being civilized at the same time.

Secondly, if you have read THF long enough you know what this blog is about in terms of temperament.  It is clear that I take a vested interest in making this blog as credible as any news organization.  It is my intention for the content and discussion to be ground in facts and logic not given so much to the reactionary nature seen on the message board.  I would very much like this blog to be a legitimate outlet to discuss UNC football and basketball without all of the extra noise you get on message boards. In that respect maybe I am limiting myself or my readership by being so reasonable when most fan sites are given to cheap shots at rivals or seat of your pants analysis that misses key facts.  From where I sit there is a battle being fought between the old and new media.  The Old Guard believes bloggers are unaccountable, untrained and generally chaotic with what they are willing to publish.  Blogs have been demonized in large part as being cesspools where anything goes and no real analysis or legitimate opinion goes on.  I started THF on the premise that the Old Guard is wrong and THF can be a well thought out, very reasonable fan site that is grounded with an “objective bias” i.e. I am biased towards UNC but not to the point I will ever be intellectually dishonest.

Let me also say I understand that what makes this site successful is the numbers on the hit counter and also the high level of discussion people engage in the comments section.  It is my goal for this site to grow in numbers but keep the content and interation above the fray so to speak.  Any help in achieving this goal would be greatly appreciated.

Let me state up front this is against my better judgment to acknowledge these comments but 850 the Buzz has video from ESPN’s morning show First Take in which Dana Jacobson askes Jalen Rose and Skip Bayless about UNC having the starters in up 36(Jacobson actually says 38 and feel free to insert your own Dana Jacobson drunk joke here.)  Jalen Rose is shocked!  SHOCKED that UNC would be so classless and Skip Bayless is just incredulous over the whole thing to the point that he is now hoping for a Washington State upset on Thursday since this kind of behavior is “beneath Roy Williams’ diginity” which is a pretty funny statement since I am not entirely sure Bayless would know dignity if it fell in his lap.

Rose also had issues with Danny Green’s dancing(which was very subdued on Sunday) because if someone from Michigan had done something like that we all know it would be a problem.  Apparently Rose does not speak much with Doug Gottlieb who raised six kinds of hell about Danny Green’s dancing. This led to Roy snubbing Gottlieb on an interview and now poor Dougie has a vendetta against the Heels in every on air comment he makes. Anyway, I really only have one thing to say to Jalen Rose, member of the 1993 NCAA runner-up team(vacated).

Scoreboard.

As for Bayless, I like the comment Red and White’s Alpha Wolf had on 850′s post:

Skip Bayless is a jack*** on the level that Gregg Doyel hopes to one day reach. If there is any personality on the Four Letter Network with less reason and insight than him, I can’t think of it. He’s the equivalent of a radio shock jock with a mouth his talent cannot cash.

That about sums it up.  It is really amazing that ESPN has so many of these guys on their payroll.  Can you imagine what the office Christmas party is like when you get Gottlieb, Bayless, Colin Cowherd, Stephen A. Smith, and a few of the other obnoxious talking heads in the same room with a free flow of alcohol?  I think there is a good chance one of them might offend a religious group or something…but I digress.

For the record, Roy has said there is never a set method for pulling starters or how many minutes the starters play.  He says he makes substitutions based on the flow of the game.  In this case Hansbrough had the most minutes among the starters with 31 followed  by Marcus Ginyard with 28, Wayne Ellington with 25, Ty Lawson with 24 and Deon Thompson with 21.  I am not sure what Rose or Bayless would have Roy do here.  This is the NCAA Tournament and maintaining an edge is important.  At this point in the season, practices are minimized for the sake of making sure the players can give a full effort in the game and guess what, this was a game and having the guys play just 20 minutes while the scrubs played would probably have been less beneficial.  And don’t talk to me about injuries.  Ty Lawson was hurt twice in the opening minutes of games this season.  Injuries can happen at any time so whether it is three minutes left of 33 minutes left the risk is the same in my opinion.  At this point in the season teams need to show up, Arkansas failed to do that and they got crushed in the first ten minutes.  After that is was basically a live game practice and UNC played the Hawgs even in the 2nd half mainly because they went on cruise control defensively. In the end UNC completely dominated the game without expending all that much effort which probably says more about the way Arkansas approached the game than it does UNC.

As I said, I probably should have left it alone, but than again it is fun to call out idiots when they act this way in hopes that perhaps someone will get the message and show them the door.

Sean doesn’t have any real-life issues,” Lucas says. “There are other guys I’ve had here who have had real-life issues. He doesn’t. His issue is, he just wants to smoke some weed sometime — and you can’t. We’re learning how to handle life issues without smoking weed to medicate. I would venture to say, he hasn’t smoked any more weed than a lot of the other guys who are going to get drafted. The difference is, he got caught. Now, the question is, do you have an addiction? That’s another issue. If it’s worth it to you, if you have to have it, then you have an addiction, because look at what you’ve lost. If it’s not worth it to you, then we’re on our way. And I think he’s more than on his way.

I really liked Giglio’s response:

Not sure where to start here, how about with: “He just wants to smoke weed sometime.

Nice.  I actually would go from there to: “I would venture to say, he hasn’t smoked any more weed than a lot of the other guys who are going to get drafted.  The difference is, he got caught.”

How do you know that considering Williams was a repeat offender?  There are two sides to that statement.  You are either implying on one hand that Williams smoke very little weed and there is a rampant low level use of weed among the first round draft picks or the Williams smokes a lot of weed and so does everyone else.  At any rate Lucas is playing games with moral equivalence and declaring that Williams pot smoking was not bad in and of itself because everyone is doing it.  The implication is that Williams pot smoking is bad only because he was caught and ultimately kicked off the team at BC. I think the statement is grossly irresponsible on so many levels from accusing most of the draft picks to smoking weed to establishing that it is not really wrong if everyone is doing it to forwarding the idea that is only actually wrong if you get caught.

Nice example you are setting for the more impressionable eyes that read that statement, John.

Seems to me Roy Williams is always a couple minutes too late on his time outs and can’t seem to get any of his teams to execute down the stretch. His only NC team with UNC could run the half court but they weren’t his recruits. Roy is a great recruiter, and I don’t see even with respect to Georgetown’s D that UNC, with Lawson and Hansborough, can go that cold for over so long. It is amazing and no doubt falls on the coach. This isn’t the first game this year that UNC had a decent lead then lost to a team that toughened up and got the game close.

The reason this strikes me as odd is that it raises the whole “Roy did not win a national title with his own recruits” meme which is often repeated by ABCers and Roy critics in general. And like those folks this person also believes that Roy is a good recruiter. And that is logically inconsistent. Let’s take each statement one at a time:

Seems to me Roy Williams is always a couple minutes too late on his time outs and can’t seem to get any of his teams to execute down the stretch.

You actually get no argument from me on the first part. I have been fairly clear that I thought Roy should have called the timeout a possession sooner. However I take issue with the idea that his teams cannot execute down the stretch. This is a young team and execution in the clutch is often something that comes with experience. As for myself, I have trouble faulting Roy for his players failing to make plays. And I suppose the flip side of that implication is that John Thompson III should get credit since his players because hit the shots that rallied them to tie the game.

His only NC team with UNC could run the half court but they weren’t his recruits

What does one have to do with other here? The implication of this sentence is that Roy does not recruit players who can execute in the half court. Am I wrong or is that the logical conclusion? That being said the usual meaning behind this classic argument is that the coach is really not a good game coach he just inherited a crop of good players who could overcome his bad coaching. Of course in this case Roy had this team for two full seasons. The players bought into Roy’s system by the time the 2005 season was in full swing and if anyone wants to argue that this team with there disparate personalities could be placed on autopilot and win a title they are a bigger fool than this guy here. Execution in the half court does have something to do with experience and also the shots falling which they were not for UNC.

Roy is a great recruiter, and I don’t see even with respect to Georgetown’s D that UNC, with Lawson and Hansborough, can go that cold for over so long. It is amazing and no doubt falls on the coach.

Contradiction! If Roy is a great recruiter then it sort of blows the “he won with another person’s recruits” out of the water since the caliber of the players he would bring in would be the same as the ones he inherited. As for Lawson and Hansbrough (notice this guy could not even bother to spell Tyler’s name right) since when did them making or missing shots fall on the coach? I can see where, in respect to the Hoya defense, it seems like UNC should have made a few shots but that in itself proves Roy was not totally at fault. Honestly how do you go from players missing shots to it being the coaches’ fault? That takes a huge leap of logic and a complete failure in understanding how the game works. Roy can draw up plays until he is blue in the face, scream at them from the bench, call all his timeouts, and do any number of things people who are not basketball coaches thinks he should do but the one thing he cannot do is shoot and make the shots for the players. Believe it or not the players are still on the hook to make the plays the same way Georgetown did when placed in the clutch situation. And just like it is not Roy’s fault the players went cold, it is not Thompson’s credit that Hoya players hit the shots they hit.

This isn’t the first game this year that UNC had a decent lead then lost to a team that toughened up and got the game close.

No it is not. And this is what happens with young team’s who lose focus. If you noticed the two teams it happened against in the regular season were experienced with veteran players. It was a simple matter of not making plays down the stretch. And while coaching plays some part in that so does players hitting shots which players do much better the more games they play.

So in review, Roy made some mistakes but the fault of the collapse against Georgetown lies with the players missing shots and playing porous defense. Roy having someone else’s players or his own has nothing to do with him winning the national title in 2005. It was his second season which those players which means they were his players and since Roy is a great recruiter then you can safely assume he can bring in the players of equal caliber.

In other words people really should think before they type.

Has anyone enjoyed the kind of media hype to the point people abandon all common sense when it comes to voting for postseason awards?  Never mind, I know the answer to that, I watched J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams play for Duke.