As I mentioned in the recap, I was at the game last night which is always fun to get to the Dean Dome at least one time during the season. It also interesting to watch a game live because there are any number of things you notice in person that you do not see on TV simply because you cannot see the whole court at any given moment watching a broadcast. Some observations after the jump.
- They have completely redone the banners in the Smith Center. Before they had the banners denoting ACC and NCAA accomplishments as well as rankings basically going in chronological order around the top which means you eventually run out of room so they basically made new banners for everything, consolidated some and arranged them all in a more orderly fashion. The four NCAA Championship banner along with the much maligned Helms Championship banner are still positioned at the visitors end. The retired and honor jerseys still occupy the home end of the arena. To the right and left of the jerseys they have banners denoting the 1957 perfect season, NCAA Tournament success, NIT appearances and other accomplishments. Instead of an individual banners for every accomplishment they have consolidated things like Final Four appearances onto one banner with each year listed. The ACC regular season and tournament championship banners are hung above the side sections with the oldest ones on the side opposite the benches and the newest ones on the bench/scorer's table side. Overall it is much neater, much easier to see all of them and a very impressive illustration of how much success the program has had.
- Tyler Hansbrough talks to the referees a lot. Not in that whining or barking manner and not so much when play is happening but he talks to them before and after timeouts. At one point he was called for a foul and they then went to a TV timeout. Tyler stayed a few second on the floor to ask the ref about the call before heading to the huddle. Later on he was on the floor near the end of a timeout talking to a different referee, probably asking if that ref thought the room was spinning.
- Deon Thompson likes to clap his hands a lot with assuming one-on-one defensive position away from the basket. Unfortunately it did not help him keep his man in front of him.
- Carolina fans are a little fickle in that many people left as the game went below the eight minute mark and beyond.
- Ty Lawson is faster than he appears on television.
- Wayne Ellington has the smoothest stroke of any player I have ever seen. I am not sure how he does it but the ball looks more like it is floating towards the basket. Ellington also is capable of putting on some serious moves with the ball to get himself into scoring position.
- Watching Roy coach is extremely entertaining.
- Alex Stepheson reminds me of a cross between Warren Martin and Scott Williams. And he is a large.
- Greg Little is incredibly built in his chest and shoulders as one might imagine for a football player.