Best effort of the season
UNC coming off an eight day layoff and playing what can be considered a decent Boston College team in Chapel Hill one would expect (1) there would be a little rust and (2) the defense to still be working through some issues especially versus a player like Tyrese Rice. Needless to say we saw neither save for a four minute period midway through the first half on defense and four minutes in the second half on offense. UNC basically did it right on both ends of the floor and while it remains to be seen what they do from this point forward, it is possible this was the "sit up and take notice" game everyone has been expecting.
Starting with the defense, the intensity was exactly as it should be. Tar Heel players were active and playing in the jersey of the BC players. BC hits some tough threes and there were occasional breakdowns, especially during the period where Roy decided to pull the five players on the court but after that you saw discernible defensive pressure on the ball. Boston College was limited in running the flex offense in that the ball was not permitted much into that free throw area and Rice got limited penetration. BC spent many possessions burning huge chunks of clock because nothing was available on offense and eventually had to settle for a long jumper. From a statistical perspective BC shot 42% from the floor and only 29% from beyond the arc. UNC forced 17 TOs on 12 steals and outrebounded BC 44-28 including 31 defensive rebounds while surrendering only six BC offensive rebounds. And the defensive work on Rice was very good by Ty Lawson and Marcus Ginyard. Rice still got his average with 20 but he did so on 6-15 shooting, had everything contested and was forced into six turnovers versus only three assists.
On offense: Deon, Deon, Deon. Thompson finally showed up the way we all expected he would since this past summer. DT netted a career high 17 points on 8-10 shooting. And if that were not already impressive, Thompson also grabbed six boards, had four assists, three steals and a block. In other words he was doing it on both ends of the floor. The other huge game came from Ty Lawson who had 16 points and another 10 assist game, his second straight while committing zero turnovers. In the wins over Miami and BC, Lawson has record 20 assists and only one turnover. Filed under the "Quiet Games" column are double figure performances from Tyler Hansbrough(18 pts), Wayne Ellington(16 pts), and Marcus Ginyard(10 pts.) All three shot well from the floor and basically went about their offensive production in a fairly non-descript way with the exception being the 360 dunk from Hansbrough. The Heels ended up shoot 51% from the floor and scored 91 points despite 25% from three and missing more FTs than usual. Had it not been for that drought in the second half and some of the missed FTs, UNC would have easily cleared 100. As it stands, no biscuits for the folks at the Dean Dome.
A few more points:
- Where is Danny Green? Rough game for Green including a botched dunk attempt. Obviously he is in a bit of a funk and we can only hope he comes out soon.
- The nice thing about a blowout win is fewer minutes for the key players. No one was over 30 mins and Hansbrough sat with five mins left having played 29.
- Alex Stepheson had a solid effort grabbing 11 rebounds, five offensive in only 16 mins.
- This game marked the first appearance of the "Blue-White" move from Roy where he brings the five players on the floor to the bench and let's them know, in no uncertain terms, how crappy they have been playing. What usually happens is the five subs in the game play their rear ends off(check) and when the other five return they step it up a notch(check again)
- UNC now goes on the road to play FSU. It will be huge for the Heels to go to Tallahassee and handle the Noles much the same way they did BC and Miami to get ready for Duke.