UNC 86, BYU 50
Game Summary:
What a difference few days make. Carolina continued their west coast trip by leaving the bad memories of Santa Clara behind in Oakland and moving on to the Maui Invitational in Hawaii. The tourney consists of 8 teams with games spread over three days. UNC started off by playing BYU. The game was never close.
This is exactly how I expected them to play against Santa Clara, but obviously they didn't. The big difference is this time, Ray Felton was in the lineup. Unfortunately, I missed the first three minutes of the game due to the Duke/Davidson game running over. At least I got a peak at Duke and they don't look nearly as strong as they did last year. They'll still be a threat, but I digress.
UNC broke out to an early lead and never let it go. We finally got to see the new and improved defense everyone had been talking about during the preseason. Get this: Carolina only allowed 3 points for the first 9 minutes of the game! The score was 22-3 at the 12 minute mark in the first half. The defense was tenacious and the transition offense was in full effect. Heck, even Sean May was leading a couple of early breaks.
I don't know why last year's team showed up to play against Santa Clara, but the team that beat BYU justifies a top 5 ranking (at some point). Overall, it was an excellent game with little to critique. The big question is whether we can keep it up for two more games and win the tourney. Tomorrow night we play the winner of the Stanford/Tennessee game.
Game Breakdown:
Who: BYU
Where: Maui, Hawaii
Viewing method: ESPN2
Starters:
Ray Felton - Oh, it was good to have him back. Things just run much smoother when Ray is running the show. He missed a few shots early on, but drained two 3's later in the first half. If we can get his scoring average in double figures, there is no other point guard that can come close to him (yeah, that includes Mr. Paul). There are few in the business that can run the transition like Felton. He pushed the ball hard and UNC got a bunch of transition buckets as a result.
Sean May - May gets my player of the game award. He was all over the place: snagging rebounds, catching bad passes, and even running in transition. He had a breakaway dunk in the first half. Great stuff. And unlike the Santa Clara game (and most of last year), most of the short shots were going in tonight. He ended up with 18 points.
Rashad McCants - Rashad didn't have a high scoring game (13 points), but overall he played unselfish and worked hard on D. He drained a 3 pointer in the first half from like 24 feet out (way beyond even NBA line). He also had a great post up and turnaround hook. We need to get Rashad down low against his man more often. Anytime he does that, it never fails, one of the announcers will talk about how he is one of the most dominant offensive players in the country (this time it was Bilas that said it).
Jawad Williams - Much better performance from Jawad compared to the Santa Clara game. He played good D and shot well.
Jackie Manuel - Had a pretty quiet game. I'm sorry, but I still cringe every time I see Jackie take an outside shot. So far he is making more from outside than in previous years, but I still don't think we want him shooting on a regular basis.
Reserves:
Marvin Williams - Didn't make a lot of field goals tonight, but he was perfect from the free throw line! He was 1-4 from the floor and 6-6 from the line. Always a good sign if a big man can hit free throws. He also played good scrappy defense.
Melvin Scott - Made two 3's in the first half. His stroke looked good. Much better performance than against Santa Clara. This is exactly what we need from Melvin: good quality minutes off the bench.
David Noel - I was happy to see more of Noel tonight. I wouldn't say he had his best game, but it is hard not to like him in the lineup. He did have a nice dunk and ended up with 7 points.
Quentin Thomas - Sub'd in for Felton during the first half quite a bit. Solid play.
Wes Miller - Sub'd in during the second half and got quite a bit of time at the point. Looks like a solid ball handler, but again, not much of an offensive threat (0 points).
Byron Sanders -Came in after Coach Williams cleared the bench during the final few minutes of the game.
Reyshawn Terry - Came in around the 6 minute mark in the 2nd half. He looked pretty good and made a couple of shots. I sure hope Reyshawn gets some quality PT this year.
Damion Grant - Came in after Coach Williams cleared the bench during the final few minutes of the game.
C.J. Hooker - Came in after Coach Williams cleared the bench during the final few minutes of the game.
Charlie Everett - Came in after Coach Williams cleared the bench during the final few minutes of the game.
Sideline:
Not much going on over on the sidelines. But then again, there wasn't a whole lot for Coach Williams to get upset about this game. The announcers did take time to make fun of Coach Robinson's and Coach Holladay's shirt.
Announcers:
Jay Bilas
Bill Raftery
Sean McDonough
I really enjoy this crew. They don't come off smug the way a Doherty or Packer does and they aren't overenthusiastic the way Dook Vitale is. Good unbiased game calling. And that is remarkable considering Bilas is an ex-Dukie.
In fact, Jay is pretty high on UNC. Here are a couple quotes of note:
- "(UNC has) arguably the most talented starting 5 in the country"
- "Rashad is the best offensive player in America"
Referees:
The refs were definitely calling things conservatively. And anytime there was the hint of a push after the whistle, they were right there to get in between the players. I'm sure this can be contributed to the recent NBA and College Football scuffles.
Unfortunately, their liberal use of the whistle led to some bad calls. Noel was boxing out his man, the guy jumped over his back, pulled Noel to the ground, and Noel got called for the foul. Called a push off. There were a couple other miscalls, but it didn't matter much since the game was such a blowout.
Crowd:
The crowd favored UNC. There must have been a lot of Carolina fans there. I tried to get tickets for this game two months back, but tickets were available every school EXCEPT Carolina (already sold out). Other than booing refs for bad calls (of which there were a few), some Carolina fan yelled loudly anytime a BYU player shot a free throw. It was noticable on TV.
