UNC 94, Tennessee 81
Game Summary
Wow. It is hard to think this is the same team that was blown out by Santa Clara. UNC routed Tennessee in the second round of the Maui Invitational. Early on I thought it might shape up to be a good game. For the first 6 minutes, Tenn. was able to keep it close, but we went on a spurt and before you know it we were up by 10 and then 20 to end the half at 51-31.
Tennessee is coached by former UNC player Buzz Peterson. Here is a shot of Coach Williams and Coach Peterson together:
Coach Peterson played under Coach Smith and Williams during the Michael Jordan era. Supposedly he was one of the better shooters to play at Carolina.
For the second straight game, we had great transition play. We converted several steals into baskets. Felton had a great alley oop to Jawad. Felton drove the ball, sucked all the defenders around him, then kicked it out to Melvin Scott for a 3. Overall, McCants had another superb night, both offensively and defensively.
The game wasn't all that close, but due to a couple of Tenn. spurts, Coach Williams had to leave the key players in until around the 3 minute mark when he cleared the bench. It wouldn't have even been as close as it was if it wasn't for Tenn freshman Chris Lofton who went 6-10 from 3. He was on fire and ended with 22 points.
Next up is Iowa for the championship game.
Game Breakdown
Who: Tennessee
Where: Maui, Hawaii
Viewing method: ESPN2
Box Score
Photo Gallery 1
Photo Gallery 2
Starters
Ray Felton - I'll take his 9 points and 9 assists. If he could do that every night, we'd be in good shape. He did, however, have 5 turnovers and many of them were on faulty passes. He played good trapping D that Tenn had trouble with all night.
Sean May - May had a good game, although more quiet than against BYU. He ended with 9 points, but ran the floor well again and played good D. One thing we are missing though from our big men is a shot blocking threat. Last year, players were afraid to drive against Uconn's Okafor because he would probably block the shot. Duke and Wake also have shot blocking threats. Neither May, J Williams, or M Williams are big blocking threats for us though.
Rashad McCants - McCants played like the best player in the country tonight. It is not every game someone can score 27 points and you can call his play unselfish, but that is exactly the case with McCants. There were even times he passed open looks to swing the ball around to get it to an even more open man. Rashad had 17 points in the first half! He ended with 10-16 shooting and 3-7 from 3. He had another NBA-style 3 during the first half. The one downside was his free throws. He went only 4-8. McCants played some great transition offense too. He had an awesome spinning drive to avoid his man and ended up with a layup. He had a power dunk with his left hand as shown here:
Toward the end of the game, Rashad showed his defensive skills by jumping out and blocking a 3 point shot attempt!
Jawad Williams - Jawad had a tough game. The refs weren't calling things his way for most of the night (more on this later), but he still managed to rattle off 21 points on 8-10 shooting! He played good D, but only got 2 rebounds. I'd take this kind of game from him every night.
Jackie Manuel - Jackie had a decent night. He was the only player to foul out of the game, which is unusual for him. He got called for a couple of reach in fouls after his man beat him (again, which is unusual). But he did shut Tenn's best player (McFadgon) down for most of the night. He didn't do much offensively (which is fine by me) by scoring 3 points.
Reserves
Marvin Williams - Marvin is something else. He is a little wild at times, but he definitely gets an A for effort. He is all over the place. He took a charge in the second half. The crowd gave him a standing ovation after he shot the ball and worked doggedly to get the rebound and put it up again (he didn't make it, but got fouled). He is the mirror opposite of May who is silky smooth. Marvin plays wide open.
Melvin Scott - Melvin had a fantastic game. To start, he was 3-6 from the 3 point line. His shot looked great. I think the announcers said it well, if he gets to set and shoot, he can nail them at a high percentage. If he comes off a screen or is moving one way or another when he shoots, his percentage goes down dramatically. Now for the best part, Melvin was kicking butt on D! There were a couple of times when Melvin was working hard and wouldn't let his man go by him. He displayed a tenacious D I haven't seem from him the past. If he could keep this up, he might work his way back in the starting lineup.
Quentin Thomas - Solid game, but he only got to play 7-8 minutes. I think he'll be a good one though. He can get up the court quick and he generally makes good decisions with the ball.
David Noel - Solid game by Noel, but not much offensively. He was setting screens and filling gaps. He did make all 4 of his free throws.
Wes Miller - Came in during the final few minutes. Looks quick. Announcers think he is a solid point guard and a good shooter. I haven't seen any offensive production out of him yet. It looks like he'll be the third string PG behind Felton and Quentin this year. His playing time will probably be limited.
Byron Sanders - Came in during the final two minutes.
Reyshawn Terry - Came in during the final two minutes.
Damion Grant - Came in during the final two minutes. Couldn't get in a groove, but then again he didn't have much time. I just don't think Grant is quick enough to play for UNC much.
C.J. Hooker - Came in during the final two minutes. Had a nice layup.
Charlie Everett - Came in during the final two minutes. Missed two free throws.
Sidelines
At 15:37 left to go in the first half, Tenn. tied it up at 6 so Roy called a timeout. He was visibly upset - red in the face and giving his guys the evil eye. Roy complained at various times throughout the game because of poor calls by the refs.
Buzz actually became so upset he got a technical for slamming his hand down on the scorer's table. The announcers said that is not characteristic of Buzz who is usually a real laid back kind of guy.
Announcers
Jay Bilas
Bill Raftery
Sean McDonough
It was the same crew as last night. Beside repeating a bunch of stuff from the previous night, I think they did an ok job. I remember now from last year how I start to like announcers less and less as the season goes on because they always repeat the same things in every game. They like to talk about McCants' troubles. Or how last year in the ACC McCants was leading scorer, Felton led in assists, and May led in rebounds. Or Coach Williams' winning percentage (best among active coaches). I could go on. Not that it is bad stuff mind you, but I wish sometimes they could come up with more stuff to say.
Bilas was oozing praise for McCants once again. They loved his performance and how could I blame them.
They also made negative comments again about the shirts the UNC coaches were wearing. Apparently none of the announcers like strips because last night they dogged Coach Holladay and Robinson for wearing strips and tonight they dogged Coach McGrath for wearing strips. At least they pointed out that their own shirts weren't much to speak of (which they weren't).
Refs
I assume these were the same refs as the night before, but they must have stayed up late and not got as much sleep. They weren't near as sharp. They called a bunch of touch fouls (more so than the BYU game) and they even called two technicals! The first I about fell out of my seat on. Jawad got an alley oop from Felton and slammed it home. The force of his slam caused him to swing upwards, so he had to hang on the rim while he was coming down to prevent a hard landing. No showboating, IMO just a clean hard dunk. And they called a technical. Give me a break.
Later they called a technical on Buzz Peterson for slamming his hand on the scorers table ala Coach Williams. He deserved that one.
It seemed like the refs had it out all night for Jawad. If they weren't calling technicals on him or touch fouls against him, it looked like he was getting beat up pretty good down low without anything to show for it.
Crowd
At the opening tipoff you could hear "Let's go Tarheel's" being repeated in the background. I think this says something when fans are so dedicated, they are willing to fly 12 hours (it is in Hawaii mind you) to watch their team play. No other team at the tourney has that level of fan support. It was great to see. And with two minutes to go in the game, fans didn't start to leave. No, the subs came in and the crowd started chanting, "Here we go Tarheels, here we go".
