UNC 70, Duke 71
Yes, it stings just a bit. Alright, more than a bit. Duke won and sadly, they deserved to win. They outplayed us and dare I say they even outcoached us.
Where do I begin...first Felton, Jawad, and McCants all had horrible games. Felton had 8 turnovers to only 3 assist. It is fair to say that when he puts up those kind of numbers, UNC will more than likely lose. Jawad was virtually non-existent. If you look at his stat sheet, you wonder what exactly he was doing while on the court. 1-6 shooting, 3 rebounds, 2 points, 2 turnovers, and 2 assists in 21 minutes of play. McCants had an off night. 3-13 from the field including 1-8 from 3-pt line. He mentioned in some post game interviews that he felt he came into the game too hyped up; he said he felt too nervous. Happens to the best of them. Felton said the ball and court were both slippery, which impeded his play. All are dandy excuses, but don't erase the result.
The reason why I think we were outcoached is because Duke telegraphed our final play. UNC had the ball down one with 16 seconds to go. Felton brings the ball up the court, has no where to go, spins around, could step up into the lane and take a short jumper, but instead passes to Noel who fumbles the ball out of bounds while time expires. Redick said after the game that they saw the play coming -- it was the same one UNC ran against UConn last year to win the game. Redick overplayed McCants so Felton had no where to throw. It shouldn't have been that easy for Duke to predict what play we were going to run. Either that or Coach Williams is supremely confident in that play (regardless if the other team knows it is coming) and we just executed poorly.
On the bright side, May had an incredible game. If he didn't show up, the outcome would have been significantly worse. He had an amazing 18 rebounds, was 7-7 from free throw line, and 8-14 from the field. He did have 5 turnovers (on several sloppy passes), but overall he had his best game of the year. Jackie also did well by covering Redick pretty close for much of the night until Jackie got into foul trouble. Marvin had another solid game with 12 points, but uncharacteristically missed 3 free throws (he was ranked 4th in the ACC in free throw %).
The other bright point about the game was the fact that even though we had an off night by anyone's standards and couldn't get our fast break going to save Coach Williams' life, we were only down 1 point with a minute to go. Last year, if we played like this, we'd get blown out. If McCants or Jawad would have had anything close to their season averages, the outcome would have been different. It will be really interesting to see what happens in Chapel Hill on March 6th (against Duke).
Regarding all the hype surrounding Redick, I must say it is deserved. I've seen just as many Duke games this year as UNC games (because so many have been on TV). Redick is deadly from 3. Last year he struggled and didn't shoot well if not set properly. This year he is making them regardless of where he is at and how he is set. Something also has to be said for him being the best free throw shooter of all time in the NCAA. Don't get me wrong, as a player, I don't like Redick at all -- he is smug and tends to rub Carolina fans the wrong way. But when it comes to first-team ACC or all american, at this point it is pretty easy to pick Redick over McCants.
Just so I don't end on a positive note for Duke :-) even though I thought the game was over half way through the second half, I think this was a "good" loss for UNC (if there is such a thing). The look on their faces after the game was one of disbelief. They wanted the game bad and they lost. This is the kind of thing that keeps a team motivated. Another big test will come this Sunday when they travel to Hartford to play Uconn. If they can beat a solid Uconn team on the road, I don't think the loss to Duke ultimately will hurt them.
