UNC Basketball Update News and game summaries from a life-long North Carolina Basketball fan(atic)

UNC 79, NC State 83   I hate losing like this. It wasn’t that our shots weren’t falling or State was just so much better. Nope, we were a better, far deeper team. We just didn’t come to play…especially on the defensive end. At times we would turn things up a notch and get the game back to even, but we couldn’t maintain the intensity needed to beat State at the RBC Center. In the second half, Roy started trapping and pressuring the ball more, which seemed to work. I'm not sure why we didn’t use more full court pressure in the first half. There were two other major annoyances about this game: the refs and commentators. First the refs. Reyshawn Terry eventually fouled out of the game after having several touch fouls called against him. As the second half drew to a close, they started calling a bunch of touch fouls against UNC, but wouldn’t reciprocate when UNC had the ball. They called a little touch foul against Wes Miller on Astur which resulted in 2 easy free throws. On the other end of the court, Brandan Wright got mugged and no foul was called. I don’t mind the touch fouls as much as long as the refs are consistent. And don't remind me of the horrible technical foul called against Hansbrough for a supposed "swing" against a State player. The replay clearly showed he wasn't swinging at the player. The tech resulted in 5 points for State (they got a 3 on the ensuing possession). I hope someone from the ACC reviews the tape. As far as the commentators (I didn’t catch their names), they were beyond annoying with the constant 6 pack versus a case or 6 pack versus a keg analogies. We get it already. Carolina is a deeper team. No need to say it over and over again. Also, one of the commentators (Jimmy D?) made several remarks about how Hansbrough is not a “skill player” and how he doesn’t really have much skill...just heart. What a bunch of BS. Wes Miller has a bunch of heart, but he is no All-American. I found it insulting for the guy to constantly refer to Hansbrough as not being that skilled. It is amazing to me that the person that scored a game high of 24 points is not that skilled. On a positive note, I'd like to point out Ty Lawson's performance. He continues to get better every game. He scored 21 points and had 7 assists. He's turning into one of college basketball's premier point guards. Game Notes: 1:45: 75-77. Two Ellington free throws brings it to 2 points 2:35: 71-77. Hansbrough picked up his 4th foul. 5:35: 65-71. Good defense by UNC led to a critical turnover, but we couldn’t convert on the other end. 6:00: 65-71. Atsur had to take State’s last timeout after a good trap by Carolina 6:35: 60-71. This is State’s game to lose 7:00. Hansbrough got a technical called for what was supposed to be a swing at a State player but the replayed showed it wasn’t. Bad call by the refs. Good job, thanks for giving state 5 points (they made a 3 after 2 free throws by Atsur). 8:12: 59-67. McCauley picked up his 4th foul. Woohoo! 9:11: 57-65. State’s McCauley is having his way with Hansbrough 10:56: 53-62. State literally cannot miss right now. Geez. 13:46: 51-52. Terry picks up his 4th 15:45: 47-46. UNC got its first lead of the second half UNC 36, NC State 38 (HALFTIME) 05.7: 36-36. Atsur picked up his 3rd foul on a Lawson drive 4:30: 25-29. UNC has finally started playing some D 5:42: 20-29. We couldn’t hit the side of a barn. State takes a 9 point lead after a 12-0 run!! 7:49: 20-23. State scored 6 straight points. We are making it too easy for them. 9:00: 20-17. We finally started pressing and got a steal on the first time. 9:27: 15-17. Our defense is non-existent. 10:47: 15-12. Lawson has scored 5 straight points 12:24: 10-10. UNC isn’t playing with much intensity 14:21: 10-6. UNC playing ok, not great. NC State is doing a good job of keeping the pace down. Posted by Robbie Allen @ 2/03/2007 06:43:00 PM Comments: I equally couldn't believe that stupid comment about Hansborough not being a skilled player. Neither was Antawn Jamison, right? What an ass Jimmy D is. I think he was all about himself today. # posted by  Anonymous : 8:15 PM   “I don’t know that I have ever seen a team shoot 76 percent against us before. I have no answers. They had more passion for the game than we did, and I don’t understand that. They dominated us. Gotta Love IT! VICTORY!!! COACH LOWE! HOW SWEET IT IS! # posted by  Anonymous : 10:13 PM   Carolina has been exposed. They are too soft, play without passion and lack outside shooters who can create their own shot. As deep as they are, only the strangely listless Brandan Wright would have been talented enough to start on the 2005 team; neither Lawson nor Ellington is as good as Felton and McCants were. With the exception of Hansborough, they just are not mean enough and there has been scant improvement among the team's three other sophmores. Carolina's 2005 team had been through the ringer and truly seen the worst side of things. When McCants was out for four tough games and when things got grim in the Duke and Villanova games, and when Illinois made a furious comeback in front of mostly Illini fans in St. Louis, that team could buckle down and muddle through and do what it needed to win ugly. Last year's team made up for lack of depth and talent by uniting into a ferocious unit that ripped through the ACC's second half like a buzzsaw, far exceeding any reasonable expectations. This pampered group prances around like a herd of show ponies, constantly looking over at Williams with an expression that says, "Coach, do something. This team isn't afraid of us." Three times this team has experienced adversity and three times it has crumbled, while making superficial comebacks that hid the true depth of the loss in question. While they may still have too much talent for Duke on Wednesday night, a 20 point win, although satisfying to Carolina fans is not what they need. Duke's 2005 took a more talented Tar Heel team through a proverbial basketball hell and made that team work for every point in a way that they had never had to before, just getting a mere split took every ounce of effort that the Tar Heels could muster. This team needs a win like that and fast, if it has any hopes of achieving its goals. # posted by  Anonymous : 12:29 PM   Leave it to a tarheel, lose the game, blame the refs....for as long as I have been watching ACC hoops, UNX has gotten MORE than it's fair share of calls. For once, the refs were letting things go when they could, and calling things that they should. HAND CHECKS ARE ILLEGAL! Refs let checking go, but only so far. The WOLFPACK WANTED THIS GAME MORE, THE HEELS OVERLOOKED THE "6 PACK". A great win for the NCSU program, a great win for Sidney Lowe, and a great win for the fans. Good luck and good fortune against Dook, see you in a couple of weeks. GO WOLFPACK!!! # posted by  WolfPup35 : 8:33 PM   I think Jimmy Dykes is a moron! How many times has he made a dumb ass comment, only to change his mind or correct himself five minutes later? He should be relegated to calling SEC games, that's about his intelligence level. # posted by  Anonymous : 8:37 PM   Ha-ha, did you just read a state fan was talking junk about blaming the ref after losing a game. Come on, you wrote the book on ref bashing. My thoughts on the game are. 1. They were a young team and did not understand a rivalry game therefore they let the crowd get into their heads. I went to State and I've never heard that place so loud. 2. You can't help how you shoot but you can bust your but to get rebounds and work hard. They didn't do that. 3. UNC things they are such a good team that other teams will have given up before they reach the field. They are really good but not so good that people will lay down. 4. State slowed down the pace, played a zone, stayed in time out a little longer, had the baseball team come out on the court, anything to keep the UNC from playing their fast pace game. On the good side, I was consistently surprised that the score wasn't any worse than it was. I was watching UNC being scored on and State didn't seem like they could miss but some how UNC was always within a few points of the wolf pack. With another year experience, they should be able to realize they are not playing well, push through it, and be able to make up the relatively small difference in score. # posted by  Anonymous : 10:58 AM   Post a Comment << Home