UNC 66, Kansas 84
Boxscore |
Recap |
Game FlowIt is an understatement to say that this game didn't go the way I expected. I imagined a tough game, but for Kansas to come out and punch us in the mouth the way they did--we couldn't overcome it. We got it all the way back down to a 4 point deficit, but Kansas took control again in the final minutes of the second half to secure a 18 point win. And despite the great comeback, Kansas still outscored us in the second half--40-39--so they won that half too.
StatSheet's Game Stats put this game into perspective. The first half was our lowest scoring half of the year. Our total points was our lowest of the year. It was our worst FG percentage of any game (35%). Our next worst percentage was 38% against Ohio State. It was also our least number of assists. So the numbers speak for themselves, this was one of our worst games from a stats perspective.
Now for the players. No one had a great game and outside shooting was especially lacking. Danny Green gave us a few bursts and shot relatively well (46%), but he also led the team with 5 turnovers. I was shocked when Wayne Ellington was named the UNC player of the game by CBS. I can only assume they did that because he led UNC with 18 points, but he was a dismal 1-9 from 3 point range. When your "best" outside shooter shoots 11% from 3 point range, you know you are in for some trouble. After a while I was screaming at the TV for Wayne to stop taking 3 pointers. At least Danny had some success.
Tyler played ok, but wasn't able to take over the game as he has previously. The Kansas bigs definitely gave him some trouble. Bill Self had a great game plan: take it to the UNC big men. And it worked. We couldn't defend their big guys. They were tougher.
Where in the World is Ty Lawson? That was a question I was asking myself for much of the game. Gone was the dangerous slasher. Gone was the consistent outside shooting he gave us. Gone was the leadership. Does he already have one eye on the NBA Draft? Was he still babying that ankle? At least Wayne went down firing. Ty went down without much of a fight. Extremely disappointing.
And what about Roy? Should he have called more timeouts? Every other coach seems to use up timeouts when their opponents go on big runs. Roy typically doesn't. He did eventually tonight, but it was too late. But that's just Roy. He's never used many timeouts and he probably never will.
I'm left with a feeling much like that after the Georgetown game last year. In fact, if I look at
my blog post after that game, I had similar comments. Ty lost his aggressiveness, Wayne couldn't hit anything from deep, etc. Is this a trend? Can we win even if Ty and Wayne stay? Maybe they just don't have what it takes to win at the Final Four??
But I don't want to get too down. This was one heck of a season. We beat Duke on their Senior Night. We went undefeated on the road. We won the ACC Championship and ACC Tourney. And we went to the Final Four. All good stuff for sure. It is just a shame because this team could very well be the best team in the nation, but will not be taking home the NCAA trophy on Monday night.
Time to decompress. The end of the season always seems to come so suddenly. Now another 7 months before Late Night with Roy....
