Boston College 85, UNC 78
Boxscore |
RecapThere are some positive things to take away from tonight's 7 point defeat by BC. At least we won't have to hear anymore about how we could be the best team since '91 UNLV or how we might go undefeated. Heck, we are 0-1 in conference play right now. Just like last year, it is almost as if we have no home court advantage. Why do we lose games like this at home? Maybe since it is veteran team, we'd lose this game at home or away, it wouldn't matter.
To say we had an off night would be an understatement. After a quick run through the boxscore, I tallied 11 categories out of 17 in which we did worse tonight than our season average. And many of our numbers became inflated toward the end of the second half after BC had a 6'8'' guy as their tallest rebounder.
BC looked more aggressive than us tonight. They started the game on a 9-3 run. Fortunately, we regained our composure and took the lead. But the combination of Tyrese Rice (I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL HE GRADUATES :-) and Rakim Sanders gave us everything we could handle and then some. Like most games in which we lose, it took career best performance from Sanders and Reggie Jackson. Their shots went in and ours didn't.
I thought the game was best summarized in the final minutes when we had 3 open three point shot attempts in a single trip and couldn't hit any of them.
Our rebounding was nothing to write home about, but we lost because we couldn't hit friggin shots. 7-22 from beyond the arc (31%). Our season average is 38%. Perhaps worse than that was our FREE THROW shooting. We went 15-27 for a dismal 55%. We missed 12 free throws. We lost the game by 7 so if we would have just hit a few more free throws, it could have been a different story. Everyone was missing them. Nobody was perfect from the line tonight. Deon Thompson did worst of all going 1-6!!
Many people have been wanting UNC to play a close game so they can be prepared for the Big Dance. Well here you go. But I saw all this coming as I wrote about after the first 3 games. It takes a combination of the following and we are as vulnerable as any team:
- Not playing aggressive and the other team playing very aggressive
- Not hitting our outside shots
- Very few transition baskets
- One or two players from the opposing team have career high games (or we play a team that is Top 10 caliber)
I was amazed at half time that BC had 6 transition points to our 2. Watching the game, you would never think Carolina is a running kind of team. We had very few fast break opportunities. A lot of the credit goes to BC.
Next up is the College of Charleston on Wednesday before the much anticipated game with #6 Wake Forest next Sunday. Let's just hope we don't start the conference season 0-2!
While I've been lobbing for Ty Lawson as the best point guard in the nation, Tyrese Rice once again showed Carolina why he should be at the top of the list (
Lawson vs Rice).
