UNC 84, Nevada 61
Boxscore |
RecapWe beat a scrappy Nevada team tonight and I thought we played pretty well overall. Our 3-point defense was much better (Nevada shot 1-10 from beyond the arc), but then again, Nevada isn't a good 3-point shooting team (average 4 made on 16 attempts per game). Nevada was successful in slowing the game down, but it didn't effect things much other than UNC scoring 11 points below season average.
Tyler Hansbrough got banged around quite a bit down low. He started off a bit slow (which isn't uncommon for him) but ended the game with 22 points. Wayne Ellington has a nice all-around game though he still hasn't had a lights out shooting night. Ty Lawson continues his spectacular Assist/Turnover ratio with 7 assists and 2 turnovers. Danny Green also did a nice job (2-3 from 3-point).
Freshman Luke Babbit was impressive for Nevada. He was a McDonald's All-American last year and he has a lot of potential. Kind of reminded me of a Dirk Nowitzki type player. The other thing that stood out about Nevada is how much the coach/crowd/players complained about the calls. Nevada Coach Mark Fox got T'd up because he was complaining so much. Then right after his T, Danny Green made an awesome block on a Nevada player break away and everyone started booing again. The replay made it clear it was a completely clean stuff and yet everyone was complaining. Just one of those nights for Nevada I guess.
Perhaps the most painful thing about the game was listening to Steve "Ste Lav" Lavin commentate. Steve is one of those guys, I'm sure you know someone similar, that likes to shorten everyone's name. I get this sometimes (calling me Rob instead of Robbie). For some reason Ste thought it was ok to call Tyler Hansbrough and Tyler Zeller "Ty". He did it throughout the game. I don't typically mind Ste's flowery vocabulary, but he needs to cut out the abbreviations.
Next up is Boston College to start ACC Conference play. We went 13-0 in non-conference play with a average scoring margin of 26 points. We didn't get tested much, but it wasn't like we played complete cupcakes. We dominated two AP Top 25 teams (Notre Dame and MSU). It was a good warm-up. We'll really see what this team is made of in the next couple of weeks. I look forward to it!
