Fan of the Month - January 2005
In January 2005, InsideCarolina.com recognized me as "Fan of the Month". The full story that ran in the January edition of the magazine can be seen below. A pdf version is also available. Autographed copies available upon request :-) 
Dick Vitale - Diaper dandies, more on midseason V-Lists
Here is Carolina's representation on Dick Vitale's Midseason lists:
Super Six Diaper Dandies
- Marvin Williams -- North Carolina
All-Thomas Edison Super Six (creators at point guard)
- Raymond Felton -- North Carolina
All-Sherman Williams (tough in the paint)
- Sean May -- North Carolina
All-AT&T (long-distance shooters)
- Rashad McCants -- North Carolina
All-Blenders (best at blending in and helping the team)
- Jawad Williams -- North Carolina
All-Stars of Tomorrow (incredible potential -- soph superstars next season)
- Marvin Williams -- North Carolina
UNC 82, Wake Forest 95
Game Summary
This is the kind of game that really makes you dislike ACC expansion. Wake Forest handled UNC for all but the first 5 minutes of the game to go on to a 95-82 win. Wake did what they are suppose to do: win at home. I just wish Carolina had the opportunity to get them back on their home court. For most of the game Carolina played sloppy. This definitely wasn't the same team that stomped Maryland and Ga Tech, but then again, this was UNC's first major road test. They didn't do well on the road last year, but I'm hopeful that we can do better this year. Unfortunately, this game wasn't a good indicator of us breaking the trend. We started off the first few minutes really well and took the early lead. Then McCants picked up a few fouls early and had to sit. When he sat so did most of our scoring ability for the day. No on else was really able to pick up the slack offensively. Also, in the first half our rebounding was non-existent--Wake was able to pick up numerous rebounds uncontested. We took too many rushed shots from outside and weren't able to get the ball down low (thanks to Wake double-teaming May every time he touched the ball). And we weren't able to get the fast break going in large part to the whistle-happy refs. There are tons of excuses why we didn't play well, but on this day, it ultimately came down to Wake being a better team (yes, that is hard to write).
As for the Paul/Felton matchup that was much hyped before the game, I must admit that Paul had the better game. He scored 26 and was able to control his team in a way Felton couldn't. I still think Felton is faster up the court than Paul and even with Felton's inconsistency with shooting, I wouldn't take Paul over him with Coach Williams style of play.
Game Breakdown
Who: Wake Forest
Where: Winston-Salem
Viewing method: TV/ABC
Box Score
Photo Gallery 1
Photo Gallery 2
Coach Williams Quotes
Coach Prosser Quotes
Starters
Ray Felton - Felton had a decent game, but he was never able to get his team into a flow. If the stats sheet is right, he went 5-18 from the floor (yuck) but ended with 16 points. Felton had a couple of nice coast-to-coast drives (which were generally followed by Chris Paul doing the same thing). Felton got fouled hard in the thy by an illegal screen in the first half. It took him a few minutes to walk it off. The commentators thought he was never the same after that. In fact, there were times in the second half where he was grimacing notably.
Sean May - May had a pretty quiet game. He scored just 9 points and had difficulty getting open down in the pain. Every time he got the ball down low he was immediately double-teamed. He rarely got an open look at the basket. During the first half, rebounding was virtually non-existent, but May finished with 9 after becoming more aggressive in the second half.
Rashad McCants - Oh McCants. This is one of the games where you think he must have woke up on the wrong side of the bed. His attitude really shows through on TV (partly because they focus on it so much). He picked up his 3rd foul with 5 minutes to go in the first half. He stared down the refs, which the commentators had to discuss at length. He had a nice drive and was fouled, but other than that he was a non-factor in the first half. In the second half, he scored on a drive and got fouled and followed that up next time down with a dunk. It looked like he was going to take over the game, but then he picked up his fourth foul on a little touch call. Coach sat him down for a while after and Carolina was not able to keep up the momentum. When he did come back in the game later in the second half, he kept scoring. He finished with 19 points. The refs warned him in the second half about catching the ball after he made a shot. I've seen him do this time and time again where he'll make a shot, catch the ball and either drop it as his feet (causing the opponent to go pick it up) or he'll throw it to a ref. This is the first game where I've seen a ref actually warn him over it. I wish he would stop. The best play of the game was on a McCants fastbreak drive. There were a couple of Wake players around him so he took the ball behind his back and laid it in. It made the Sportscenter top 10 list.
Jawad Williams - Jawad had an ok game, but was silent for most of the first half and nearly all of the second. Jawad is the kind of guy that can do really well when the team is playing good, but he doesn't have the ability to turn the team around when they are playing badly (like McCants can). Part of Carolina's poor rebounding has to be attributed to Jawad who only had 3 in 30 minutes of play. He's got to be more aggressive than that.
Jackie Manuel - I wish I could say something positive about Jackie's play, but I can't. He did poorly in nearly every facet of the game. His passing was weak. His offensive was bad. And he committed a lot of bad fouls (eventually fouling out of the game with 7 minutes left to play).
Reserves
Melvin Scott - Melvin had a real quiet game. He only played 12 minutes and was 0-3 from the field. We need him to be consistent if we are going to make a run at the end of the season.
David Noel - Noel had a solid game. Scored just 6, but did well on the boards (8 rebounds).
Marvin Williams - Out of the big men, Marvin did the best in my book. He made a 3 in the first half from the top of the key. He seems to like that shot (and it is so smooth I'm happy for him to take it). Marvin was his usual scrappy self on defense. And the impressive stat of the night is he went 6-6 from the free throw line. It is huge advantage when you can count on your big men to make free throws.
Quentin Thomas - Saw very limited action (like 5 minutes). Q didn't make any major blunders, but I just don't get the same warm and fuzzy when he is out there compared to Felton. And he still isn't looking to shoot at all. I can understand that he isn't a primary offensive target, but he should be able to shoot when open.
Reyshawn Terry - Got in the game for 3 minutes and scored a three! If he keeps this up, he deserves more playing time.
Wes Miller - Did not play
Byron Sanders - Did not play
Damion Grant - Did not play (was sitting behind the bench in a suit)
C.J. Hooker - Did not play
Charlie Everett - Did not play
Sidelines
I thought Coach Williams was fairly subdued given the poor officiating and often poor play by Carolina. He looked dumbfounded on a couple bad calls (e.g. double fouls) and could be seen trying to plead to the refs for a sanity check. With the way the officiating continued, obviously his pleads for better officiating did not take hold.
Announcers
Dick Vitale and Brad Nessler were the commentators for ABC. They did a good job overall. Dick repeated at least three times that he thinks McCants is the best offensive player in the country. He also stated that this loss to Wake should not lesson anyone's opinion of UNC. Wake is suppose to hold serve on their court. If they played at Chapel Hill, the outcome might be different.
Refs
Ahh, the refs. I wasn't very pleased with them. Was it because of the two double fouls they called when there was just a hard foul by one person? How about the fact they wouldn't let either team play? No, the real reason I didn't like these refs is because they were inconsistent. I can understand that they didn't want to let the game get out of hand, but the double foul they called on McCants (and a Wake player) was obvious that the Wake player took a swing at McCants and McCants did NOTHING. But there is no excuse for how inconsistent the refs were. There was a spurt in the second half where they called like 5 fouls in a row AGAINST Wake. Obviously I didn't mind this, but it looked like they were trying to catch up for mis-calls from the first half or perhaps trying to tighten down the game even more. Yes, call the hard fouls, but don't call little touch fouls (McCants' fourth foul was questionable). That doesn't help anything except slow down the pace of the game and prevent anyone from getting in a rhythm.
Crowd
The Wake crowd isn't known for being in the top two or three in terms enthusiasm, but this game shows they definitely deserve to be talked about in the same league with the Cameron Crazies. Coach Prosser has done an amazing thing. For the 2500 or so student seats right near the floor, he requires that students sign up for them and agree to come to every home game short of school being out. The night before the Carolina game, he brought pizza for all the students that had camped out and gave a little pep talk. Needless to say, their enthusiasm showed on Saturday. It was a very loud and raucous crowd. I only wish that Carolina could get that many students that close to the floor.
Q&A With Roy Williams
In this Q&A, Roy talks about the best PGs in the country, McCants' improvement, having a more experienced team, and scoring 100+ per game.
Vitale - Chris Paul, Weber, Illini lead way at midseason
I just don't understand Dick Vitale sometimes. A few days ago he talks about how dominate Carolina is and how McCants, May and Felton are the best trio in America, then in his midseason report, he puts Chris Paul as the #1 PG. May makes his first team, but Felton and McCants are on his second team. Maybe he just doesn't want to be perceived as biased by having 3 Carolina players on his top team, but come on. I think it is fair to say that both Wake and Paul have not lived up to expectations yet this far. Granted they have only lost one game, but they have had several close ones against unranked opponents and have not looked nearly as dominating as UNC. I guess we'll see today who really is the best team at the midway point. You know who I have my money on ;-)
Vitale - Teamwork making Carolina a title contender
Everyone loves Carolina now since they are blowing teams out. In this article, Dick Vitale gushes over Carolina.
Katz: Wrap it up?
ESPN's Andy Katz is already predicting that if UNC beats Wake today that they may have the ACC regular season title wrapped up. Part of his reasoning for this is that due to the ACC expansion, UNC plays both Wake and Ga Tech only once this year. And we saw what UNC did to Ga Tech last week :-)
I'm back
After a short hiatus, I'm going to start working on the Carolina Basketball Update again. I've been busy with grad school, but I'm going to make the time to keep everyone up-to-date with Carolina Basketball. This is turning out to be quite a season and I'm looking forward to the Wake game today!
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