Coach gives Heels power
The Fayetteville Online has a good story on "Psycho T" and the Carolina strength coach that has been helping him. "The kid had this ferocity to him, a look in his eyes that revealed the inferno of his competitive will. North Carolina strength coach Jonas Sahratian needed only one look at his newest pupil, Tyler Hansbrough, to realize how formidable his tenacity could be." Continue at source
Whim pays off for Dewey Burke
"It’s strange how Dewey Burke arrived at the University of North Carolina to begin with, much less how he wound up leading the defending national champions onto the Smith Center floor Feb. 7 for an emotionally charged game against Duke." Continue at source
Lucas: Like Mike (Copeland)
"If you were a Carolina basketball player, you'd be Mike Copeland. You don't have to be a 6-foot-7 bruiser with a mean rebounding streak to be Copeland. You just have to have a sense of wonder. Imagine you walk into the locker room deep within the Smith Center and find a crisp white jersey with Carolina blue argyle running down the side. It's hanging in a locker, and you can't help but rub it between your fingers. Then you flip it over. It's got your name on the back." Continue at source
Coach Williams for ACC Coach of the Year?
I think a strong case can be made for Coach Williams to be the ACC Coach of the Year. No one predicted UNC would finish higher than 6th in the ACC and everyone thought this was a "rebuilding year". Look at what he has done. He's brought along the best freshman big man in the country. He's built a solid team of other fundamentally sound, but not superstar quality freshman together with some upper classman none of which was a go to person in previous years. Now, UNC sits firmly in the top 25 and is ranked 2nd in the ACC going into the final week. Talk about the good year Virginia has had all you want, UNC has surpassed all expectations and a big part of that is due to ol Roy.
Heels Up to 13 in AP Poll and 15 in ESPN Poll
Earlier in the year I said we didn't deserve to be ranked in the top 25. That was then. The team is much different now. Dare I say we are a top 10 team? We are inching up in this week's polls. We have a tough game against Virginia on Wednesday. Remember, they beat us the first time around. We have to beat them to stay in 2nd place the ACC. Fortunately, with the win against Maryland, we are assured of a bye in the first round of the ACC Tourney.
Hansbrough Wins Ninth ACC ROW
Is Hansbrough on a role or what? After averaging 19 points in two games, he won his Ninth ACC ROW. Is there a chance he'll catch Kenny Anderson with 10? Perhaps. If he has a good game against Virginia and Duke that could definitely do it.
UNC 81, Maryland 57
While not playing as crisply as the NCSU game (17 turnovers in this game compared to 6 against NCSU), UNC played solid team ball on the way to thumping Maryland in Chapel Hill, 81-57. UNC was in control of the game throughout both halves. Hansbrough was his usual self, racking up 14 points in the first half and 21 for the game. He had a chance for 4 old fashioned 3 point plays during the game. David Noel continued to be a floor leader and pitched in 12 points. Marcus Ginyard scored 12 points on 4-8 from the floor. Quentin Thomas made a couple of big plays, which was nice to see. Reyshawn Terry battled foul trouble (including 2 illegal picks?!?!) most of the game so he wasn't able to get more than 7 points. I thought the refs were horrible for most of the game. They were inconsistent and missed several calls. UNC played good D, but Maryland had a terrible night shooting. They were 0-5 from the 3 point line at the half and finished 2-10 from beyond the arc. They shot an ugly 28% overall from the field. We had a 20 point lead with 8:30 to go and we never looked back.
Catch up
I've been out of town on business since last week, so I'm catching up on the UNC games thanks to Tivo. More coming soon...
Hansbrough Garners Eighth ROW
This was a no-brainer. Tyler50 has a link pointing to the CBSSportsLine Player Rankings. Tyler is ranked 10th in the country! He has to make First Team All-ACC this year. For the last few years UNC has not had nearly as many first teamers as we should and the reason I've heard time and time again is because "importance to the team" counts for so much. Well my friends, if it wasn't for Tyler UNC would be bringing up the rear with Wake and Georgia Tech (ok, maybe not as bad as Wake ;-)
Lucas: This Is Tyler Hansbrough
Here is an entertaining article from Adam Lucas about Mr. Hansbrough. Before it is all said and done Tyler will be a legend in Chapel Hill (if he isn't already). And to think I was in line with him a couple of weeks ago when he ordered chicken pot pie... :-)
UNC 82, Georgia Tech 75
On the back of the best single game performance I've seen all year (and I've seen a couple of Redick's 40 point games), Tyler Hansbrough's 40 points and 10 rebounds led the Tar Heels to a home win against Georgia Tech after being down as much as 20 in the first half. It is hard to describe Hansbrough's performance. Physically he isn't the strongest. He can't jump the highest or run the fastest, but somehow he gets the job done. He consistently got good position down low and either scored, got fouled, or both. By scoring 40 points (23 in the first half), Tyler set the UNC freshman single game record, the ACC freshman single game record, and the Smith Center single game record. He is a lock for an eighth ACC Rookie of the Week award and eventually ACC Rookie of the Year award. He has to be in the top one or two for National Rookie of the Year and is in serious contention for 1st team All-ACC. The downside to all of this is of course there will be much talk about his draft status after the season. Marvin Williams didn't have nearly as good of a year as Hansbrough and he went in the NBA lottery last year.  Back to the game…in the first half the big story was Georgia Tech's shooting. They were shooting the lights out. They were an unbelievable 9-10 from beyond the arc. This coupled with the fact that they were outrebounding us early meant we were behind for most of the half and at one point by as much as 20! We made a little run toward the end of the half and cut the lead to only 8. I knew Georgia Tech's shooting streak couldn't last for the whole game. This is what they did by halftime: FG: 19-31 (61%) 3pt: 9-10 (90%) - 38% season avg FT: 8-11 (73%) - 66% season avg As you can see, they were well above their season average, but it would take UNC firing out of the gates in the second half to overtake Tech and that is exactly what happened. In the post game interviews, David Noel compared Coach Williams to the Tasmanian Devil during halftime because he was so upset with the team's performance. As has been typical for us, we started the second half strong. We inched back into the game and took the lead at the 10 minute mark. Reyshawn Terry had a good game with 13 points. David Noel had a couple of highlight reel dunks. But still UNC struggled when Hansbrough wasn't in the game.  Since the start of the ACC season, Tyler has been doubled and sometimes tripled teamed every time he gets the ball. Georgia Tech took the gutsy move of only putting one man on Hansbrough -- essentially guarding everyone else well and forcing Hansbrough to beat Tech. And that's exactly what happened. Tyler's eyes must have been as big as bowling balls when he noticed he wasn't getting double teamed. That said, he was getting banged up down low. He got hacked numerous times and showed more emotion in this game than any I've seen all year. He can take a lickin and keep on stickin! We had a 5 point lead with 5 minutes to go and didn't relinquish it. This was a big win and the kind that builds a team's confidence even though it was not a great game statistically for most of the team. Wes Miller had a couple of big threes even though he had an off night shooting (2-8 from behind the arc). Bobby Frasor was 0-4 from the floor but had 8 assists. Perhaps the biggest non-Tyler stat of the game is turnovers. For a team that averages over 17 a game, we only had 13 and protected the ball pretty well. Other key stats: - 3 pt FGs: 3-15/20% (UNC), 9-17/53% (Ga Tech) + Rebounds: 35 (UNC), 28 (Ga Tech) + Free throws shot: 35 (UNC), 19 (Ga Tech) + Fouls: 16 (UNC), 31 (Ga Tech) + Turnovers: 13 (UNC), 20 (Ga Tech)
Hansbrough earns 7th ACC Rookie of the Week award
With this week's ACC ROW award, Tyler Hansbrough becomes the first UNC freshman to win it 7 times. The ACC record is held by Kenny Anderson with 10. It isn't likely Tyler will overtake Kenny, but to have the most out of all the great Carolina freshmen is saying a lot.
UNC 80, Miami 70
UNC jumped out to its best start of the year on the way to a 10 point win at Miami. With the win, Carolina improves to 4-1 on the road in the ACC. They are playing better on the road than at home! The Tar Heels had an 8-0 early lead on some torrid shooting. We were 9 for 9 at the 15 minute mark and had a 22-13 lead. Then we cooled dramatically and could only muster 9 points over the next 10 minutes. Miami crawled back throughout the half and was only down 1 going into halftime. Tyler Hansbrough was a monster all game. He was getting banged around (and didn't get many calls) but still found a way to make several tough shots in the post. He scored 25 points to lead all scorers with 16 of those coming in the first half. Reyshawn Terry had 10 points in the first half, all of those coming in the first 10 minutes. He got into a little foul trouble and cooled off a bit, but he was aggressive on offense (yes, he got his obligatory offensive foul during the game) and excellent on defense. For the second straight game, we didn't come out of halftime playing that well. This contrasts most of the season in which we've played our best ball during the first 10 minutes of the second half. In this case, the defensive intensity wasn't there and Miami got a few easy baskets (much to Coach Williams' chagrin). We got a couple of three pointers in a row around the 8 minute mark and started to build a lead. We jumped out to an 11 point lead with 7 minutes to go and Miami was not able to come back. Our Tar Heels played very well over the last 5 minutes of the game including some clutch shots by Bobby Frasor. I'm glad we were able to avenge our loss to Miami at home this year. We are tied for third in the ACC now with Boston College. Things are still so close in the league that we could finish second if everything went our way or as bad as eighth if we have a meltdown. Other key stats: + UNC FG: 31-56 (55%) - UNC FT: 10-17: (59%) + UNC Turnovers: 13 !!! + Rebounds: 33 (UNC), 22 (Miami)
UNC 83, Duke 87
A disappointing loss for sure. Despite coming back from 17 points in the second half to take a 5 point lead with six minutes to go, UNC wasn't able to hold off Redick in the end. JJ scored 35 points on the game including 5-10 behind the arc. We were able to hold the rest of Duke in check for most the game. Josh McRoberts had a good game scoring 17 points while Shelden Williams struggled shooting 3-9 from the field. On our side, Reyshawn Terry led in scoring with 17 points despite playing only 24 minutes due to foul trouble (he eventually fouled out). Terry had 7 points in the first 7 minutes of the game. We got behind early, primarily due to making 7 turnovers in the first 8 minutes. Fortunately, Duke wasn't fairing much better and also had 8 turnovers at the same point. Duke built a small lead and managed to keep it for the entire first half. But we went into the half down only 5 points, 35-40. I was hoping we'd start the second half like we've done for most of the season, but it wasn't to be. Duke came out firing and quickly built a 17 point lead. We made five turnovers in a row. As he's done a couple times this year, Coach Williams yanked all of the starters after the poor performance and put in the second team. Behind strong play from Quentin Thomas and Danny Green, we ate into the Duke lead. When the starters came back in, they looked recharged and continued to eat into the Duke lead. After a great run, we were able to take a 5 point lead going into the last 5 minutes of the game. I thought we had a good chance, but Redick took over and secured the lead the rest of the way. Amazingly we had a chance to tie the game on the final play if we made a 3 pointer, but Danny Green lost concentration and took a two pointer as time ran out. Danny said in the post-game interview that he didn't expect to get the ball and froze when he got it. At least he was honest. This was a tough loss at home, but if anything it showed that our young team can come back from a big deficit against one of the best teams in the country. We get Duke again at Cameron and considering how well we've been playing on the road, we have another good shot at beating them. Other key stats: + Quentin Thomas: 5 assists, 0 turnovers + Rebounds: 45 (UNC), 26 (Duke) - Turnovers: 21 (UNC), 16 (Duke) - Duke 3pt FG: 10-20 (50%)
Coach K photos
The big game is tonight and there is no better way to ease the tension than to look at some Coach K pics. A co-worker and fellow Carolina fan sent me this link to the Phog Blog and I about blew Dr. Pepper out my nose. :-) Enjoy.
UNC 76, Clemson 61
For the first game in a long time, we finally had a strong start. We reeled off a 10-0 lead before Clemson had to call a timeout to settle their team down. After that we cooled off a bit but were still up 18-8 with 10 minutes to go in the first half. We continue to have problems with turnovers (21 on the game), and made several bad entry passes from the top of the key to down low. I don't know why our guys want to force it from there. The pass from the top is one of the hardest to make on the court. We played solid defense throughout the game. One stat to note from the first half is Wes Miller taking not one but two charges. He is one of the best defensive players on the team. At the half we were up 11 points, 37-26. Of course we got off to a good start in the second half as usual. We took a 17 point lead after Reyshawn Terry got an offensive rebound, scored, was fouled, missed the free throw, got the offensive rebound again and scored. Terry has been a man possessed for the last two games. His defense has been near perfect. He and David Noel both have been playing well. Noel came close to a triple double by scoring 12 points, grabbing 7 rebounds, and tallying 9 assists. He disappeared for a 5 or 6 game stretch (which both he and Coach Williams admit), but now he is back. Thank goodness! Bobby Frasor had a good game scoring with 16 points, but had 0 assists and 4 turnovers. He played well despite the misleading stat sheet. Hansbrough was banged around down low and was called for a couple of suspicious fouls. He had to sit at the 13 minute mark in the second half with 3 fouls. After that Clemson went on a run to bring it back to just a 9 point lead with 12 minutes to go. Hansbrough came back in and had an awesome tip in for a basket. He was trying to catch an entry pass from the top of the key and when he went up to catch it, it tipped off his hand and into the basket. Later, Bobby Frasor's alley oop to David Noel ended up going in the basket. Luck was on our side for sure! I was very proud of the team, especially in the second half. We played hard defense and Terry and Noel showed a lot of leadership. In fact, Reyshawn got the first double-double of his career leading the team in scoring with 19 and rebounds with 11. We won by 15 at home and extended the home winning streak over Clemson to 52 games. This ties the longest "utility" winning streak in the country with Brown/Princeton. Clemson has NEVER won in Chapel Hill. That's an amazing fact. At the end of the game, the Carolina crowd started chanting: “You can’t win here”, but Roy shut them down. There were several shots of him on the sidelines telling the student section to cut it out. And they listened :-) Coach Purnell from Clemson and Roy are close friends (both coached in the last Olympics under Larry Brown). Next up is Duke at home on Tuesday. I can't wait! Other key stats: - Turnovers: 21 (UNC), 19 (Clemson) + Rebounds: 39 (UNC), 29 (Clemson) - UNC 3pt field goals: 3-12 (25%) + UNC free throws: 23-29 (79%) + UNC field goals: 25-50 (50%)
UNC 77, Maryland 62
On the back of a great performance by Reyshawn Terry and David Noel, UNC was able to turn a 2 point deficit at halftime into a 15 point win on the road at Maryland. Maryland had won 14 straight games at home and were ranked 23rd in the nation coming into the game. They didn't look that good to me. Especially with one of their stars, Chris McCray, out due to academic ineligibility, I predict Maryland will head south in the ACC standings over the next few weeks. The game was really the tale of two halves. In the first half, we played sloppy ball and didn't shoot that well. In the second half, we protected the ball better, played better defense, and shot at a decent clip. In the first 11 minutes of the game, we averaged a turnover every minute. Noel made a couple of bad passes as he's been prone to do and of course Terry received his obligatory offensive foul/charge call. Fortunately, Noel offset the turnovers with aggressiveness on the offensive side I haven't seen in several games. It looks like he actually wanted to score again. He had 15 of his 19 points in the first half. The game went back and forth. Maryland and UNC both had opportunities to establish a lead, but couldn't do it. At one point, Wes Miller nailed 2 three pointers in a row for us, but we could only manage a 2 point lead with 5 minutes to go. Maryland came on strong in the final minutes and Nic Caner-Medley (who I dislike with a passion), nailed a 3 pointer to go up 38-40 at the half. Nic is probably Maryland's best player and is very versatile with his size and ability to shoot the 3. Reyshawn got the defensive assignment against Nic and did an excellent job all night. He hurried and tipped several of Nic's shots and Nic look frustrated most of the night, but still finished with 15 points. In the second half, we came out firing. It was much more physical and refs weren't calling anything. It was amazing how much they let go. The calls were pretty even on both sides, but Hansbrough had a tough night partly because of all the rough play. He didn't go to the free line nearly as much even though he got hacked numerous times without getting the call. Hansbrough had a fairly quite night, but still managed 15 point. The story of the second half was Reyshawn Terry. He played solid D as I mentioned before but he was all over the court and scored a game-high 20 points on 7-14 shooting. This was his best game of the year. We slowly built a lead and were up by 10 with 5 minutes to go. Bobby Frasor had an off night shooting (1-5 from behind the 3 point line), but he hit a critical 3 in the final minutes to maintain our 10 point lead after Maryland went on a run. Other key stats: - Turnovers: 24 (UNC), 12 (Maryland) + Rebounds: 52 (UNC), 34 (Maryland) + David Noel double-double: 19 points, 12 rebounds + UNC blocks: 7 - Tyler Hansbrough turnovers: 8
On campus
My brother works at UNC and invited me to the campus for lunch last Friday. We walked around the campus a bit (one of my favs) and ate lunch at the Ramshead cafeteria. The Ramshead is right across from Kenan Stadium and is pretty nice for a student cafeteria. As we walked up, my brother pointed out that we passed a Carolina basketball player. He was right! Bobby Frasor just walked by (one of his fingers was wrapped heavily). As we went inside, I saw Marcus Ginyard waiting in line for some food. Later on my brother pointed out Tyler Hansbrough waiting in line! What a treat. Then I saw Mike Copeland. Bobby came back in and ate with Tyler (they are roommates). At one point I was waiting in line with Tyler. He ordered chicken pot pie ;-) I didn't say anything to them, but as much as I write about them and see them on TV, it was neat being in such close proximity during lunch.
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