Rutgers Pre-Game Press Conference
On the the TarHeelBlue site, you can listen to Roy's latest press conference. He talks a lot about Bobby Frasor's injury situation. It sounds like he is still optimistic about Bobby's return. They are seeking additional medical opinions.
Frasor may end up red-shirting this year
Scout.com: Frasor Still Ailing, Thomas Back at PracticeFrasor Injury UpdateQuentin Thomas is making his way back to playing form after a stress fracture in his left foot. Bobby Frasor on the other hand is not doing as well. It is so bad for Bobby that Roy has mentioned the possibility of red-shirting him if it doesn't heal soon. "The magic number is 7 games if we have to shut him down," Williams said. We went from having 3 point guards to 1 with Tywon Lawson manning the helm the last few games and Wes Miller filling in as needed. It will be good to have Quentin back, but he is no Bobby Frasor. Losing Bobby would be a serious blow to the team. Bobby isn't as good as Tywon, but he does have a year under his belt and shown an ability to lead the team on the court when called on. He's even had some spurts of good shooting this year. He's the kind of back-up point guard we need when it gets down to crunch time at the end of the year.
So much for watching the game tonight
On some pre-season schedules, ESPN2 was going to televise UNC vs Saint Louis tonight. That turns out not to be the case; they are playing on ESPNU (ugh). Of course Duke played Gonzaga on ESPN last night. This is ridiculous and highlights the problem with TV networks. I live in the region of the college basketball team that I want to watch (which is ranked 2nd in the country) and I can't see them on TV short of buying a DirectTV subscription. I'd be willing to pay money to watch the game, but can't. In a few years, the Internet will take care of this.
UNC 105, Florida Atlantic 52
“I loved just about everything we did.” It is very rare to hear those words come out of Roy Williams mouth, but that was his assessment of last night's performance against Florida Atlantic. As I mentioned earlier, I was not able to watch this game because it was televised on ESPNU. However, I did follow along with CSTV GameTracker. It figures that UNC's best performance of the year would be the one game I don't watch or listen to. So how good were they? They shot 74% from the field in the first half and 91% from the free throw line. The halftime score was 65-18. Ten minutes into the second half, Ole Roy called off the dogs as he didn't want to embarrass FAU coach Rex Walters (a former KU player under Roy). UNC could have easily scored 130 and maybe more if the starters stayed in. Interesting notes from the game: - Tywon Lawson recorded his first dunk in a game much to the amusement of his teammates and coach - Tywon had 8 assists and only 3 turnovers - Tyler scored 20 points in only 19 minutes - Brandan Wright had 3 blocks - Reyshawn continued his hot shooting from the outside by going 3-4 from behind the three point line - Wayne Ellington was 3-3 from behind the three point line
UNC #2 in both polls this week
After the Pittsburgh loss last week, UNC moved up to #2 in both polls. UNC and Duke are the only ACC teams in the top 25. That can't be right. Associated Press Top-25 College Basketball Poll | Team (First-place votes) | Record | Points | Previous Rank |
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| 1. UCLA Bruins (68) | 9-0 | 1,796 | 1 | | 2. North Carolina Tar Heels (1) | 8-1 | 1,710 | 3 | | 3. Ohio State Buckeyes (3) | 9-1 | 1,654 | 4 | | 4. Wisconsin Badgers | 11-1 | 1,507 | 7 | | 5. Florida Gators | 9-2 | 1,428 | 5 |
USA TODAY/ESPN Top 25 College Basketball Poll | Team (First-place votes) | Record | Points | Previous Rank |
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| 1. UCLA Bruins (29) | 9-0 | 772 | 1 | | 2. North Carolina Tar Heels | 8-1 | 732 | 3 | | 3. Ohio State Buckeyes (2) | 9-1 | 722 | 4 | | 4. Florida Gators | 9-2 | 620 | 5 | | 5. Wisconsin Badgers | 11-1 | 615 | 7 |
ESPNU once again, but not for Duke!
Tonight's game is on ESPNU, which isn't available from my local cable provider :-/ So I look to see if ESPN or ESPN2 had a stimulating game that would make more sense to air than UNC vs Florida Atlantic. And What to My Wandering Eyes Should Appear....Duke against Kent State. Ugh...
"The Duke of Dallas"
How did I miss this? Back in August, Matt Doherty (current coach of SMU) wrote a blog post (who knew he had a blog?) defending him calling SMU "The Duke of Dallas" in SI. I'm sorry, but this makes me throw up a little in my mouth. Let me preface this by saying that when Doherty was coach at UNC, I was very supportive. I thought he got a bad wrap. Not to say he was perfect, but I don't think the players handled the situation that well either. That said, Doherty has a habit of saying the wrong thing at times. This is one of those times. I can understand that he has respect for Duke and all that blah blah blah, but as a true Carolina fan, there is no way I'd ever want to emulate Duke or hold them up as a model. Didn't he know that his remark would illicit a strong response from Carolina fans? I guess that is the point, at times Doherty speaks without thinking it through.
Tar Heels Spread Holiday Cheer
Every year around Christmas, the Carolina Basketball team visits a local store to purchase gifts for underprivileged families. Read more at TarHeelBlue.com.
UNC's Brandan Wright is becoming a player of mythical proportions
According to accounts from people who claim to be eyewitnesses, he stood about 7 feet tall with a wingspan that stretched past 10 feet. He could take off straight up in flight and reach speeds approaching 100 mph. Continue at heraldsun.com.
UNC 94, High Point 69
It took a few minutes for UNC to get going, but by mid-way through the first half the Tar Heels had a comfortable lead. High Point made a concerted effort to pack things in down low and double team Tyler every chance they got. Unlike a couple of previous games, Tyler did well in this situation scoring 12 by the half and leading the team with 24 for the game. UNC had a decided height advantage that High Point couldn't overcome. HP tried to counter by hacking Hansbrough mercilessly, to the point of an intentional foul in the second half, but Tyler foiled that strategy by going 5-5 from the free throw line. Overall, the team shot very well from the floor (63%) despite going 4-13 from behind the 3-point line. Wes Miller continued to struggle by going 0-3 from behind the arc. Bobby Frasor and Quentin Thomas both sat out the game due to injury. Bobby has a foot and hip problem, which should heal soon. Tywon Lawson took on the majority of the point guard duties (and had another solid game) with Wes Miller filling in some. Our free throw shooting still needs much improvement. For the game, UNC went 20-31 (64.5%). Every year there seems to be at least one player that makes me cringe every time he goes to the line. All I need to say is Jackie Manuel and you should know what I'm talking about. With this team it is...surprisingly...Brandan Wright. Brandan went 1-5 from the line this game and is shooting below 50% on the year. That's his major weak spot right now. It is worth noting that I wasn't able to watch this game via TV. Unfortunately, it was another untelevised game. However, the ACC was promoting their new webcast service: ACC Select which offered a web stream of the game. You can sign up for a free 15 day trial which is what I did. I plan to cancel it now. I was able to enlarge the web cast to full screen on my monitor, but the resolution wasn't very good. I had to sign up for an Carolina All Access pass to watch an earlier game and now I was forced to sign up for ACC Select to watch another. There are two more games coming up (Florida Atlantic and Saint Louis) that are being aired on ESPNU which isn't available in my area unless you are a DirectTV customer (which I'm not). Guess I'll have to listen to the game on the radio or go to a sports bar. After that, the rest of the games are televised on the standard channels. It is pretty annoying that not all UNC games are televised. I checked and Duke doesn't have this problem. They had 2 November games not televised locally. One was ESPNU and the other ACC Select in mid November. UNC has a much larger fan base so I'm not sure why Duke gets more TV spots. Not to mention that we are better ;-)
Wayne Ellington named ACC Rookie of the Week
This is Wayne's first time as ACC Rookie of the Week. Brandan Wright has already won the award twice.
UNC #3 in both polls this week
After solid wins against Tennessee, Ohio State, and Kentucky, UNC is back in the top 5. Week 5 ESPN/USA Today 1. UCLA (25) 6-0 766 2. Pittsburgh (6) 8-0 740 3. North Carolina 6-1 676 4. Ohio State 7-1 659 5. Alabama 7-0 637 Week 5 AP Top 25 1. UCLA (55) 6-0 1,781 2. Pittsburgh (15) 8-0 1,713 3. North Carolina (2) 6-1 1,619 4. Alabama 7-0 1,550 5. Ohio State 7-1 1,510
UNC 75, Kentucky 63
It wasn't pretty, but we got a W. Coach Williams said before the game he was concerned about a let down due to the extremely emotional game with Ohio State. He had a right to be concerned as we played flat for most of the game. Reyshawn Terry finally had a good game scoring 16 points on 4-6 shooting from behind the arc. For the second game this season, Tyler Hansbrough was held in check with 7 points. Kentucky was successful last year as well in holding Hansbrough under double figures. This year, Randolph Morris single handedly shut down Hansbrough. Morris definitely had Tyler's number. He scored on Tyler frequently. The score was a measly 31-24 at the half with UNC maintaining a steady lead. Both teams were shooting horrifically with Kentucky going 0-9 from the 3 point line and 39% overall and UNC going 3-10 from behind the 3 point line and 35% overall. Fortunately for us, Kentucky had 12 turnovers to our 3. In the second half, Roy pulled all five starters after just 3 minutes due to poor play. Once Terry got back in the game, he nailed two 3 pointers in a row and played excellent defense. Other key stats: - Wayne Ellington led UNC in scoring with 17; Brandan Wright and Reyshawn Terry were right behind him with 16 points each - Deon Thompson continues to impress me. He had another solid game with 4 points and 4 rebounds in 11 minutes. - Kentucky ended the game shooting 3-15 (20%) from behind the 3 point line - UNC committed just 9 turnovers compared to Kentucky's 22
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