It is simple
The road to the ACC regular season crown is straightforward for the Heels: - We have to win at Georgia Tech and home against Duke
- Virginia Tech has to lose against either Virginia or Clemson
It is simple to say, but will be much harder to accomplish. Many reporters have been questioning the Tar Heels toughness. These last two games will tell us a lot!
Heels Drop to No. 8 in Both Polls
Ouch. Heels go from 5th to 8th. Let's take a look at a few of the teams in front of us. First of course is Ohio State. They are #1 after beating Wisconsin. We beat them earlier in the year, but they were without Oden. Speaking of Wisconsin, they lost their last two games and fell three spots in the polls. UNC lost to an extremely hot Maryland team and dropped three spots. #5 Florida has lost 2 of 3 and only fell two spots. The Memphis Tigers are ahead of us at #6. I saw just a little bit of their game this weekend and they looked pretty sharp. However, their strength of schedule is close to 100!! I'm sorry, no team should be in the top 10 with that weak of a schedule. It is obvious the pollsters weight the number of losses very heavily and if you have a cream puff schedule, you will likely be ranked higher. And did I mention that one of the three Memphis losses was against Arizona. You know the team we drubbed in Tucson!
UNC 87, Maryland 89
After leading the first 37 minutes of the game, UNC was not able to hold off a senior-led Maryland team in the end. DJ Strawberry had a career high 27 points to cap a high pace, high energy game. We had our chances down the stretch, but we couldn't convert on several free throws. We ended up shooting 8-17 from the free throw line compared to Maryland's 20-26. Hansbrough had a good game with 22 points, Ellington scored 17, and Lawson had another solid performance. I must say the refs in this game were the worst I've seen all year. First, they called touch foul after touch foul and at a nearly 2-1 pace against UNC. The second half was much closer with 11 fouls against UNC and 9 against Maryland, but it still wasn't even. We've never had that many fouls called us against. I can't recall a time when Hansbrough scored 22 points and only shot 4 free throws. Typically, he gets fouled a high percentage of the time when he scores down low, but these refs didn't want to call them. We just made it that much more difficult in our quest for the regular season ACC crown and 1st seed in the NCAA tourney. We need to win our next two games and have Virginia beat Virginia Tech (we have the tiebreaker against UVA, but not VT). I think we have to win either the ACC regular season or tourney to get a 1st seed in the NCAA tourney. Second half notes:0:03. 87-89. Brandan Wright, one of our worst free throw shooters at 56% goes to the line to shoot two. He misses the first. Maryland takes a timeout. He misses the second (on purpose) but we aren't able to get the rebound and time runs out. 0:48. 87-89. Maryland has the ball. Let's see how tough we are. 2:40. 80-81. First lead for Maryland. Not looking good for us. 3:50. 80-77. After a 12-3 run by Maryland, it is anyone's ballgame. 6:03. 77-70. Frasor misses a wide open layup and Maryland scores a 3. 5 point swing. 7:00. 77-67. Lawson picked up his 4th foul. 7:09. 77-65. Alley oop from Lawson to Wright. 8:50. 73-61. I spoke too soon about the refs. UNC just picked up their 6th team foul. 9:10. 73-61. Hansbrough having a great game. Just scored a fast break dunk off a steal. 18 points so far. 12:56. 60-53. 8-1 run by UNC (mainly the second team) has given us a good lead again. 13:00. 58-53. Deon picked up his 4th foul! Fortunately, the refs have settled down a bit and aren't calling as many fouls. However, they aren't nearly as many fouls for Hansbrough after he scores as usual. 14:37. 56-52. UNC second team has given us a boost. 17:14. 48-48. Maryland tied it up.
UNC 44, Maryland 41 (HALFTIME)
We started off playing really well, but that changed around the 10 minute mark. Maryland man-handled us on the boards. Maryland got 29 rebounds to our 15! Between that and the huge foul disparity, Maryland was able to get back in the game after being down 13 early. I didn't think much about the first few questionable foul calls by the refs, but by the end of the half, UNC had been charged 14 fouls to Maryland's 7! Come on refs, you can't let it be that obvious. I don't like bringing this issue up because people will say I'm just whining about the refs, but 14-7? And that was only after refs gave us a couple of make-up fouls against Maryland's Vasquez at the end of the half. First half notes:4:33. 34-32. We let them right back into it. We lost our intensity. 8:48. 28-19. Alright, now I'm going to start questioning the refs. They missed a foul on a Reyshawn 3 point shot followed by a no call charge for Bobby. UNC has 8 fouls and Maryland has 3. 9:28. 26-17. Maryland starting to run has let them get a few easy baskets. 12:14. 20-9. UNC tallying a bunch of fouls. Maryland is already in the bonus. 14:52. 14-7. I love our aggressiveness! We are running extremely well. Shooting 6-10 from the floor. 17:18. 10-3. Ellington with 2 threes early.
UNC 83, NC State 64
Our depth proved to be too much for the Wolfpack. State looked like they were tired going into the half and they didn't come out in the second half looking any better. Their coach was tired too; he had to go to the hospital due to dehydration (he has been ill). At around the 8 minute mark we were running State ragged and then Roy put in 4 subs. I loved it :-) This was the first time we looked dominate in several games. Brandan Wright had a great game scoring a game high 24 points. Hansbrough scored 20 points too. Danny Green had a monster defensive game with 3 blocks. Reyshawn Terry had a very quiet game and almost seemed uninterested in trying to score. He only took 2 shots and one of those was a fast break dunk. Ty Lawson also had a relatively quiet game with 5 points and 5 assists. Quentin Thomas came off the bench in the first half to give the team a boost. He had a great alley oop to Brandan Wright. I think Q should have gotten more playing time in the second half. With Virginia losing earlier, we are back in sole position of first place in the ACC. If we can win out (games at Ga Tech, at Maryland, and home with Duke) we'll secure the regular season crown. Second half notes:4:32. 74-61. No one can stop Brandan Wright. He's having an awesome game. 8:37. 68-54. State looks apprehensive partly because of foul trouble but also because they are just tired. This is going to be a blowout! 13:45. 55-47. The UNC 2nd team has again come off the bench and increased our lead. The 2nd team (which includes Ginyard, Frasor, Miller, Thompson, and Green) is playing much better defense than the 1st team.
UNC 41, NC State 40 (HALFTIME)
The difference in the first half was our depth. At times State outplayed us, but they started to tire and accumulate fouls, which slowed them down. Engin Atsur helped keep State in the game going 3-4 from behind the arc. Early, State was out rebounding us by a large margin but we started to show some intensity in the later part of the half and made up the rebound deficit. State has 5 players with 2 fouls so if we keep attacking in the second half, foul trouble is going to be a problem for them. And since State isn't very deep, this could play right into our hands. First half notes:3:19. 36-34. Alley oop from Q to Brandan! Quentin is playing very well! 5:11. 30-29. State starting to rack up fouls of their own. 7:47. 24-28. This is a home game right? Someone might want to tell the refs that because they are calling everything they possibly can against UNC. State player pushed off on Terry and Terry got the foul. 8:32. 24-28. Lawson picked up his 2nd foul on a HIGHLY questionable call on Atsur (after Atsur carried the ball) 9:11. 22-25. State getting some open looks and making them. 11:45. 16-14. Atsur is keeping State in it with 2 3 pointers. 12:38. 16-11. UNC 2nd team playing pretty well against State. 13:24. 11-8. Refs calling a bunch of touch fouls.
UNC 77, BC 72
This game was very similar to the Virginia Tech game, but the outcome was different. We definitely didn't have a dominating performance, but it was good enough to secure another W. With the win, we are still in the hunt (tied with Virginia and Virginia Tech) for the regular season ACC crown. Five players scored in double figures with Hansbrough leading the way with 17. Nobody's performance really stood out except for Ellington in the first half. He finished the game shooting 5-8. Wright looked good at times. Reyshawn Terry made me want to pull out my hair on at least 4 occasions. Terry's two fouls against BC's Dudley while shooting 3 pointers caused me to utter obscenities that would make a sailor feel at home. The saving grace was that Dudley made only 1 of 6. Reyshawn made other unfortunate plays including messing up a fast break 4 on 1 opportunity and dribbling the ball out of bounds on what would have been a layup. On the bright side, he nailed a critical 3 pointer as time was winding down. We need him to be more consistent in order to go deep during tourney time. Next up is NC State in Chapel Hill. This will be our chance to avenge our earlier loss in Raleigh. 2nd half notes:0.07. 77-72. Lawson fouled and made both FTs. 0.10. 75-72. Dudley missed a 3 pointer. 0.22. 75-72. Ginyard goes to the line for a 1-1. He makes both! 0.30. 73-72. We missed on our end and BC's Reece made a driving layup. 1:29. 73-72. REYSHAWN FOULED DUDLEY AGAIN FROM BEHIND THE THREE POINT LINE!!! Fortunately Dudley didn't make any. Wow, what a choke. 3:40. 73-66. Big 3 pointer by Reyshawn (makes up for one of the bad plays he had earlier) 5:27. 70-65. BC hanging in there. 7:27. 68-63. Both teams are playing very hard! 11:17. 59-57. Missed shots and turnovers are hurting us now. 13:49. 55-49. We've had a couple of bad turnovers. Letting BC back into it. Labels: UNC
UNC 44, BC 38 (HALFTIME)
Not a bad half. Hansbrough is leading the way with 13 points. Wayne Ellington is shooting very well going 3-4 from the floor including 2-3 from behind the arc. We had a couple of good runs but it wasn't until BC's Dudley picked up his 3rd foul with 6 minutes to go and went to the bench that we were able to maintain a lead. I would insert an optimistic comment about how we are a second half team and are looking good for the win, but we were leading at the half against Virginia Tech too. It is still anyone's game. 2:34. 40-33. UNC on a 7-0 run. 4:48. 33-31. BC's Skinner got a T. 6:04. 28-29. Dudley picks up his 3rd foul. 6:49. 25-26. BC takes the lead on a Dudley 3 point bank :-/ 9:03. 25-18. Maintaining a good lead. Playing pretty solid with occasional defensive lapses. BC has 7 turnovers already. 14:40. 15-10. 9-0 run by UNC! 17:27. 4-7. Reyshawn Terry fouled Dudley behind the arc. Why does he make such boneheaded fouls?? Fortunately Dudley only made 1 of 3.
UNC 80, Virginia Tech 81
I was on the west coast last week so I couldn't watch this game live (I need to buy a slingbox). I followed it on Gametracker and I saw the ESPN high/low-lights. Then when I got back this morning I watched it on my DVR. The first half was very ugly. I thought we did better in the second half, but a couple of key fouls by Reyshawn Terry, a few questionable calls, and some horrible shooting did us in. We can't shoot 0-10 from beyond the arc in the second half and expect to win. Also, our free throw shooting let us down. Hansbrough missed a crucial FT down the stretch. Hopefully we'll be able to make more shots tonight against BC.
Best player of all time kissing the best coach of all time
During halftime of this weekend's game against Wake Forest, the '57 and '82 championship teams were honored. Michael Jordan was one of the former players in attendance. Here is a great shot of Jordan kissing Coach Smith.  More pictures available from Inside Carolina
UNC 104, Wake Forest 67
This game shows just how far UNC has come and how far in the other direction Wake as gone. At least Wake made it a game for the first 12 minutes. After falling behind by 1 at the 8:40 mark in the first half, Carolina went on a 29-9 tear to close out the half. Wake started accumulating fouls in the first half with two players tallying 3. With 9 minutes left in the game, Wake's best player, Kyle Visser, fouled out. It was downhill from there for the Deacs. This was the 7th time this year UNC scored 100 or more points in a game. Reyshawn Terry had his best offensive game of the year scoring 23 points and grabbing 8 rebounds in 17 minutes. He was 3-3 from the 3 point line and 6-6 from the free throw line. Tyler Hansbrough and Brandan Wright had their usual solid performances scoring 16 and 15 points, respectively. At halftime, the undefeated '57 team and '82 national championship team were honored. Many players from both teams were in attendance including Jordan, Worthy, Perkins among many others. Matt Doherty couldn't make it because his SMU team had a game that evening. After his name was announced, the crowd gave him a nice round of applause. I thought that was a nice gesture. We have 6 games left in the regular season and they are all tough. The top 4 teams in the ACC are separated by a single game, so the next couple of weeks should be exciting. UNC plays co-ACC leader BC next week. I can't wait for that game, but before that we get a chance to revenge an earlier loss to Virginia Tech!
UNC 79, Duke 73
UNC didn't play well for the first 30 minutes of the game, but was able to hold off the Dookies largely due to our depth. I don't want to take anything away from Duke. I've watched them a few times this year and I've seen them play poorly, but that wasn't the case here. They played extremely hard. Duke just wore down toward the end of the game and we hit shots when we needed to. This is Duke's third consecutive conference loss. Our defense left much to be desired, but we made up for it in the second half with good offense. If we are going to be an elite team, we have to show more heart. We looked lackadaisical at times in the first half. Come on, this is UNC v Duke! Brandan Wright scored a game high of 19. His defense hurt us at times, but he makes it look so easy on the offensive end. Hansbrough had a tough game (especially in the first half), but ended the game with 16 points. Tywon Lawson was the real glue for the team. He scored when we needed it and directed the team very well. He had 15 points for the game. It is madness on Franklin street! There are several bon fires with students jumping over the flames. Not my preferred celebration method, but I'm no longer in school ;-) Game notes:0.30: 74-68. Scheyer fouls out after a heck of a game (26 points) 0.45: 72-66. Lawson holds the ball to the end of the shot clock and scores on a driving layup. Man he is good! 1:17: 70-66. Did I speak too soon? Scheyer gets an old fashioned 3 point play after a Lawson foul. 1:27: 70-63. This game is ours to lose now!!! 1:46: 70-63. Ty Lawson blows by Paulus, scores the layup and gets a foul. Then makes the free throw! 2:07: 67-63. Duke looks tired. Tyler loses a contact which stops play for a couple of minutes. 2:36: 67-63. Scheyer picks up his 4th foul. Miller makes 1 of 2. 2:47: 66-63. Terry travels on what would have been an easy 2. 5:15: 62-60. Another goal tend on Henderson results in UNC taking the lead! UNC is much fresher at this point in the game than Duke. 6:19: 58-58. Wright scores again to tie it. His defense may be lacking but his offense isn't. 7:22: 54-59. Ugh, Ellington fouled the 3rd best free throw shooter in the ACC (Scheyer) from behind the 3 point line. Fortunately he missed two! He had made 40 in a row prior to that. 8:54: 52-54. McRoberts come back into the game. Let's see how long he lasts. 9:40: 52-52. Tie ball game! 10:38: 50-52. Miller nails a 3 to bring it to within 2 points. 11:48: 45-50. McRoberts picked up his 4th foul and despite the commentators proclamation that "McRoberts is an intelligent player can play with 4", he'll sit. If he is so intelligent, why did he pick up his 4th foul 2.5 minutes after getting his 3rd?? 13:24: 43-50. Duke continues to have a hard time keeping score. They reset the shot clock after Henderson had his shot blocked and Duke retained the ball. 14:07: 43-50. McRoberts picked up his 3rd foul. 16:33: 41-50. Wright let much smaller Nelson just score right by him. Wright's defense has been lousy this game. 18:29: 36-46. Back to a 10 point lead by Duke. Just not looking good for us.
UNC 34, Duke 39 (HALFTIME)
With the way we played, we are VERY lucky to only be down 5 at the half. We are playing like we did against State. We just aren't showing much heart, especially on the defensive end. After a rough start shooting the ball, we ended the half shooting 44% from the floor (compared with Duke's 41%). One difference is with 3 pointers. We shot 2-8 and Duke was 4-10. I hope we come out in the second half with a little more passion. Somebody has to guard Scheyer. He's got 14 points. 2:40: 29-37. We are getting it into Wright which is working. 4:06: 25-35. We've gone cold again and are letting Duke score on us at will. The pace has slowed down which favors Duke. *bad call alert* 8:24: 21-26. Holy shit. The refs called a technical on Deon for "grabbing the rim". Unbelievable. He thought he had a dunk. 9:39: 21-24. After a Hansbrough dunk, the game is back to within 3. UNC seems to be getting into the flow. I like the pace of the game. 10:43: 16-21. Two great plays by Wright. Stuff on the defensive end, followed by a dunk. *bad call alert* 12:08: 12-21. We just don't have intensity on the defensive end. Duke is taking it to us making 9 of their first 12 shots. Hansbrough got tied up and came out with blood on his forehead. Somehow that was a tie ball instead of a foul. Not sure how that works. I guess no blood no foul doesn't apply at Cameron. 14:59: 10-15. After the timeout, Carolina is playing better. 16:01: 6-15. Duke is playing well and we are not. Our guys look like a deer in headlights. 17:39: 4-10. Fast pace to start the game. Duke is making everything they shoot. 18:32: 2-5. Reyshawn came down hard on his back and had to come out of the game. *bad call alert* 19:15: A weak touch foul called against Ty Lawson to start the game.
UNC 79, NC State 83
I hate losing like this. It wasn’t that our shots weren’t falling or State was just so much better. Nope, we were a better, far deeper team. We just didn’t come to play…especially on the defensive end. At times we would turn things up a notch and get the game back to even, but we couldn’t maintain the intensity needed to beat State at the RBC Center. In the second half, Roy started trapping and pressuring the ball more, which seemed to work. I'm not sure why we didn’t use more full court pressure in the first half. There were two other major annoyances about this game: the refs and commentators. First the refs. Reyshawn Terry eventually fouled out of the game after having several touch fouls called against him. As the second half drew to a close, they started calling a bunch of touch fouls against UNC, but wouldn’t reciprocate when UNC had the ball. They called a little touch foul against Wes Miller on Astur which resulted in 2 easy free throws. On the other end of the court, Brandan Wright got mugged and no foul was called. I don’t mind the touch fouls as much as long as the refs are consistent. And don't remind me of the horrible technical foul called against Hansbrough for a supposed "swing" against a State player. The replay clearly showed he wasn't swinging at the player. The tech resulted in 5 points for State (they got a 3 on the ensuing possession). I hope someone from the ACC reviews the tape. As far as the commentators (I didn’t catch their names), they were beyond annoying with the constant 6 pack versus a case or 6 pack versus a keg analogies. We get it already. Carolina is a deeper team. No need to say it over and over again. Also, one of the commentators (Jimmy D?) made several remarks about how Hansbrough is not a “skill player” and how he doesn’t really have much skill...just heart. What a bunch of BS. Wes Miller has a bunch of heart, but he is no All-American. I found it insulting for the guy to constantly refer to Hansbrough as not being that skilled. It is amazing to me that the person that scored a game high of 24 points is not that skilled. On a positive note, I'd like to point out Ty Lawson's performance. He continues to get better every game. He scored 21 points and had 7 assists. He's turning into one of college basketball's premier point guards. Game Notes:1:45: 75-77. Two Ellington free throws brings it to 2 points 2:35: 71-77. Hansbrough picked up his 4th foul. 5:35: 65-71. Good defense by UNC led to a critical turnover, but we couldn’t convert on the other end. 6:00: 65-71. Atsur had to take State’s last timeout after a good trap by Carolina 6:35: 60-71. This is State’s game to lose 7:00. Hansbrough got a technical called for what was supposed to be a swing at a State player but the replayed showed it wasn’t. Bad call by the refs. Good job, thanks for giving state 5 points (they made a 3 after 2 free throws by Atsur). 8:12: 59-67. McCauley picked up his 4th foul. Woohoo! 9:11: 57-65. State’s McCauley is having his way with Hansbrough 10:56: 53-62. State literally cannot miss right now. Geez. 13:46: 51-52. Terry picks up his 4th 15:45: 47-46. UNC got its first lead of the second half UNC 36, NC State 38 (HALFTIME) 05.7: 36-36. Atsur picked up his 3rd foul on a Lawson drive 4:30: 25-29. UNC has finally started playing some D 5:42: 20-29. We couldn’t hit the side of a barn. State takes a 9 point lead after a 12-0 run!! 7:49: 20-23. State scored 6 straight points. We are making it too easy for them. 9:00: 20-17. We finally started pressing and got a steal on the first time. 9:27: 15-17. Our defense is non-existent. 10:47: 15-12. Lawson has scored 5 straight points 12:24: 10-10. UNC isn’t playing with much intensity 14:21: 10-6. UNC playing ok, not great. NC State is doing a good job of keeping the pace down.
| 
