UNC bounced back from a disappointing loss against Maryland to win at Miami last night. Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson led the way with 35 points and 23 points. Ty also tallied 10 assists to record a double-double. Like many of our games, our opponent hung close in the first half before the Tar Heels developed a nice lead in the second half. Hansbrough scored 27 points in the second half and was unstoppable. Lawson cut up the Miami D on several occasions. It was fun to watch them both in action.
The rest of the team had decent performances, but not outstanding. Wayne Ellington was 5-14 from the floor and missed his first free throw in ACC play. Alex Stephenson looked out of sorts during most of his 16 minutes on the court. He missed a couple of easy shots and didn't look as good on defense as he normally does.
Miami was a very fast team, but once they got behind, they couldn't stop UNC. They'd make a few baskets in a row, but so would UNC. We had our normal defensive lapses at times, but overall we played well.
Now we have a week off before facing BC at the Dean Dome. Let's hope we defend our home court a little better than we did against Maryland.
UNC battled back from a 10 point deficit in the second half to take a 4 point lead with 2:29 left to go in the game. However, it wasn't enough as Maryland took advantage of their opportunities when our guys didn't to pull out a two win at the Dean Dome.
The thing that killed us in this game was shooting--on both ends of the court. We shot 38% for the game when we normally average 49% and Maryland shot 48% when they normally shoot 46%. Specifically, Danny Green and Wayne Ellington went a combined 10-29. If just one of those guys would have been on tonight, we would have probably won, but having both of our outside shooting threats have such subpar games really killed us.
So much for getting any kind of home court favoritism from the refs. They were bad all game and missed several calls (again on both ends, although I saw more on the UNC side). Little touch fouls here, letting muggings slide there--it was frustrating.
We started the game very sluggish. Our intensity wasn't nearly as strong as Maryland's. On offense we played erratic in the first half: sloppy passes, bad shots, etc. It wasn't until the first timeout in the second half that we finally turned it around. You could just tell UNC all of a sudden had a lot more intensity. And in under 5 minutes we erased a 10 point deficit. Coach Williams said we started playing with more emotion then, but it wasn't enough to overcome the consecutive fouls we committed in the closing minutes to give Maryland 6 easy points at the charity strip.
Wayne Ellington had a good look to pull us ahead in the final seconds, but it rimmed out. Hansbrough got his hands on the ball for the final shot at the 3 point line. but it wasn't to be. Was the play designed to go to Hansbrough that far away from the rim?? It sure looked like it. I love Hansbrough and all, but I'd much rather have a cold Ellington or even Marcus Ginyard (who was 2-3 from 3 in the game) shoot that far out to win the game. Oh well.
On the plus side we fought hard to get the lead back after being down 10. On the down side, we lacked intensity for much of the game. I'm not sure why our guys have a hard time getting up for games sometimes. Maybe they were a little drained from the recent games? Let's hope that's it!
UNC got lucky to escape GaTech tonight with a 1 point victory. Like the Clemson game, this is another character building game for us.
I wasn't happy with the officiating at all. I thought the refs were inconsistent and missed many calls (on both sides). In this game it was perfectly legal to mug a player after grabbing a rebound and get a tie ball called. It is ridiculous how players can just pounce on a rebounder or shooter and a have a tie ball called. Paul Hewitt was upset at a couple of calls (specifically the Ginyard hip check), but I didn't see any of his players all bloodied up the way Tyler Hansbrough was at the end of the game. All I have to say about that is that Jeremis Smith played like a thug tonight against Hansbrough. It was hard to watch all the no calls.
Despite all of that, Tyler ended up with another double-double, scoring 27 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. He was 13-15 from the free throw line. I don't have the stats in front of me yet, but our outside shooting wasn't stellar. Wayne Ellington couldn't get going and no one shot much beyond the three point line.
The thing that killed us in the first half was our lack of rebounding and lack of defensive pressure (at times). While we scored 48 by the end of the first half, GaTech scored 46. This was the first team I've seen this year that really gave UNC a dose of our own medicine. On made baskets, Tech would push it up the floor and several times caught us lagging behind.
Marcus Ginyard played some pretty good D. He had several dunks either on wide open cuts or defensive steals. Ty Lawson had a pretty good game on both ends. It is always fun to watch him go coast-to-coast. However, the fake he does sometimes after made shots and attempt to steal the inbound pass bit us on a couple of occasions. The Tech PG would hustle down the court after Ty missed the steal.
This game showed that we still have to work on our rebounding and defense, but it was another good win. Winning games in the closing seconds like this will help teach our guys what it takes to develop the killer instinct I've said so many times has been missing.
UNC scored 25 unanswered points in the first half to put this game out of reach before the second half even began. State kept things close for the first 6 minutes, but after that it wasn't much of a game. State shot a miserable 17% in the first half (though came back and shot 58% in the second). Part of it was UNC's defense and the other part was State missing shots they should have made. State looks like a shell of a team and nothing like the team that gave UNC a run for the money in the ACC tourney last year. What happened to Brandon Costner?? He was the man last year, but this year is scoring 6 fewer points per game. Maybe it was the addition of star freshman JJ Hickson.
Most everyone on the UNC side had a good game, except for Tyler. But a bad day for Tyler means he "only" scores 13 and grabs 13 rebounds. Still not bad. Danny Green had the best day from a stats perspective: 13 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 blocks! That's a busy day. Ty Lawson's stat line isn't too shabby either: 16 points, 5 assists, 2 steals, and 0 turnovers.
Another performance worth mentioning is that of Quentin Thomas. Yes, Quentin had an excellent game (4 assists and 0 turnovers in 13 minutes)! Ty went down early in the game after re-spraining his ankle and was out for a good 6 or 7 minutes. Q came in and dropped a couple of dimes and made a couple of baskets. Admittedly State didn't pressure Q like Clemson did, but I think this will do wonders for his confidence. Hopefully he can build on this.
State is a prime example of how important the point guard position is in college basketball. They lost Engin Atsur last year due to graduation and the intended replacement (not sure of his name?) went down due to injury earlier. They are left with freshman Javier Gonzalez who looked lost at times and could never get State into a flow.
However, there are bigger problems for State than just the PG position. It is obvious that this team is out of sync. They aren't playing as a team and I'd be very surprised if there aren't some personality conflicts on the team. Regardless, I'm sure they'll give us a better game at the RBC Center in a month.
Hansbrough dunk on Kenny George
I didn't mention it in my game summary, but Tyler had an awesome dunk against UNC-Asheville 7'7" big man Kenny George. You had a sense Tyler was getting frustrated with not getting shots up and decided to take it out on the rim!
Tyler's starting to accumlate a highlight reel full of dunks this season.
Posted by Robbie Allen @ 1/10/2008 07:35:00 AM 4 comments
Coming off an emotional win at Clemson, we were able to hold off a good UNC-Asheville team (while Clemson fell to Charlotte). Our stats show that we played right around our average in most offensive categories. Lawson, Ellington, and Hansbrough all shot well from the floor although UNCA big man Kenny George definitely made things difficult (with 4 blocks) for anyone that went into the post area.
However, the story of this game isn't our offensive output. We can generally get points on the board. That's not in question. The issue last night was our defense (again). Roy was quoted before the game saying that he thinks UNC is right there with Memphis and Kansas offensively, but doesn't think we are anywhere near as good as them defensively. He's right. A UNCA team that averages 79 points per game shouldn't come in to the Dean Dome and put 81 on the country's #1 team. Now I know that UNC's tempo encourages a high scoring game, but our defense (or lack thereof) has to be at least partly to blame for UNCA shooting 53.2% from the field.
It was surprising that UNCA was only down 10 with 3 minutes left to go in the game. This was another game that the outcome was never in doubt, but we should have won by a lot more. After a timeout around the 3 minute mark, it seemed like Roy got his team's attention because UNC went on a 9-0 run to secure the lead. What, did he threaten to run them again like he did earlier in the season if they didn't clamp down on D?
Wow, what a game. This is the best game I've watched in a while. UNC didn't lead at all in the second half and I thought we would lose for sure. But Wayne Ellington put us on his back (with some help from Tyler of course) to get us in to overtime and eventually the win. It has been a while since Carolina has had to come from behind on a good team like Clemson and pull it out in the end (on the road no less). This was a great experience for the team.
Both teams played really well for most of the game. UNC played good defense and Clemson was also very stingy, especially on Tyler. However, we weren't clicking as well on offense. Hansbrough only got off 7 attempts all game. Mays and Booker were very physical (as is typical for a Clemson team).
This game really showed me how much losing Bobby Frasor and Alex Stephenson (to a lessor degree) has hurt. It was painfully obvious how much we lose when Quentin comes in the game. All an opposing team needs to do is press against Quentin and you'll likely get turnovers. In the first half he took a bad shot and followed it up with two turnovers in a row. He just doesn't look comfortable dribbling when pressured. Even though Marcus Ginyard has a tendency to make an errand pass every once in a while, I'd almost rather see him bring the ball up the court when Ty is not in the game. Bobby was a solid PG coming off the bench and a great defender. Quentin is neither.
Speaking of the PG position, Ty had a uncharacteristically sloppy game. He was out of control several times and was called for 4 fouls. He pushed the ball pretty well, but wasn't as smooth trying to navigate among Clemson's bigs. Tyler also didn't have his usual game, which had a lot to do with the Clemson big men. He did draw a critical charge with 47 seconds to go which gave UNC a chance to take the lead.
But let me get back to Wayne Ellington. He had an absolutely huge night, even before his final second three pointer to seal the deal. He scored a career high 36 points on 11-19 shooting, 9-9 from the free throw line, and 5-8 from downtown. This is what I was talking about earlier in the season when I said we need Ellington to be our go-to scorer when things aren't going well down low. If he would have played like he did against Valpo or Rutgers, we would not have won. Plain and simple.
Lastly I'll mention two poor performances. Will Graves (who I've recently been praising) came off the bench early, but couldn't hit the side of a bus (going 0-4). Then there are the refs. In the first half I was willing to let a couple of calls slide, but they got progressively worse as the game went on. They missed several calls (and admitedly missed a couple against UNC). They weren't consistent in their calls at all.
This game would have been a good loss for us, but it has made for an even better win.
Despite being short-handed, UNC was able to pull away from Kent St in the second half to secure a 29 point victory. Not only were we down Bobby Frasor and Quentin Thomas (again with a sore ankle), Alex Stephenson didn't play. Alex went home to California to attend to an illness in his family. Quentin actually suited up for the game, but wasn't going to play unless there was an emergency.
We blew yet another large lead (18 pts) in the first half. In the closing minutes, Kent St got it all the way back down to 9 pts, but Wayne Ellington dribbled the ball up the court and with less than a second to go nailed a three from behind NBA range. It was a great way to finish a rather lackluster performance in the final minutes by UNC.
As is our tendency, we played better in the second half and wore down Kent St. We played ok at times, but our defense also looked like swiss cheese at times. Kent St was able to score way too many baskets in the paint.
Tyler Hansbrough kept up his All-American caliber play scoring 25 pts including 11-11 from the free throw line. Wayne Ellington shot better this game going 8-11 from the field for 17 points. Ty Lawson also shot well going 7-11 for 17 points. He nailed 3 threes, a couple of which were wide open. Danny Green wasn't quite the spark plug he has been, but he still did well scoring 9 pts and grabbing 8 rebounds and 2 blocks.
To make up for the loss of Quentin and Alex, Will Graves and Mike Copeland both saw career highs in minutes. Will didn't keep up his torrid shooting pace--going 1-5, but he did grab 6 rebounds and make 2 assists in only 14 minutes. I wasn't very hot on Mike Copeland's performance. Like Will, he's a local product (from Winston-Salem), and even though he scored 8 points going 3-4, I thought he made several bad decisions, which is evident by his team leading 4 turnovers (in 16 minutes).
Let's hope we have both Alex and Quentin back for the Sunday game against Clemson to open conference play. This will be our biggest test of the season so far.
This game could be titled: The Tale of Two Halves. The first half we lacked defensive intensity and squandered a 17 point lead. Valpo started the second half strong and tied it at 37-all. But after that Mr. Green took over and helped UNC pull away with a 27-2 run. Danny tied his career high scoring 20 points on 8-10 shooting. He couldn't miss! Tyler Hansbrough had another strong performance scoring 23 points and grabbing 13 rebounds to notch another double-double. Another person that was on fire was Greensboro's own William Graves! He scored 14 points on 5-6 shooting in just 8 minutes of play. I've always had a good feeling about Graves and I hope he gets more playing time. He has a smooth stroke and a good body to go with it.
With Bobby out and Quentin Thomas sitting due to a bad ankle, the secondary point guard duties fell to Marcus Ginyard. Marcus did a pretty good job when Ty wasn't in the game. Ty didn't seem like his old self this game. Maybe he was tired from kicking UCSB's butt ;-) He looked very apprehensive shooting the ball. He passed on several open shots and didn't shoot well when he did take them (2-6 from the floor). But that wasn't anything compared to Wayne Ellington's shooting woes. He was a miserable 2-10 from the floor and had several bricks that sounded bad even on TV. A lot of people are questioning why Danny isn't starting in place of Wayne and at this point, I have to wonder that myself. He did lead the team with 6 assists and 0 turnovers which was positive.
Next up is Kent State. They are a decent team and should give us a good game.
