Like Wayne and Ty, the odds are low that Danny will actually enter the draft. These guys just want to "test the waters" to see how they stack up with the competition.
Posted by Robbie Allen @ 4/27/2008 10:43:00 AM 2 comments
The speculation is over, now time for speculation
The various UNC message boards have been in a near frenzy over the past few weeks as various people said their "sources" were telling them one thing or another. I've heard every combination of the "big 3" coming and going and once that got tiring, rumors about Danny Green leaving started to surface.
The truth? Tyler is staying. Wayne and Ty are putting their names into the pot but not hiring agents. With Ty projected as a late first rounder and Wayne projected to go in the second round, there is a very good chance we'll still get all 3 back for next season. I imagine these guys want to see how the various team workouts go, but won't enter the draft unless they get a guaranteed contract (lottery), which isn't likely.
If either of them go I'm going to suspect they weren't happy with the idea of playing at UNC for one more season rather than they think they are ready for the NBA. Obviously both of these guys need at least another year in college and if they continue to improve will be in a much better position for next year's draft. Maybe they need the money now and there have been plenty of rumors floating around as to that being the case too.
Posted by Robbie Allen @ 4/25/2008 04:27:00 PM 1 comments
In case you need a little cheering up
A couple of people asked me if there was a picture of Danny Green's FACIAL on Greg Paulus when we beat Duke on their Senior Night (Youtube here). Thanks to Jim Hawkins from Inside Carolina here you go. This is classic!
Roy responds to criticism concerning him pulling for Kansas
My post on the "sticker incident" has garnered more comments than any other post I've written in 4 years. Fans are decidedly mixed on their opinions. Now Roy responds to what he calls "the most unsettling thing to have happened to him in the 5 years" since he's been back at UNC...
Roy and the Kansas sticker
Last night I turned on the championship game with about 3 minutes left to go in the first half. At one point they showed ol Roy sitting in the crowd. I was a little surprised to see what looked like a Kansas Jayhawk sticker on his shirt. At halftime he participated in an interview with CBS and had a jacket on, but you could still see part of the sticker sticking out.
I turned to my wife and said: I know some of the Carolina faithful won't like that.
What do I think?
I'm as big of a Roy Williams fan as you'll find, but it didn't sit that well with me. I know Roy spent 15 years at Kansas, but that was the team that just beat us badly a couple of days ago. Root for the Jayhawks sure, but why wear the sticker? I'm sure he meant nothing negative by it, but you have to know some Tar Heel fans won't like it. I also know Roy won't care if people didn't like him wearing it. Ultimately, this is a very small issue in the grand scheme of things and let's hope it doesn't get blown up more than what it is: a college coach rooting on his former team.
Posted by Robbie Allen @ 4/08/2008 07:34:00 AM 35 comments
It is an understatement to say that this game didn't go the way I expected. I imagined a tough game, but for Kansas to come out and punch us in the mouth the way they did--we couldn't overcome it. We got it all the way back down to a 4 point deficit, but Kansas took control again in the final minutes of the second half to secure a 18 point win. And despite the great comeback, Kansas still outscored us in the second half--40-39--so they won that half too.
StatSheet's Game Stats put this game into perspective. The first half was our lowest scoring half of the year. Our total points was our lowest of the year. It was our worst FG percentage of any game (35%). Our next worst percentage was 38% against Ohio State. It was also our least number of assists. So the numbers speak for themselves, this was one of our worst games from a stats perspective.
Now for the players. No one had a great game and outside shooting was especially lacking. Danny Green gave us a few bursts and shot relatively well (46%), but he also led the team with 5 turnovers. I was shocked when Wayne Ellington was named the UNC player of the game by CBS. I can only assume they did that because he led UNC with 18 points, but he was a dismal 1-9 from 3 point range. When your "best" outside shooter shoots 11% from 3 point range, you know you are in for some trouble. After a while I was screaming at the TV for Wayne to stop taking 3 pointers. At least Danny had some success.
Tyler played ok, but wasn't able to take over the game as he has previously. The Kansas bigs definitely gave him some trouble. Bill Self had a great game plan: take it to the UNC big men. And it worked. We couldn't defend their big guys. They were tougher.
Where in the World is Ty Lawson? That was a question I was asking myself for much of the game. Gone was the dangerous slasher. Gone was the consistent outside shooting he gave us. Gone was the leadership. Does he already have one eye on the NBA Draft? Was he still babying that ankle? At least Wayne went down firing. Ty went down without much of a fight. Extremely disappointing.
And what about Roy? Should he have called more timeouts? Every other coach seems to use up timeouts when their opponents go on big runs. Roy typically doesn't. He did eventually tonight, but it was too late. But that's just Roy. He's never used many timeouts and he probably never will.
I'm left with a feeling much like that after the Georgetown game last year. In fact, if I look at my blog post after that game, I had similar comments. Ty lost his aggressiveness, Wayne couldn't hit anything from deep, etc. Is this a trend? Can we win even if Ty and Wayne stay? Maybe they just don't have what it takes to win at the Final Four??
But I don't want to get too down. This was one heck of a season. We beat Duke on their Senior Night. We went undefeated on the road. We won the ACC Championship and ACC Tourney. And we went to the Final Four. All good stuff for sure. It is just a shame because this team could very well be the best team in the nation, but will not be taking home the NCAA trophy on Monday night.
Time to decompress. The end of the season always seems to come so suddenly. Now another 7 months before Late Night with Roy....
Worst half of the season
Great timing to have our worst (and lowest scoring) half of the year in the Final Four. Kansas made us look like we were walking out there. We went 9 minutes without a field goal. That's almost half of the half!! We finally got our act together toward the end of the half, but do we have any chance coming back from being down 17?? Kansas was totally unstoppable, and let's hope they don't have that much energy in the second half. Regardless, someone on our side has to make a shot. Come on Wayne!!
Posted by Robbie Allen @ 4/05/2008 10:02:00 PM 12 comments
