This was a game of streaks.
Archive for December, 2007
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For those in the Triangle area of North Carolina today has been a very wet day and downright dreary. Here is hoping none of that is reflecting in the way the Heels play tonight. Live blogging after the jump.
Where: Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC
When: Sunday, December 30th, 7:30 PM
TV: FSN
Records: UNC 12-0; Valpo 10-2
Now begins life without Bobby Frasor. And what better test than a good mid-major who will present certain challenges to UNC as Roy reconfigures the rotation to account for Frasor’s absence. Questions range from how well Quentin Thomas will do running the point as the sole backup to who gets more minutes now. For the most part these questions will not be remotely close to an answer after this game but this contest could offers some early insight as to how Roy plans to adjust.
The interesting part of this matchup is Valpo is yet another tTar Heel opponent that comes in having won a lot of games and appears to be a good team despite being absent from any rankings. It will be fun to go back and see how many of these teams UNC has played outside the conference end up making the NCAA Tournament. At any rate, UNC will need to be sharp since Valpo comes in with an extremely balanced offense that spreads the scoring load among six players none of them above 12 ppg. Individual defensive matchups will be key since everyone on the floor for Valpo is a threat. The Crusaders are also an excellent three point shooting team at 41% with two players clocking close to 50% from beyond the arc. This will be another stern test for the UNC perimeter defense as they continue to improve upon that much talked about bugaboo.
This game is as much about watching this team do some growing to account for the loss of Frasor and continue to improve upon the last two excellent efforts to get into midseason form for the ACC grind.
UNC 105 Valpo 81
Miami Will Not Go Undefeated: As though we were really worried about that. Miami fell in a neutral site game to Winthrop 77-70. Obviously the Eagles are one of the better mid-major teams out there so this loss does not come as a complete shock nor does it really tells us much more than we already knew and that was Miami looked a lot like Clemson did last season with an impressive start that really needs ACC level testing to validate. Dropping a game to a quality mid-major like Winthrop basically means Miami is not ACC top tier but still could find themselves running in the middle of the pack.
NC State Starting to Figure It Out: The Wolfpack seem like they have more of a clue now. Winning does that even if it is comes against cupcakes though the win over Davidson probably was the biggest confidence booster since they were decidedly not of the Little Debbie variety. Seton Hall is the latest in this line of good wins. The Pirates are not necessarily the most impressive team in the Big East but they came in with an 8-2 mark including a win over Virginia. It was also a road win for the Pack which never hurts. NCSU followed up that with a dessert helping of Western Carolina at home on Saturday. NCSU is not 9-3 and working through the loss of Farnold Degand.
Things Are Downright Bad in Tallahassee: According to the Tallahassee Democrat FSU will face Georgia Tech on Sunday with a grand total of six healthy scholarship players and only one true big man. The injury bug is running rampant through the basketball team but that is far better than the academic cheating plague of locust ravaging the football team. At any rate, Georgia Tech is getting a gift catching a conference opponent with depleted personnel.
Anyone Seen Duke Lately?: For some reason Duke scheduled in a 16 day break between games which I find an odd bit of scheduling. Duke will not see action again until January 6th against Cornell which is precisely the kind of snack with a creamy middle you need to shake off the rust from two plus weeks of watching and practicing.
Little Debbie Galore: No serious opposition played by the rest of the league. BC only beating Sacred Heart by five is disturbing on a variety of levels and everything we have come to expect from BC.
I delved into this right went I heard the news and now that I have had 24 hours to think about it I wanted to look at the loss of Bobby Frasor and how it much it will hurt?
So the bowl season has arrived and eight ACC teams will take to the field to defend the honor of the conference and collect goody bags of small personal electronics for the players. The latter is most likely a bigger deal to the participants than the former.
Unfortunately my enthusiasm for how this game unfolded has been seriously dampened by the news out of Chapel Hill that Bobby Frasor is out for the season with a torn ACL. Tough break for a great guy and the bad news has really sucked the air out of what was looking like a big freaking balloon all through the second half of the game. At any rate, the season moves on and if this game servers any notice as to what UNC is becoming, I think we are all going to be fairly happy come March.
Crap.
Via the postgame reports, Bobby Frasor has been declared lost for the season following a freakish knee injury during the second half against Nevada. If you saw the play, Frasor got his knee twisted in a weird way before crumpling to the floor clutching it in obvious pain. After Roy and trainer Marc Davis attended to him on the court, Frasor actually got up and limped off leading me to believe it was not as bad as it looked. It turns out to be a tear of the ACL and according to UNC officials will require surgery.
All I can say is that this is really messed up on so many levels. There is no one on this UNC team I believe has put his head down and done his part more so than Frasor. He went from being a starter his freshman season to losing his job to Lawson and battling injury most of last season. And there was never a sign he was unhappy with the situation. Heading into this season, the roles were are defined and I was hopeful Frasor would find his niche as a shooter and defensive specialist at either guard spot if needed. I think we saw some of that. Frasor played a steady point backing up Lawson and handled running the offense against BYU and Ohio St. as UNC won both of those games. In tonight’s game prior to the injury, Frasor hit a three and had scored five points in 10 minutes. Unfortunately for Frasor, he seems a bit snake bitten much the same way Steve Hale was in his days at UNC.
The team impact is clear. Lawson has no safety net now, neither does Ellington for that matter in terms of defensive effort. As far as the point goes, this is by no means a slight on Quentin Thomas, but Frasor was the steady hand, tended to be more efficient as well as cautious running the offense and was a better defender. Thomas needs to step up and fill the role. It also hurts UNC’s depth, at least the quality of it.
Thoughts and prayers for Bobby and high hopes he can rehab to be a major factor on next year’s team.
Where: Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC
When: Thursday, December 27th, 2007
TV: ESPN2
Records: UNC 11-0; Nevada 7-4
No one was surprised that UNC responded to Roy’s two days of practice hell by running UCSB out of the Dean Dome. The question is what kind of effort you get from this same team five days later with most of them likely to have been home and relaxing with the family? For me it boils down to this group of players coming out performing at a high level without the tough practice and disappointed coach while transiting through the small break around Christmas. Of course there is also the probability that one or two players are recovering from tryptophan induced comas from Christmas dinner.
As for Nevada, they have traditionally been one of the better mid-major programs out there. So while this shows up as another unranked opponent they are by no means a team to be taken lightly. Despite the little break and what is probably going to be a smaller crowd due to the lack of students on campus, the Heels need to come out sharp and dominate early.
UNC 102 Nevada 73
Another year has come to a close and for Tar Heel fans it is has been a roller coaster. I really hate roller coasters and looking back on this year, there has been some heartbreaking stuff going on. Then again, one could argue the higher the level of success the tougher the losses when they come so late in the season.
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