Another action packed game which saw UNC run up another double digit lead and cruise home.
The big news in this game was the return of Marcus Ginyard who was visibly rusty(as expected) and a bit deficient in the conditioning department(also expected) as evidenced by an airballed free throw in the 2nd half. Ginyard also made some good plays in his first action since last season’s Final Four. As he gets back to form it only helps UNC’s depth and defense.
In other news, the combination of Ty Lawson and Tyler Hansbrough is now the ultimate power in the universe and the Heels in general played a very good game coming off the eight day layoff which included time at home for the holidays. Hansbrough put in another day at the office with 26 points and 10 rebounds which lifted the Heels to a 37-25 advantage on the boards. Ty Lawson continues to be the straw that stirs the drink with a mix of jumpers and drives to the basket that threaten the laws of physics in some cases. Lawson also played mistake free basketball to go along with six assists which is something pretty much no other point guard in the country is probably doing as consistently as Lawson is.
With this team the questions about the defense still crop up. Rutgers got some open looks and managed a 47% shooting clip. Roy attributes some of that to gambles being made on defense leading to easy baskets. The full court press seems to be giving up some baskets as well. On the flip side of that equation Rutgers had 18 turnovers so the way the Heels were playing defense was not a complete loss. According to the players, Roy is still preaching defense and Lawson even used the word “slacking” when referring to how Roy referenced their defensive effort. There may be some truth to that but I am waiting to see if the effort on either end has something to do with this stretch of cupcakes games. Roy had been adamant for two seasons now that the 2005 team was a decent team defensively for most of the year and became a great defensive team by the NCAA Tournament giving them the necessary edge to win the title. I imagine that is the general hope for this team though I would argue they are not in bad shape defensively just in need of some adjustments to give them an extra edge.
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Great game. And if I ever have to hear about how Tyler doesn’t have a mid-range game, I will blow a fuse. He is the most effecient shooter from 15 that I know.
Anyone saying that about Hansbrough isn’t watching Hansbrough. I thought the Heels looked good, but continue to appear a bit bored with the competition. I think they’ll look good on Wednesday night and then be ready for the ACC.
I give Rutgers major respect for being willing to go out and play such competition as they have lined up. Ohio State did that a few years ago when they battled some elite teams pre-conference, including marching down to Chapel Hill and playing us.
I’m not sure I agree, JB. Rutgers schedule before yesterday was down right pathetic (NJIT, Bryant, Binghamton, Del. St., etc.) and they can’t really take credit for Pitt and UConn, as those are Big East games.
Here are some cray numbers:
Starting with the, “Victimization of Gerald,” this team is 55 – 4.
This team has won 38, regular-season, non-conference games in a row.
Prior to this season, NO Carolina team had won each of their first 11 games by 10 or more points. This team has won its first 12 by at least 15!
To say it is a good time to be a Tar Heel fan is a massive understatement, as you can argue there has never been a better time!
Yep. It’s pretty amazing. If we win the NC this year, it will really cap off what will be the best UNC run of my short 35 year lifetime.
I thought the Heels looked good. The offense did well but we missed some open easy shots that should have gone in. I wasn’t satisfied with the defense or our rebounding. I was so happy to see Marrcus back even though he was still rusty. Overall a great game for the Heels!
Mucho better energy/effort from the git-go! Awesome rebounding! Ed Davis, will you marry my daughter?!
Roy’s gambit: We’re going to gamble on D, big-time, disrupt your playmakers into tortured turnovers and bad shots for break-out baskets. Yeah, that’s going to cost us some points, but we’re going to set the net afire with an arsenal of arsonists. Our reign of Aces raining duces.
Basically, a great shooting team can gamble on D and win the bet on O.
“We have a great shooting team.” -Roy, 2007.
It is clear to me now that that’s the gauntlet Roy is throwing down.
Yo, NCAA, wanna bet?
Zoomba!
I’ll take your bet, you’re gonna regret, cause I’m the best that’s ever been. Fire in the Dean Dome run boys run, the Devil’s in the house of the rising sun, Coach K’s looking at the bench trying to pick out his pro’s, think we can win Bubas, no child no.
It is interesting that we plunged in both the Pomeroy ratings and the Sagarin chess ratings after yesterday’s game.
Valpo looked pretty good again in its game at Purdue.
I thought Rutgers actually played the best game of anyone against Carolina when Hansbrough has been in the line up. They actually played brave and their effort merited respect. I believe Carolina’s streak of never having an opponent within double digits in the second half continues.
Bobby Frasor continues to have severe problems on the offensive end. All of his statistics are pedestrian except for his assist to turnover ratio, which is decent but still trails Lawson, Drew, Ellington and Green. Frasor has also had several near turnovers where either a teammate or the official scorer seems to have helped him out.
Larry Drew has almost equal points, more assists and more steals than does Frasor, while playing a quarter fewer minutes than Frasor.
With Ginyard back, I expect to see very little of Frasor during ACC play, unless Frasor can substantially improve his offensive performance.
Agreed. Frasor is not what he once was. I still maintain my gratitude for his performance in his freshman year. What I do not want is him getting playing time while being a liability. His defense hasn’t looked as strong as it did before either. Hopefully he gets out of his slump and finds a way to make contributions in his final year (still pending I guess). But if Drew keeps playing well, he may find it hard to see some PT unless we find ourselves in a tight game warranting a defensive stop.
C. Michael. You shouldn’t agree. At the time of post I was not even thinking of those being mandated conference games. My bad! Yes, their schedule was weak with the exception of us. Needless to say, they will not be winning any conference title this year!
Well, to be fair to Rutgers, they already had UNC in Chapel Hill and they play 18 conference games with almost no sure wins. The ACC probably should be playing 18 conference games like the Pac Ten and Big East do.
I also think that Rutgers is attempting to elevate the play in the area around N.J. in general and is playing a lot of NY,NJ, Delaware and PA teams, some of whom, like Princeton, St. Bonaventure and Lehigh have pretty good basketball histories.
Here is an example of a team that scheduled too hard in its non-conference games: http://kenpom.com/sked.php?team=North%20Carolina&y=2002&t=p
William: “It is interesting that we plunged in both the Pomeroy ratings and the Sagarin chess ratings after yesterday’s game.”
We’re rated 21st in Adjusted Defense. Rutgers is rated 199th in Adjusted Offense. 199th! We only matched the Sagarin spread of 22 points against Rutgers…and the spread has not been our friend for the rankings thus far. I.e., our D is costing us, both in the algorithmic rankings and some observers’ estimates of this team’s projected (read: should be) strength.
That 21st AdjD ranking is well-below G’town’s 4th, Pitt’s 8th, Dook’s 9th, WVU’s 2nd, and Louisville’s 1st. Only our Offense is keeping us ranked fifth overall in Division I. (See Roy’s Gambit, above.)
From his (continuing) comments, Roy’s not happy about the D, either. And that’s a Good Thing.
Interesting discussion on the perimeter players. Assuming Marcus continues to get healthier, I’m willing to bet the “rotation” in crunch time will be:
Ty
Wayne
Danny
Tyler
Deon (split with Ed)
Ed
Marcus (splitting time with Wayne and Danny)
Limited minutes (< 10) for Drew II, Graves and Frasor depending on foul trouble etc.