Roy Williams:
“Well, needless to say this feels better than it did in Winston-Salem the other day. I think in the first half we were pretty doggone good. In the second half, we didn’t rebound nearly as well as we wanted, nor did we make the shots. At the same time, we were up 14 at the half, and in the first few plays in the first few minutes of the second half, we got to 18 or 19 [points] ahead. But when it got up a little higher than that we got a little complacent, a little lethargic, and weren’t moving as well as we did. But again, this feels so much better and I do believe that it was good basketball particularly for us in the first half.”
That sounds about right. The Tar Heel players apparently have some kind of “20-point mercy rule switch” which prevents them from shredding a team after the deficit reaches a certain level. I really wish someone could figure out how to turn it off. I want total disaster! I want the Heels to adminster a beating so severe the other team will give serious consideration to ending the season right then and there. Perhaps I am asking too much.
Danny Green
“One of the main reasons we have turned the ball over is because of carelessness or selfishness. We wanted to cut down on turnovers. In order to do that, we had to cut down on the selfishness which led to a better effort as a team.”
What this? Selfishness? Hmmm…I will just leave that out there for folks to make of it as they will and believe me they will.
Source: Inside Carolina
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I don’t know about that mercy rule given the scores in the MSU, Asheville and C of C games. We owed UVa some mercy I guess after that 40-something point shellacking three years ago.
I was glad to see Hansbrough hit a three, but I thought he took several bad shots during the game. Danny Green had an outstanding block and a lot of energy and was very unselfish on the break. Wayne and Ty looked pretty good on the break, although each threw up a bad shot or two. Ed Davis handled the boos with perfect aplomb.
Bobby airballed another 3, unfortunately. I remember that Williams basically forbade another defensive specialist, Jackie Manuel from taking 3’s. I think Bobby looks a lot better driving to the basket than he does from outside. He just has to be able to hit at least 30% of them to at least keep the defense honest out there.
Forgotten due to the good final score, is the way the team blew the early 12-point lead when Roy substituted early and by the time the starters came back, the lead was basically gone. I think Bobby and Larry were running the team during that period.
You can say, well we made those points back up, but it doesn’t always work like that. Those are real points and stretches like that will kill you in a tough game.
There was a series, when UNC was up 14-2 and UNC got a long rebound and within seconds Bobby had a wide open 3. He missed, and UVA quickly got the ball up court and drilled a 3 to start their 12-1 run. If Bobby hit that three, the game probably would have been over. It’s funny how runs manifest themselves…
Good point. Things like that can break a team. Not finishing plays like that give new life to an opposing team. AKA, Georgetown 07 Elite 8. Green hits that 3, we are up 13 with less than 10 minutes to play with Georgetown in foul trouble. Green misses, Georgetown gets the rebound and a quick basket, and suddenly they see the game within reach.
It is really hard from game to game and situation to situation to evaluate who is doing what well, when you get into a few minutes within a particular game. I think Drew has done pretty well over the last two games though I seem to recall he got into some trouble with BC but I think he does a great job. Bobby has a good head for basketball but it seems like he’s not completely confident in his knee and seems to hold back quite a bit. I was at the Nevada game when he blew it out and the starters had let Nevada back in the game and Bobby came in and was locking them down and hitting his shots. I think it’s tough from day to day to know who is doing what when and where. Just to add to J’s comment, hitting a three or not in a critical time is big but we generally get fouled in the paint and get the 1, in the BC & Wake game when we did get the foul, the shot didn’t drop and we came up short at the line. When we are losing three points in the paint or getting one point on a possession then we are in deep trouble. I feel better about this as we got it done last night and made a good number of points in the same fashion. I do wish we had Zeller in place presently. If we can get strong on Miami and whip down on Clemson, I will be a very happy Heel.
Go Heels!
Also, I made some comments about John Paul Jones Arena last night so I thought I’d follow-up with the goods:
1. Seats: 16,000
2. Jumbo Section:I count 25 seats across
3. Image of Jumbo Section:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John-Paul-Jones-Arena.jpg
Pretty nice looking arena. I actually count 28 across, which seems odd. Any relevance behind that number that I may be missing?
I think there is an undercurrent on this team about sharing the ball, especially between Tyler and Ty-Wayne-Danny. Tyler forces a lot of shots, and sure he makes a lot of them, but when we’re struggling he needs to be a bit more trusting of his teammates and kick that ball back out. That doesn’t mean we need to hoist a three at that point, but may try to work it back inside to him again. I’m hard pressed to think of an instance where we enter the ball to Tyler, he kicks it out and we re-enter to him. So the selfishness cuts both ways–the inside guys need to recognized double-teams and find open teammates on the perimeter, and the perimeter guys have to be willing to turn down some of those shots and get it back inside. I think if we did more of this we’d see easily 3-5 more dunks a game for Deon/Tyler/Ed.
There’s not doubt that Danny has assumed the leadership of this team. It’s interesting that it’s not Tyler, though I think he’s a little too intense and focused on his own stuff (which is what makes him great) to see the forest. We all saw Danny’s ability to say ‘interesting’ things this summer, so hopefully he’s measured in his comments. I think this week some things have needed to be said, and he’s said them. Good game all around last night, although the 2nd unit certainly could improve.
Also Roy said last night:
“We tried to make a quicker move with the ball or get it out. ”
In other words I think they have told Hansbrough he needs to either make a move to the basket or kick out. Too often he tries to make something happen and that has attracted way too much attention to deal with.
Good point. I think Wake did a great job of waiting for Tyler to put the ball on the floor and then double, and the staff recognizes this and has communicated this to Tyler. I would like to see him face and bust baseline because it’s much tougher to help there than it is when he goes back into the middle of the lane.
I thought Tyler’s passing the ball out improved somewhat in the UVA game. At the same time, his teammates need to understand that he is the main man on offense. Several times a game, I see him screen out Lawson or Ellington’s man on the perimeter, then roll free for what would be an open 12 foot shot, but he seldom gets the ball.
Carolina basketball = Inside to outside. I liked what I saw last night and I think we’ll see more Saturday night.
One game at a time.