What: Coaches vs Cancer Classic Semifinals
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
When: Thursday, November 19th, 9:00 PM
TV: ESPN2
Records: UNC 3-0; OSU 2-0
Time to grow up.
UNC faces its first real test of the season after a lackluster performance against Valpo and some sloppy basketball on the cupcake portion of the schedule. Roy’s unhappiness with the team’s performance on Sunday is well known. In his Wednesday press conference he followed up on that a little by saying the team simply lacked focus on Sunday and some of that rests on Marcus Ginyard and Deon Thompson for not being the kind of leaders they needed to be. In all fairness Roy also pointed out the season is still young. There is a lot of teaching by the coaches and learning by the players ongoing so it is extremely difficult to know what exactly this team has at this point. For example, Roy has no idea who would be the best option to take a final shot but leans toward Deon Thompson or Tyler Zeller as being perfectly capable. Like 2006, this team needs to play some games and see who emerges. There is no way of knowing right now who might be the go buy. Roy pointed out the same thing could be said in 2006 but by January we had seen David Noel, Reyshawn Terry and Wes Miller have big games not to mention Tyler Hansbrough. In other words Jeff Goodman is full of crap for declaring right now that UNC does not have the point guard, go to guy or anything else he thinks they might need to win.
As for the actual game, OSU provides an interesting matchup starting with 6-7 Evan Turner who will start at PG but likely play four different spots on the floor. If you opt for the ESPN2 audio on this, be prepared for a fairly disgusting display from Dick Vitale where Turner is concerned. On Twitter, Vitale seems to think Turner is the only guy playing Thursday night. I expect Marcus Ginyard will be assigned to Turner as long as Turner is playing on the perimeter. Drew is giving up six inches to Turner and Roy hinted in his press conference that he would look for someone else to check the OSU start. The Buckeyes will basically be running players 6-5 to 6-7 in the 1-4 positions on the floor. That will create all sorts of matchup hijnks especially if Deon Thompson has to guard a 6-5 player with any speed or when you look at John Henson at the three guarding someone is five inches shorter. So from a matchup perspective, this will definitely be a test, especially for the younger players.
UNC will need to win this game with their defense and since they will enjoy a size advantage controlling the boards is essential. The Heels also need to turn those matchups around on the offensive end and get as many interior looks as possible. Two years ago, OSU used heavy doses of zone to try and slow UNC down. It worked to some extent as Tyler Hansbrough had one of his more troublesome games in the 65-55 win. Ty Lawson missed that game but UNC did a fair job getting Wayne Ellington looks and using Deon Thompson in the middle of the paint to break-up the zone. If OSU opts for zone then a similar look on offense might be necessary and if Will Graves or even Ginyard can hit some threes it might force OSU into a different look thus opening up the middle. It goes without saying that the Heels really need to take care of the basketball and that starts with Larry Drew. For all the focus on Turner it would be outstanding to see Drew steal the show and shine at PG for the Heels.
UNC bounces back from poor performances under Roy better than any team I know. Anything short of a well played and focused game, especially from the experienced players will be a shock to me.
UNC 74 OSU 68
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“Anything short of a well played and focused game, especially from the experienced players will be a shock to me.”
I agree. I also think that a well played game and a loss are not necessarily mutually exclusive. OSU is a good team, and Turner is an absolute beast of a player. We saw what Grevious Vasquez did to UNC last year (albeit, minus Ginyard), and Turner is a much better player.
If OSU does decide to go zone, I don’t think that it’s going to be three-pointers that force them out of it. At this early point in the season, I don’t see any of the UNC players (be they Graves, Ginyard, Strickland, Drew, or what have you) being threatening enough from downtown that the opposing team is forced to change their defensive philosophy (that’s not to say someone can’t emerge as a deep threat down the road; I just don’t see anyone doing it right now). Instead, what’s going to bust the OSU zone, or any other zones, for that matter, is going to be great interior passing among the talented UNC big men. You can tear up a zone with a high post/low post passing game that exploits the vacant space in the interior, and UNC certainly has the big men capable of doing this in Davis, Thompson, Zeller, and the Wears.
I think Ty can really the push the ball and the ball out to Wayne on the wings or just simply force it into Tyler, hopefully that will get us on roll waiting for a Danny Green dagger……oh wait…….
Deep breath, reality is upon the Heels, but I have tremendous faith in Roy. Why wouldn’t I? I do agree this game, if won will be on the defensive end and on the boards. Ed Davis needs to play big and I’m wondering if the “x” factor might be Zeller?
Residing in Columbus, I have seen my fair share of Turner. He’s pretty good, but he hasn’t played against a good defender like Marcus Ginyard this season. Turner has said he doesn’t wait for his team mates to crash the boards but that he goes after it himself. He’ll have a tough time making plays with Ginyard guarding him and an even tougher time pulling down rebounds against Davis, Zeller, Thompson, Henson and the Wears. Even if he does get a few rebounds, best of luck with an easy put back.
Diebler has some range, but he is a streaky shooter. In the past, if he doesn’t make his first few shots, his confidence drops and he struggles. That being said, if he makes a few threes from the start, then he’ll continue to shoot from long range. The Suckeyes might have an “x-factor” that steps up tonight, but I think their success, if any, comes from Turner and Diebler.
Oh how I hate, Ohio State
Measuring Stick Game.
Key will be rebounding, if Carolina can dominate the boards and limit OSU to one shot it should lead to some transition opportunities against a team that will try to slow it down and play zone. Also, Turner loves to attack the offensive glass, which could lead to an unbalanced OSU defense and easy run outs for the Heels if they can dominate the glass.
Finally, I really like all the accolades being thrown Turner’s way and all the negative opinions (e.g Goodman) being thrown at this young team. I think Carolina will be motivated to play well.
Football threadjack: Heels now ranked #13 overall in the FEI.
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/statistics/fei-ratings/2009
Heels get there mostly on the strength of their #4 defensive FEI and #11 strength of schedule, though their offensive FEI (#60) isn’t as bad as you’d expect. Their field-position average ranking of 106th is exactly what you’d expect from watching the games, however (in other words, we miss what John Lovett had been doing for our special teams the last couple of years).
@JS – Great points on interior passing vs. zone. This will be a huge key tonight.
I think the turnover stuff isn’t just on LD. Vs. a zone, everyone needs to use ball fakes, make the zone react and then make passes. It’s very easy to force interior looks vs. zone, so we’ll need all 5 guys on the floor to be sharp passing the basketball. We need to move the ball from side to side and have player movement on offense as well.
Whatever the outcome, no need to fret or rejoice too much either way. It’s not even Thanksgiving yet. Long, long way to go.
i agree as well about interior passing. of course we’ve played subpar opponents, but our zone offense is not going to rely on outside shooting. if we make a few, that’s icing, but we can carve these zones up w/ our talented bigs. Deon to the high post for a quick turnaround, high low passing, and finding spots like elbow extended and short corners. they’re too small to block a 10′ baseline shot from deon, ed, or zell…which as i type this i realize that pretty much goes for any type of defense we play. i’m curious if teams will always try to zone us, i almost think (shhh) teams would want to speed us up b/c of the ballhandling and turnover thing, plus the fact that graves isn’t a good ballhandler, so we basically have ld and ginyard as the only two people who can advance the ball w/ the dribble at speed.
we’ll see….i want a huge win to silence the doubters, obviously, but i’m happy to watch this team develop and grow. NOT TO SAY that this team isn’t good enough to absolutely expect to win, b/c they are that good….
New year, same Georgia Tech. Dayton is good, but according to some (Jeff Goodman) GT was a Final 4 caliber team (which I find completely ridiculous). Regardless, Paul Hewitt’s seat has got to be getting warm…
Goodman via Twitter: “That’s a big win for Dayton over a Georgia Tech team that should improve due to 3 key freshmen.”
So let me get this straight, GT will likely get better, “due to 3 key freshmen,” but UNC, despite having 5 freshmen, and a PG who may as well be, has “three issues that I’m not sure can be solved even in time.”
I understand that it is his job to stir the pot, but a little consistency would be nice.
That ain’t going to happen. Roy answered some of Goodman’s position in part yesterday when someone point blank asked him about the go to guy on UNC. He said it takes a few games to figure that out. Certainly Deon and Zeller are two options but no one knows right now because they have not been truly tested. He then pointed out that in the win over UK in Dec. 2005 Terry had 25 points and in a win over FSU later Wes Miller nailed a bunch of threes. He said in the preseason no one knew those guys could do that but when it counted they stepped up.
I expect the same will be true, possibly starting with the game this evening.
Besides that, Goodman has to spin GT’s situation, he staked his reputation rather stupidly on them.
CM – What is Goodman’s twitter name?
Goodman:
http://twitter.com/goodmanonfox
Thanks, THF.
I just brought Goodman’s inconsistency to his attention. Will be curious if he responds.
Or check out the THF Twitter and take a look at the folks I follow…it covers everyone college basketball related.
http://www.twitter.com/tarheelfanblog
Reply from Goodman: “North Carolina will improve significantly as well.”
Interesting…did not know Goodman knew how to walk anything back, especially after his asinine insistence that his over the top criticism of Lawson was backed up by “people” in Chapel Hill.
while turner will be a factor,how about david lighty?diebler can hit em from the parking lot.drew could have a special night if he does well tonight.guard play will be important.hopefully they wont go gonzaga(2008)on us.thats why i trust roy.his 500+ wins trump my parks and recreation teams(i wonder if roy ever coached a bunch of six year olds?)i guess thats why he coaches unc and i do construction work.
^I coached 12 year olds on the aau circuit for a while…(my lil bro was the starting shooting guard). The kids were wonderful, the parents on the other hand….wow. One mother in particular lead to my early retirement at 30.
I hope Roy figures out this go-to guy question right fast. I have a bad feeling we’re going to need the answer in about four and a half hours.
Ohio State is a guard-oriented team with plenty of experience, playing on a neutral court we aren’t used to. This is not a hopeful prescription. We’re just flat out short on guards, and our two principal subs in the backcourt (Strickland and McDonald) are freshman.
Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan State all were lucky to win. Let’s hope the Georgia Tech outcome is not a harbinger of the ACC’s luck tonight.
Gads, do I miss Tyler Hansbrough.
Watching CAL-SU, Jamal Boykin is impressive. He, Eric Boateng, Taylor King and Eliot Williams have all shown me a lot this season and last.
Imagine if they were all on the same team. Oh, wait…
Rath:
Nerves are good. But all the highly ranked teams have bobbled or worse so far. If UNC doesn’t win all their 2009 games, you can beleive they will learn from the process.
I miss Tyler Hansbrough too.