Yeah, that went about like we thought it would.
And yes, 26 turnovers is a horrifically high number, especially since UNC was playing a clearly inferior team which basically means the wounds were largely self inflicted. 22 of the turnovers came before Roy Williams emptied the bench placing a still frightening number on the regulars. There are several factors that probably go into UNC having that much trouble taking care of the basketball. Inexperience, first game jitters, general lack of practice and the fact this is a brand new team that is going to need some time to properly acclimate to each other. In short, the turnover situation will improve as the on the court chemistry improves and players like Dexter Strickland improve to the point they don’t commit five TOs in one game.
In terms of impressions, Larry Drew was good with seven points, six assists and only two turnovers. Drew did hit a three and did everything that was asked of him. Deon Thompson has been told by Roy to be himself and not try to be Tyler Hansbrough. Apparently Deon did not listen because 20 points and 10 boards looks Hansbrough-like to me, especially considering he only played 22 minutes. Ed Davis put up the kind of numbers we expected: 13 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. Likewise Zeller rounded out the scoring from the interior spots with 12 points of his own. 45 of UNC’s 88 points came from Thompson-Zeller-Davis. As expected the frontline did the heavy lifting.
Marcus Ginyard played well at the SG spot hitting a pair of threes and scoring 12. No one else really made a huge impact scoring wise. That being said, Will Graves and Justin Watts both put in solid minutes scoring six and five respectively. Watts really looked improved over last season and showed some tremendous athleticism at times. The freshmen were largely quiet with none of the rookies seeing more than 12 minutes. John Henson showed some flashes of the freak athleticism we have heard about. The Wear Twins both put in a good 10 minutes playing sound basketball especially David Wear who chalked up a three pointer and three assists. Strickland and Leslie McDonald have work to do. Of course they all have work to do.
Overall the defense was good forcing 10 steals and eight blocked shots. The offense still needs work though it appears to interior scoring is working despite some early issues with holding onto the basketball in traffic. That too will improve as the season progresses and UNC can offer more perimeter scoring to balance out the post points.
Heels get NC Central next and I imagine it will take a very similar tact as this one.
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Putting to one side the second half, in which I thought we lost concentration and thus looked ragged, I was quite pleased with our performance. And I’m not a person to look at these things through rose colored glasses.
There was a lot to like: The team came out ready to play; Drew showed marked improvement from last year (although, maddeningly, he still sometimes dribbles with his head down on the ball); Ginyard actually CAN shoot; Davis looked fearsome in the lane on defense; Deon only disappeared when on the bench and otherwise looked more athletic and energized than last year; the depth is impressive (except at the point); they still run like crazy; and most everyone, including Graves, seemed like he had his head in the game.
On the not-so-good side: All the freshmen need considerable work; if Drew has foul or injury problems we are in big trouble; and losing concentration in the second half, while harmless in a game like this, is certain to have less benign consequences later on. I have a feeling Roy will have something to say about that in practice.
The other good part was that I went a full two hours without having to think about T. J. Yates.
I think this team will have its ups and downs early on, but the potential is there to have a scary good team come March.
Don’t know why the second half was so ragged compared to the first, but you can tell these guys are chomping at the bit to get out there and play. They’re out there contesting shots, switching back from screens at a lightning pace, and trying to go to their strengths first on offense, which is Thompson and Davis. Roy will also be tinkering with personnel and groups out there he likes, so it will be a work in progress.
The upside for this team is immense, and it should be a fun year.
A lot of what we expected, and a lot of potential. The only problem is these guys have precious little time to gel before the ungodly schedule hits. We may be in for some disappointment in December, but I really feel like these guys have a chance to be contenders by March.
I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on Ginyard’s time at the point. I was reasonably impressed with his play on the ball. he seemed smooth, and comfortable and was passing very crisply. It looks like we may be okay with him there when drew2 isn’t in the game.
I agree, Marcus. I don’t think there is any question the Ginyard is UNC’s best option at backup PG at this point. Dexter has all sorts of talent, but he was not a PG in HS, so it is really unfair to expect him to play the position reliably as a freshman. I think that as the season progress, the times when both Marcus and LDII are both off the court will be very limited.
One other positive from last night: 0 TO’s from Will Graves.
I turned on the radio in Asheville last night to catch the game. It was not on 1310 Big Wise, which is fine, because they have preempted the games and other network programming for a local college team the past few years. Just as well they lost the Tar Heel feed. That station has gone downhill.
I looked at the radio log. The Asheville station is 104.9 FM, but I dialed that station and there was NOTHING – no station. Another station was broadcasting near that frequency and could be heard on 104.9.
Why can’t I hear the North Carolina Tar Heels on the radio in Roy frickin’ Williams dadgum home town!? This is the last straw for decades of loyalty to the Heels. The past few years of preempting them has been bad enough, now they’re not on at all.
I remember at the beginning of the ’94 season Carolina had lots of new players and lots of turnovers in its first ten or twelve games, as they played weaker opponents and Coach Smith used those games to tinker (a lot) with the lineups. By the time December rolled around they had settled on a 9 man rotation (I think UNC used 11 guys just in the first half last night) and the turnovers decreased significantly. I bet that’s what we’ll see this year too.
The radio broadcast situation here in Asheville is a joke!
Quote from Seth Davis’ Twitter:
“Ed Davis 11 rebs in 23 mins. Zeller 12 pts 20 mins. (Fella who should know sez Zeller is team’s best player.)”
Not sure about overall, but I think a pretty strong argument can be made that he is the most skilled on the offensive side of the ball.
The couple of shots I saw Zeller take (and make) were a face up baseline jumper and a hook shot. Both were nothing but net. He did struggle when double or triple teamed but who wouldn’t unless your name is Hansbrough? Zeller has good hands and is a very good passer, matter of fact I was really impressed with how the bigs passed the ball last night. You could see some of that spread offense at work even when FIU was packing the lane. The scoring opportunities will come, especially if the defense continues to create havoc in passing lanes and with blocked shots.
Hard to say who I was most impressed with last night. Deon had another great game and pretty much solidified the fact that he played in Tyler’s shadow last year. Ed Davis had the kind of game we expect from him. I was very pleased to see Marcus stroke those threes. If he stays confident in his shot and continues to be the defensive stopper he’s always been he will have a monster year. I think though I have to give my props to LDII. Great game management, 6 assists to 2 TO’s, his shot looked good, and even when pressed he pushed the ball up court and didn’t look rattled. His coast to coast layup through traffic reminded me a LOT of Lawson. LDII can play folks! This early in the year that is a very good sign.
id have to say i was more impressed with larry last night.deon played great,but will he quiet down when acc play comes along like the last 2 years? zeller fumbled the ball a few times,but showed the nice jump shot he had in high school.he even tried to bang inside a little bit at one point.someone get ed davis a cape.marcus was a site for sore eyes.its early,but this team will be really good.
The sloppiness and turnovers are concerning, but should improve with experience and practice. Spacing and the big guys handling the ball on the break or not being strong with the ball in the post were some of the major culprits that can be corrected. LDII looked solid with the ball and his decision making. Also, Ginyard and LDII appear to be able to make wide open outside shots, but only Graves currently seems to have the ability to make a shot with someone in his face, and still haven’t seen any reason why Henson is shooting the ball outside of 15 feet instead of slashing to the basket or attacking the boards. Would like to see Strickland shoot more, once he settles down and stops throwing the ball all over the place; you can definitely tell he is thinking instead of reacting and playing, which is expected from a freshman trying to play point guard in Roy’s system (that too will improve). The bigs, especially Zeller, need to be stronger with the ball in a crowd, and if the Wears are going to play the 3 then their foot speed and their ability to defend on perimeter will have to improve drastically.
Overall, as expected, they know who they are and got alot of work on the offensive end against a zone defense and defending a team spreading out the floor and driving on Carolina’s bigs on the other end, which they’ll see alot of this season. As expected, this team has great potential on the defensive end and will struggle shooting the basketball, but has all the pieces necessary to be very successful at the highest level. Now its up to those pieces to continue to develop and Roy to fit them together over the next 5 months. Looking forward to watching this team develop and grow over the remainder of the season.
I guess I want to add one other positive from last night: Henson won’t be going to the NBA next year.
Even if he has NBA talent, which was less than fully on display during the game, his body needs more than one year’s work. At 6′ 10″, he’s going to be expected to have an inside game, and he simply can’t play inside against NBA types at his current weight and build.
^Still early, and remember no one thought Davis was going to have the potential to be a lottery pick at this point last season. I think Henson is too perimeter oriented right now, which I believe will improve going forward.
man this game was a tease, i feel REALLY good about this team down the stretch, b/c as we gain continuity with our units and rotations, we should have adequate firepower to go along w/ our defense. it felt to me like we were so excited that we didnt finish well on the defensive end…meaning we’d double team, trap, knock the ball loose and then fumble it out of bounds, or two bigs would go block a shot and the ball would deflect to an open FIU player who laid it up….basically if we close out our defensive plays and turn them into true turnovers, this team will be a defensive beast. LD2 way to go pal, he looked very good and like he had something to prove, which he does. he’s not ty, but he’s definitely not QT either, with Marcus also looking comfortable on the ball, and as strick settles down, we should have 3 pretty good ball handlers, not to mention good skill sets from our bigs in the game at any time.
deon is deon, he’ll quiet down as one said once he faces guys of his own size, but as i’ve thought for 3 years now, if deon does deon and doesn’t try to be tyler, he can face up and use his skillset to “opportunistically” score 20 a game. maybe not throw it into him and let him beat three guys for a dunk, but secondary breaks, screen and pops, and using good footwork inside. did i say larry looked good? yeah…
i have to apologize for any graves-hating i’ve done. as a guy who is in his fourth year training and practicing and being around roy williams (he’s a redshirt jr right?), he seems to be our only true perimeter firepower. his dribble pull up from the elbow and the lofted pass he caught on the run that he took straight up for another jumper were probably the two most “offensive plays” of any of our perimter guys in terms of looking like we didn’t need to be wide open shooting a set shot for the ball to go in.
mix graves tools with the fact that ed, deon, and zeller all can step out and hit ten footers, and i don’t think oru team is zonable…esp when larry and marcus can knock down wide open looks. but it looks like we can go inside and hit our bigs for baseline extended jumpers or run high low even if we’re not hitting 3′s and be fine against the 2-3 zone.
the group of freshman are interesting. compared with other top recruiting classes, this group really seems unpolished. i am however a victim of fuzzy memory b/c it’s hard to really think of lawson and wayne and wright, or ray, rashad and may as freshmen and not how they left, but these guys don’t seem ready to make BIG impacts. henson is just freaky with his size footwork and hops, but he’s 195 lbs and is very raw, the wears are solid but will need to continue working on their speed and quickness and defensive footwork, and strick is a slasher combo guard being forced into the role of true PG, which made him look uncomfortable. he shined on the one play that was instinct, grabbing a loose ball with the clock expiring, going coast to coast and pulling up for a deep 2 as the clock expired. no time to think and he looked nice….i’d love to see him get minutes off the ball where he can get into passing lanes and cause havoc and get out and be on the receiving end of an outlet instead of initiating the break w/ the ddribble all the time.
for what it’s worth, davis is a beast, and zeller looked great. he’s still got to log some more minutes to really get the college game down, but he is a skilled 7 footer with good legs and good hands, so as he gets more comfortable i don’t see how you can stop him.
if graves can shine, and strick and henson can adjust to their roles, then along w/ zeller we have 8 very tough guys on the court at anytime, with guys like the wears, watts, etc…to give us good quality minutes w/o a drastic drop in play. i was surprised at how good i feel about UK coming up when we really have to go to work, even w/ so much inexperience. i think that in crunch minutes, those top 8 can really get the job done and have enough O to compliment the D to get wins.
A high turnover rate is not at all unexpected with this group early on. Yeah, 26 is really high, but completely forgivable for the first game, a throwaway game at that. I’ll be interested to see how much better they protect the ball tomorrow night.
I came away very excited about the prospects for this season. They made it look so easy down low. Yeah, it will get harder, but the Heels will also get better! And there were some 3s knocked down, too. For all of the legitimate concern regarding outside shooting, it was nice to see some success right out of the block.
Excellent comments and if I had any original thoughts they have already been posted. I do think this will be one of Roy’s “fun years” as he certainly loves to teach and mold his teams.
UNRELATED: Barnes to announce decision Friday at 4pm on ESPNU
I was in Morganton in 2005 and couldn’t find the Tar Heels on the radio.
In my opinion, UNC made a horrible decision when they abandoned clear channel WBT radio for satellite radio which few people have and which seems to be dying. The Panthers are on WBT. UNC should be too.
I thought the team looked good and Roy tried a lot of combinations. The key will be to find the right rotation by the time ACC play begins.
I have to say that I was disappointed in the crowd. ESPNU kept showing the non-student sections and there were a lot of empty lower level seats. If you have these seats, either show up or give your tickets to someone that will.