For those of you with ESPNU(all six of you) fire away on your observations since this will be the first time most of you have seen the team play. If you don’t have ESPU but have a viable broadband connection, it will be streaming here on Justin.tv[UPDATE: Link fixed] It is not the best way to watch the game but you are watching it.
I will post some updates to Twitter which you should be able to follow in the right hand column.
Game tips at 7 PM. Comments if you have them.
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Is ESPNU distribution that limited?
Luckily I have it. If not, it would be off to the sports bar.
i have it. i didnt think it was that rare anymore.
i might set a personal record for listening to pregame shows this year, what with all the cool 100-yr stories and factoids.
got my 2009 title shirt on, and i’m ready!
Lets go Heels!
Going to try and get the game streaming down here with my study abroad mates in Mexico!
I know its just FIU, but I want to see how Deon does, and especially see this Henson character in action!
i can’t believe Isiah Thomas is on the sideline in our building.
was our first foul of the year the “imaginary” no-charge zone? has there ever been anything more ludicrous?
That’s a bad URL in the JTV link. The link to this post was pasted accidentally (in addition to the correct part of the link, which leads to the relevant JTV channel).
Drew for threeeeee.
Sorry guys, no ESPNU here. Having to follow on JustinTV.
Nice start to the season. LDII hitting the 3 a beautiful sight.
First time out by FIU with 17:21 to go. We are 1 for 2 from the three and Drew II is running well.
Here’s the link:
http://www.justin.tv/cbb2k8
where’s Tyler Hansbrough? he’s always on the team, isnt he?
how does that Justin tv work, anyway? how are they allowed to show a live game? it looks like someone with a camera pointed at their tv.
Henson is skinnier than Manute Bol ever was. Wow, is he thin.
And Watts drains a three. Heels look basically like what you expect, young and streaky. Turnovers are gonna drive us crazy this year.
And we’re gonna love the defense!
Somebody tell Deon he’s not a guard!
Nice slam by Deon.
I like these shooting shirts more than the ones from last year.
Using THF’s favorite term….UNC’s length is giving FIU fits.
They’re having a tough time making passes that don’t get touched.
Marcus!! How I missed thee! Wonderful pass by David.
Ginyard has two threes already.
I know it’s been said already, but our bigs can pass. How’d the first 5-8 minutes go? I missed it ’cause of basketball practice.
LDII may not be Ty, but he’s no slug, either.
Streaky. A terrible play followed by a great one. Drew has one turnover that I’ve seen. He’s pushing the ball hard.
Three on one break and our bigs got back and blocked the shot!
Our guys are just swarming FIU’s posts down low. I love it.
Drew coast to coast after a made basket!!!
Excellent push and finish by DII.
Beautiful pass by Drew.
Great way to end the half.
Yep. Wonderful way to end the half.
Observations:
- LDII can play and UNC will be fine when the ball in his hands.
- UNC will struggle when LDII is not in the game. The same, of course, could have been said about UNC when Felton or Lawson were out of the game.
- I think UNC will hit the open 3 this year. Graves, Ginyard, LDII, and the Wears all have nice stand still Js.
- UNC will struggle to get open J’s off the dribble.
- The potential for this team to be special defensively is definitely there. The offense will be a work in progress, but the defense should keep them in games despite those growing pains.
That was a sick crossover.
No kiddin!!!!!!
Nice face up from Davis…and 1.
That’s one way to break a zone. Nice alley to Henson.
Wonderful feed by Watts.
That was actually a bad pass to Henson, he grabbed across the body then dunked it. What a freak.
How about Roy using Zeller and Wear to trap at midcourt?
Strickland had a Quentin Thomas moment there.
Nice cut to the basket and scoop shot by LDII.
nice travel call on Ed.
from 25 feet away.
by the guy up top in front of Roy.
he has about as much business looking at Ed’s feet as he has texting during the game. ridiculous.
As best I can tell from this choppy feed, the bigs really move their feet well on defense. Nobody has gotten blown past yet.
Campus Connection needs to have a camera donated. that 1950s RCA job isnt cutting it.
Love our rebounding tonight!
Wears are getting some good minutes.
Turnovers are our bug-a-boo this season.
(P.S. Alex! I’ve missed you this off season! How be you?)
I hate when refs try to even up games…
Is it red or is it pink? I thought it was pink…for something like breast cancer awareness…
Red. The ‘57 jerseys had red trim. Weird, I know.
I be good, Claire! Basketball getting underway. My first game is Thursday! I’m excited.
I’ve been around. Lurking. Football’s just not my sport and I don’t know anything about it. Of course, the Heels aren’t on very often down here in Texas.
Ah, ok. Looks pink on my tv.
Terrible calls. Two in a row! I swear I’m ready to claw somebody’s eyes out!
That’s good! I wasn’t a big football fan either but I’m starting to get into it now that I can understand it.
This announcer is killing me. FIU is the bestest most awesome team to ever be down by 20 points in a game.
Is Hess reffing?
I’m thinking the exact same thing THF. And Isiah Thomas this, Isiah Thomas that. Ohmigawd, shut up!!!
Sounds like you need to listen to Woody THF.
Alex, you know I’m not sure but that would explain a lot…
It would, wouldn’t it? You’re a lot closer to him now, Claire. I’ll send you some rope and you can kidnap him and dump him in lake somewhere.
Nice plays by Watts.
Oh my goodness Mr. Watts.
I just think Hess needs some biscuits. Biscuits make everything better.
Lolz. Kill him with kindness, right?
Omigawd. Now that season’s here, that means it’s only a month and ten days until I get to see the Heels in person!!
About what I expected, given the lack of practice and the lack of experience. I really like what LDII, DT, and Marcus showed.
The slurping of Thomas was ridiculous; is ESPN aware that this guy is a slime ball?
Of course! And if that doesn’t work then we get the rope.
They seem to like the slime balls. K, Knight, Calipari,…
K, Claire. Let me know if you need the rope.
Well, my study abroad mates and I in Mexico are grateful for everyone’s commentary!
Just wondering if anyone knows if most of the games will be on Justintv. IF they are, I’m going to get a premium account, because the free accounts don’t work in Mexico, but it says that it will with the $10 account. Thats a small price to pay to see us play MSU, Kentucky, Ohio State, Cal/Syracuse etc but I want to make sure that the games will be on.
I would hate to pay for it now for it to not work.
Go heels!
Nice first game. Shows our strengths (the bigs inside, rebounding and defense) and weaknesses (26 turnovers….come on!!). The only player who left me a little underwhelmed is Tyler Zeller, way too many fumbles with the ball.
Carolina looked good for the most part, especially for the first game of the season. Way too many turnovers and way too many charges. The good thing about the turnovers was that not too many of them were converted into points.
We also only attempted one three-pointer in the second half. Our bigs, who did play good, didn’t initiate enough contact down low. I hope when we play real competition, we can be attempting plus-20 free throws a game.
Overall, there was enough seen for us not to panic. And enough for Roy to work on. The defense looks good. Shot blocking and rebounding look good. Marcus Ginyard looks good. Deon Thompson looks REAL good.
We need to work on screening, ball control from the bigs, and to watch where you are going when dribbling to avoid charging calls, some of which were horrible calls by the refs.
having just finished the game thanks to the wonders of DVR i would like to conclude:
drew played well.
impressive defense(2nd half was awful)
3 pt shooting was nice,but no one created their own shot.you wont always have that open look at the three.
henson is a bean pole.(as granny would say)
turnovers were awful.(2006 team had a lot too)
growing pains are imminent.
these guys will be really good.
First off, I’m not comparing this team to last year’s team, but last year’s team had 7 more practices and 1 more exhibition before their first game… on top of already playing with each other for 2-3 seasons.
I suspect the TO’s will come down significantly with more time playing with each other.
thats for sure.it seemed tonight that roy was still playing with his lineups.deon and drew were very good.marcus was a sight for sore eyes.so glad he redshirted.this team is capable of big things.december will be a learning time.
wow,adrian branch loving some tyler zeller.he finally said something right.
I really loved the play from Davis, Ginyard, Thompson, and Drew. The Wear twins appear to be pretty decent at passing and maneuvering the ball around (good skill set). I am dissapointed in Zeller’s play. He was out of defensive position on several occasions, and struggles when guarded close…although he IS good when open. I expected to see more ball handling and shooting from John Henson.
It seemed as if Strickland got the brunt of the “bad” officiating, and if I were convinced that the game officials were anti-UNC, I’d say they did not want to see that guy gain any confidence. And boy would it be nice if we got some good guard production out of him.
Wow. This group has amazing potential. The guard play is getting better quickly. Clearly there is a defensive mindset. Players were in and out so fast that it had to be tough for them to know what was up.
It is really going to be an exciting year. Who knows what will happen!
There are so many huge guys on the team. Let them practice on each other for a few weeks!
FYI….channelsurfing.net is another option for online streaming. I think most UNC games will be available there.