you know, this team seems to shoot the ball well from outside. I think they made 7 or 8, but I didn't catch the exact number of made shoots. They did shoot a decent percentage from the outside.
They also looked comfortable in a half-court set with Marshall in the game. I would imagine the pressure is really gonna pick up for Drew going into next weeks game. Marshall outperformed him big time.
Everyone seems real impress with Justin Knox. He is a big dude and is very physical. He got tied up with a Barton player and ended up slamming him on the ground. I was surprised that nothing was called on Knox. He was fouled before that and it would have been a dead ball technical.
Zeller looks like he did when he was a freshman. He is running the floor with great freedom and he is diving on the court for loose balls. Hopefully, this intensity doesn't come back to haunt him.
That made me laugh out loud, which doesn't happen too much. I was thinking the EXACT same thing, in an, "Wow...what would happen if this kid ISN'T an all-acc player?" Honestly...that question is a wonderful one to twirl around one's mind...
Yes, it is too early to have any certainty as to how this year will go. But, I don't think ANYONE would have predicted that Harrison Barnes would play this badly in his first game.
Without Barnes being an all-acc-caliber player this year, UNC could be very...ordinary. That would absolute explode some worlds. The turmoil in that universe would be extraordinary, IMHO. People would start asking questions. Questions that have always been stifled would bubble and then flow. It would be a brand new day in Carolina. A day we ain't figured would ever pop up under 'ole Roy.
Something to think about
s.i.
http://www2.barton.edu/cgi-bin/MySQL...&SORTMETHOD=hw
Barton roster looks same size as Cal Poly Ponoma, one 6'9" guy and everybody else 6'6" or less.
Other side of that coin is Barnes (and Henson and Zeller) come back next year with their great recruiting class and in 2011-12, UNC is a contendah. Personally, I don't think they're better than Sweet 16 this year, no matter how good HB plays, so I'd be happier if he's able and willing to enter the 2011 draft.
Thanks. Not slamming Zeller there either. The kid has shown throughout his career that he can score the ball. Just a bit easier to do that over shorter guys.
Not surprised at Marshall or McDonald and I think Marshall will take that starting role early in the year.
Kind of surprised at HB though. Not sure what was going on there. No doubt he will be a really good player though I would not have picked him to be a first team AA. I think that was a somewhat bizzare deal.
The real question though is did Henson display that amphibious 8 foot hook shot from 10 feet out he was so proficient at last year??
I wouldn't read a lot into this game, just like I wouldn't read a lot into the Duke/Cal Poly game. Zeller is talented and you would expect him to have a good game against a small front line, although it sounds like a lot of his points came in the transition game vice the half court.
Barnes will be good, but this is what I was saying in the other thread, watch the pressure grow on this kid if he doesn't just dominate everyone out of the gate. It will be very interesting to see how he and the UNC fan base deal with it.
The only thing that I did notice that I think UNC may want to watch out for is the 15 turnovers. That is approaching the dreaded number (20) and it was against a DII school. I only mention that since it was such a problem last year, again may not be anything, but...
the joke from the UNC faithful is it looks like HB is a four year player.
he just didn't seem to be in the flow tonight. he took a few shots that were forced and overall he seemed a bit sluggish. the guys on the bench really tried to keep his spirits up. i believe team chemistry is good this year, but if Marshall does take over the starting spot, what happens then?
Box Score
North Carolina 108, Barton 67
Barton: Dunn 4-9 2-2 10, Petcu 1-4 1-2 3, Boston 7-13, 2-2, 20, Haley 2-13, 2-3 7, Jernigan 4-7 0-0 10, Mammel 3-7 0-1 7, Brown 0-3 0-0 0, Maske 0-2 0-0 0, Guye 0-2 0-0 0, Velez 0-2 0-0 0, Dowdy 0-2 0-0 0, Shelton 1-2 0-0 2, Foster 0-3 0-2 0, Benitez 1-1 0-0 2, Coats 3-4 0-1 6. Totals 26-74 7-13 67.
North Carolina: Henson 4-8 2-5 10, Barnes 2-9 3-4 7, Zeller 7-13 11-14 25, Dexter 5-7 0-0 12, Drew II 3-3 0-0 8, McDonald 5-9 1-2 12, Bolick 0-2 0-0 0, Marshall 0-2 1-2 1, Hatchell 1-1 0-0 2, Cooper 0-0 0-0 0, Dupont 0-0 0-0 0, Watts 6-7 0-1 13, Knox 3-3 2-2 8, Crouch 0-0 0-0 0, Johnston 0-0 0-0 0, Bullock 4-10 1-2 10. Totals 40-74 21-32 108.
Halftime--North Carolina 57-35. Three-point goals-Barton 8-20 (Boston 4-5, Jernigan 2-3, Haley 1-6, Mammel 1-4, Petcu 0-1, Guy 0-1). North Carolina 7-18 (Strickland 2-2, Drew II 2-2, McDonald 1-3, Bullock 1-5, Watts 1-1, Barnes 0-4, Marshall 0-1. Fouled out-none. Rebounds-Barton 40 (Boston 6). North Carolina 53 (Henson 11). Assists-Barton 11 (Dunn, Haley, Mammel, Maske 2). North Carolina 28 (Marshall 9). Total fouls-Barton 25, North Carolina 18. Att.-14,259.
Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/11/...#ixzz14VJtOHcw
I caught some of that game peeking over my wife's shoulder as she watched it online.
What I saw, Barnes looked lost. Deer in the headlights lost.
Marshall is the real deal at the point. I don't care about the competition, the kid gets the game. But, they'll need to hide his defensive liabilities in good team defense -- if they can. But make no mistake, he doesn't shoot like Jon, but he can lead a team the way Scheyer did for us.
Knox, from what little I saw, is an important pickup for UNC. Not just because of their lack of depth in the post, but because he appears to be a fairly rugged and physical presence which they totally lacked last year. He also looks to have a bit of a mean streak in him.
Other than that, I though McDonald and Strickland looked improved. Strickland's defense looked especially good.
I think one thing UNC fans will have to worry about is Drew becoming a poison. There's just something about that kid that makes me wonder if he won't become a problem if, and probably when, Marshall displaces him as a starter. Or take away starter minutes.
Any thoughts on that Kong?
well, Duke had 14 TO's in their game the other night, so I would say there is nothing to worry about at this point. Its early in the season and we both have freshmen playing key positions. HB had 6 TO's all by himself, that will not happen every night. Perhaps it will never happen again. Also, because both Duke and UNC will try to get out and run this season, there will be more possessions. This means more opportunities for TO's and more opportunities for the opposition to score.
The one thing I took from last nights game is that several of last years freshmen seemed to have really improved their ability to score. McDonald looked very confident and also appears to be a much better athlete than I considered him to be last year. Dexter was looking for his perimeter shot more than last year, or at least he was making those shots. Everyone looked more confident. They all had a bit of swagger that was missing from last years squad. I know its an exhibition game against a Div II school, but you can read through the lines and see that there is more there.
The talk on the IC is about the PG position and how we seemingly have 2 competent guys to play that position. Roy mentioned in the postgame press conference that Marshall is making Drew better. Marshall is showing Drew different ways to get the ball up the court. Drew sees Marshall do things with the ball that perhaps doesn't naturally occur to him. That seems unbelievable to me that a PG that has been part of a NC team would still be learning basic things like getting the ball up the court quickly with outlet passes. I just think playing basketball at this level isn't a very comfortable feeling for him. I think he has to think harder than most players at his position, and because of this, there is a delay between the thought and the action. That's what I saw last year and we saw some of that again last night. Marshall is just a natural passer who has great natural instinct to add to that passing ability. Drew, not so much. But, he did shoot the ball well last night. He had 8 pts, 4 assists, and only 1 TO. That means our PG's combined to score 9 pt's, 13 assists, and 2 TO's. Doesn't matter who you play, if you have a couple of guards that are that efficient, good things will happen. Jon did that for you last year.
for purposes of (albiet probably irrelevant) comparison, by what score did duke beat barton in 2007?
/fixed
no doubt this is irrelevant. But an interesting stat! Duke 105- Barton 44
http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.db...ATCLID=1301960
Last edited by timmy c; 11-06-2010 at 01:20 PM. Reason: forgot to give score! oops
As for the Duke game, we are running at a speed that some of our players are still getting used to, but are very capable of picking up. The game we played was not so bad considering we could have beaten the division II champs by as many as UNC beat Barton by if we chose to (we pulled the main guys in favor of continuing to play around with how to use the second team more efficiently).
Now, UNC played well, but Zeller was against a small frontcourt, Knox was getting the Hansbrough treatment from the refs (according to Kong), Kendall didn't have Kyrie or Nolan guarding him (or even worse, him trying to guard them), and HB looked like he didn't fit on the team for some reason. This is what I find ridiculous with some UNC fans; they think their team is better to the point that they will push any illogical statement to skew reality to fit it with their complex. If IC or any of the nuts I know want to push their team as better, it seems the facts never stop them. Kong, you are a breath of fresh air in that respect. I thank you for staying within reality about your team.