Anybody watching UNC vs State?

[jipops]

Based on this game it doesn't look like losing Strickland has hurt UNC's defense too much, at least it didn't tonight. (Their 3pt D did kind of stink though) If anything, it could very well end up helping their offense since they'll now rotate plenty of minutes to two pure shooters who should get plenty of good looks with the two inside threats and HB's scoring ability. Even with two players out UNC is still scary good, so much talent over there.

Should be interesting to see how State bounces back from this. They have UVA at home next. This game will be key. I believe the pack has the potential to make some real noise in March.

[Bob Green]

Even with two players out UNC is still scary good, so much talent over there.

I stated when McDonald went down that it was a blessing in disguise for Carolina because Coach Williams' biggest weakness is his inability to manage the rotation. He plays too many players too many minutes. However, in the long run, I am of the opinion the loss of Strickland will hurt this team. He is their best defender and back-up point guard.

[Duvall]

Should be interesting to see how State bounces back from this. They have UVA at home next. This game will be key. I believe the pack has the potential to make some real noise in March.

In which tournament? State needs more quality wins to have a real shot at the NCAAs.

Actually, they need one quality win first.

[sagegrouse]

Noted that NC State got outrebounded more than 2-1, and each team had roughly the same number of missed shots. Usually rebounding is a product of effort. Was State not even trying out there?

Sagegrouse

[Sixthman]

In which tournament? State needs more quality wins to have a real shot at the NCAAs.

Actually, they need one quality win first.

I agree. State's game with Virginia this weekend is a big test and opportunity. Virginia comes in at 16-3, but it's hard to compare these two teams. A lot of people think State is better than Virginia. If State drops this game, it falls to 15-7. This would, IMO, leave them pretty far on the wrong side of the bubble. They would have only one bad loss (Ga Tech), but their best win would be against a 7 loss Texas team that is not setting the world on fire.

[Bob Green]

Noted that NC State got outrebounded more than 2-1, and each team had roughly the same number of missed shots. Usually rebounding is a product of effort. Was State not even trying out there?

Sagegrouse

Richard Howell fouled out and only played 16 minutes. He is State's leader in Rebounds. While the refs called touch fouls on State, they allowed Zeller, Henson and Bullock to push and shove with impunity...okay, I'm sorta kinda kidding around but it is fun

[JNort]

Based on this game it doesn't look like losing Strickland has hurt UNC's defense too much, at least it didn't tonight. .

I don't know about that. I thought the exact opposite tonight while watching. State had tons and I really mean they had a lot of open shots inside the arc and outside but the just missed over and over again with little to no defense on them. I counted at least 4 airballs in the first 15 mins alone.

[oldnavy]

Richard Howell fouled out and only played 16 minutes. He is State's leader in Rebounds. While the refs called touch fouls on State, they allowed Zeller, Henson and Bullock to push and shove with impunity...okay, I'm sorta kinda kidding around but it is fun

If Vitale can be believed, UNC is the least peanalized team in the NCAA? I don't know why that is surprising to me. Why is there not an uproar about this in the press? Where are the talking heads that question every call made in favor of UNC as if it is part of a sinister plot?

Yet, alas Duke gets all the calls... facts be damned, Duke gets all the calls... say it enough and it becomes the "truth".

[slower]

Interesting that, even though Zeller led the Holes in scoring and rebounding, the headline in SI reads "Barnes, No. 7 North Carolina dismiss NC State."

That's just their script, no matter what happens. All major media do it, of course - push the "stars" at all costs. Rather pathetic, but apparently a reflection of their estimation of the public's intelligence/attention span.

[Slackerb]

I thought UNC looked like a final four team last night and State looked very out of it. Clearly the Tarheels/crowd/refs got in their head and they couldn't recover.

State looked completely different last night than what I've seen of them the rest of the year.

[elvis14]

State looked completely different last night than what I've seen of them the rest of the year.

This is what the State fans that I've talked to saw as well and they were greatly disappointed. One friend of mine this morning said that it looked like they reverted back to playing like last year's team. The UNC@Ch fans that I've talked to...oh wait...I don't talk sports with UNC@CH fans.

[Lar77]

State played about as poorly as I have seen them this year, missing open shots badly (it seemed that Brown kept airballing open shots and opening up to a heel transition) and CJ Leslie might have done more damage to his future by continuing to try taking Henson one on one. Wood was a non-factor until the game got out of hand. Howell was a non-factor because of fouls. So on and so on.

Bottom line: State made UNC look good, and they are good, but this game was a joke for a lot of reasons.

I continue to be amazed that Carolina fans are louder when they are blowing out a team than when the game is close. What a contrast to Cameron!

I also wonder why Roy didn't send his scholarship players to the locker room early (with him in the lead) when he put the scrubs in. Wasn't he afraid the Tarheel faithful would rush the court?

[toooskies]

If Vitale can be believed, UNC is the least peanalized team in the NCAA? I don't know why that is surprising to me. Why is there not an uproar about this in the press? Where are the talking heads that question every call made in favor of UNC as if it is part of a sinister plot?

Yet, alas Duke gets all the calls... facts be damned, Duke gets all the calls... say it enough and it becomes the "truth".

UNC is the least-penalized because they don't play very tight defense. Zeller/Henson inside also encourage a lot of teams to settle for jump shots instead of drives.

[jipops]

In which tournament? State needs more quality wins to have a real shot at the NCAAs.

Actually, they need one quality win first.

True, with the exception of Syracuse and Vandy (both losses) the non-conference schedule has been relatively soft. But I think the Texas win is a good one. They are 4-2 in the conference right now. If they can get by UVA this weekend then, barring some sort of meltdown, they should be in good shape for a decent ACC finish. 10-6 would obviously get them in the tournament but would 9-7? They need to win this weekend and win a few on the road. I do think this is a good team, I'm thankful we don't have to play them at their place.

[ChicagoHeel]

Based on this game it doesn't look like losing Strickland has hurt UNC's defense too much, at least it didn't tonight. (Their 3pt D did kind of stink though) If anything, it could very well end up helping their offense since they'll now rotate plenty of minutes to two pure shooters who should get plenty of good looks with the two inside threats and HB's scoring ability. Even with two players out UNC is still scary good, so much talent over there.

Should be interesting to see how State bounces back from this. They have UVA at home next. This game will be key. I believe the pack has the potential to make some real noise in March.

I thought our defense was outstanding last night,even from the three. We came out with intensity, forced them into tough shots, frustrated them, and then- as is often the case when a team faces a good D on the road- State lost their composure and made it easier for our defense. By the end of the second half State seemed to be playing a lot of one-on-one ball and looked an awful lot like the Lowe-era Wolfpack. We held them to a season-low point total (55) and they needed an 85-foot prayer and at least two, and maybe three, additional banked three pointers to reach that figure.

As I've said a few times on this board, we don't really lose much with Bullock defensively and we gain a lot offensively. Like a lot of UNC fans, all season I've wanted his playing time (abt. 19 MPG) to switch with Strickland's (abt. 24 mpg). I would rather DS's role to have been back-up point (10-12 minutes) with the occasional switch to the two (4-6 minutes). So in some ways we are better now that Bullock is getting more playing time. If Hairston can ever break out of his slump, we can be really tough because it will spread the floor in the halfcourt and add the three in transition to our arsenal. The issue is that we just don't have much to back-up Marshall and are extremely vulnerable in that regard. We might also have trouble down the road against a team with a really speedy backcourt- we used to have the option of putting Strickland on whoever was beating Marshall off the dribble.

In any case, we've played four very solid ACC games. Unfortunately, we just had that one Hinderburg game in there, which tempers my optimism considerably.

[Wheat/"/"/"]

This is a UNC team that has still not played to their potential, and they are improving.
Last night was better focus and intensity, and the result was a very strong defensive effort. The length of UNC is hard to score on, and it showed against a solid State team. When they are active and play with some determination, they are one of the top teams in the country.

I have no clue why they can't seem to play with that same effort all the time.

The loss of Dexter really sucked, along with the loss of Leslie. Dex's loss has now changed the style of play, and may or may not make them better. His loss certainly makes UNC different. Just goes to show you never know how a season will unfold in colloge Hoops.

With the loss of Dexter, UNC becomes a more potent 1/2 court offensive team, but will suffer some in transition offense. I think with the lack of overall ballhandling/slashing type players, the offense will now rely on the passing, screening, cutting post up game that suits these guys better than the push, push, push Roy really prefers to play.

I was impressed with Bullocks D on Wood. He moved his feet well and he is long. Woods off night had a lot to do with Reggie's D, make no mistake. His shooting stroke was confident too and he played hard. He really stepped up.

If PJ can break his shooting slump coming in off the bench, UNC will really up the level of their play.

Saw some of the Duke/MD game the other night and liked Mason's effort. He's getting more confident and the teams getting more confident getting it to him. He's so strong he just overpowered the MD defense. If he can continue to become smoother with his shots and the team gets him the ball in good position to take his shots, Duke can become an elite team this season (they are already very good).

On fouls...UNC gets a lot of foul calls because they deliver more passes into the post and therefor are creating tough situations for defenders. Same thing happens to Duke defenders when the ball gets fed into the post to Mason. In general, opposing teams are shooting jump shots against UNC and not pounding it inside to have the same pressure/effect on UNC's defenders.

There's no bias, it's indicative to the style of play.

[oldnavy]

This is a UNC team that has still not played to their potential, and they are improving.
Last night was better focus and intensity, and the result was a very strong defensive effort. The length of UNC is hard to score on, and it showed against a solid State team. When they are active and play with some determination, they are one of the top teams in the country.

I have no clue why they can't seem to play with that same effort all the time.

The loss of Dexter really sucked, along with the loss of Leslie. Dex's loss has now changed the style of play, and may or may not make them better. His loss certainly makes UNC different. Just goes to show you never know how a season will unfold in colloge Hoops.

With the loss of Dexter, UNC becomes a more potent 1/2 court offensive team, but will suffer some in transition offense. I think with the lack of overall ballhandling/slashing type players, the offense will now rely on the passing, screening, cutting post up game that suits these guys better than the push, push, push Roy really prefers to play.

I was impressed with Bullocks D on Wood. He moved his feet well and he is long. Woods off night had a lot to do with Reggie's D, make no mistake. His shooting stroke was confident too and he played hard. He really stepped up.

If PJ can break his shooting slump coming in off the bench, UNC will really up the level of their play.

Saw some of the Duke/MD game the other night and liked Mason's effort. He's getting more confident and the teams getting more confident getting it to him. He's so strong he just overpowered the MD defense. If he can continue to become smoother with his shots and the team gets him the ball in good position to take his shots, Duke can become an elite team this season (they are already very good).

On fouls...UNC gets a lot of foul calls because they deliver more passes into the post and therefor are creating tough situations for defenders. Same thing happens to Duke defenders when the ball gets fed into the post to Mason. In general, opposing teams are shooting jump shots against UNC and not pounding it inside to have the same pressure/effect on UNC's defenders.
There's no bias, it's indicative to the style of play.

Yet when Duke did the same thing and went to the line more than their opponents it was spun as "Duke gets all the calls". I don't disagree with you, it is just how it is portrayed in the media.

[RoyalBlue08]

I was shocked by the lack of intensity that NC State showed, but not necessarily by the outcome of the game. UNC is still very talented. I do think perimeter defense may become a problem for them in certain matchups, but they are still the most talented team outside of Kentucky in my opinion.

[davekay1971]

Here's about all you can safely take away:

1) UNC still has State's number, and I think a lot of that comes from State's psyche
2) UNC is a better team that State

That's about all I'd take away. UNC was playing at home, smarting from getting thoroughly unpantsed by Florida State. They were looking to get their mojo back, and State played the role of whipping boy all too well. I was hopeful that a new coach would instill a new attitude of can-do for State facing their rival...but the State guys played scared, played like they were expecting to lose. It's been a long time since they had a competitive game against Carolina, and apparently Gottfried wasn't able to get them to believe this would be any different.

State's a better team than they looked last night, and UNC's probably not as good as they looked (nor as bad as they looked against FSU).

State's game against UVa is now critical, both to their chances for an NCAA bid (where they are very much on the bubble), and for their mental status. It's a home game, and if they don't come out with fire and at least make this a good contest, they could hit a tailspin. They don't have to win...but they need to be in the game at the end. Winning, however, would be huge for this program.

UNC, on the other hand, shouldn't walk away with too much swagger, and I'm pretty sure Roy will try to keep them from getting cocky. They're still a team will amazing talent but flaws. Marshall's a phenomenal passer but a defensive liability and poor shooter. Barnes is a great scorer in open court and a nice shooter who has trouble creating his own shot against a good defender in half court. They may have benefitted by subtraction with Strickland's injury opening more minutes for shooters at the 2, but one game against a team with only one good perimeter shooter doesn't mean UNC's already bad 3 point defense isn't going to get worse. UNC has a favorable schedule until they meet us. They should beat Tech and Wake easily, then they have a trip to Maryland where it should be interesting to see who's going to try to keep up with Stoglin (though, for the record, I think UNC wins that game). Unless Maryland brings their top game, we may not know how good Carolina really is post-Strickland until they play us.

[slower]

we may not know how good Carolina really is post-Strickland until they play us.

and vice versa, perhaps?