MBB: (2) Syracuse 57, UNC-Chapel Hill 45

[hurleyfor3]

Gotta love 10am basketball. Somebody has to lose!

[dukelifer]

Somebody has to lose!

Yep. UNC has played it best in big games. I expect an upset.

[duke96]

Who(m) are we rooting for?

[4Gen]

We North Carolinans get it. There's a tornado watch. Enough already.

[hurleyfor3]

Who(m) are we rooting for?

I figure for the Cuse, losing hurts more than winning helps and for unc it's the opposite. Doesn't answer your question but it's a starting point.

[porkpa]

I have two favorite teams - Duke is number one. Number two is anybody playing against UNC.

[duke96]

Even if it would presumably make it tougher for us to win the ACC? I don't have the answer.

[Duke_92]

I'm OK with Carolina winning as long as it helps us with the regular season standings.

[superdave]

As The Nature Boy says "to be The Man, you've got to beat The Man". Syracuse might just be The Man in the ACC this year. I love the competition. It makes us more tourney ready. I am glad Cuse is here in our conference now.

I also really like Boeheim. Great basketball mind, worthy competitor.

Go to hell Carolina.

Super "Woooooo!" Dave

[Dukehky]

I want Carolina to win this game. Standings wise for the most part but also, I'm not totally behind the expansion, so go traditional ACC. I mean, if Paige isn't on fire, UNC just can't win games. If they were another team, it would just be sad that a college team can't make a three point shot. Right now it's kind of funny because it's carolina but to have 2 players who can make a three consistently just isn't good enough .

Paige is having to chase Cooney all around the country right now and it's probably wearing him down. You can tell he's already exhausted on his shot. Not nearly enough leg in his shot.

I'm not super concerned about this game today because we have a tough one later and the Cardiac Cats have the biggest home games in Panthers history tomorrow, so whatever.

[pfrduke]

So I turned this game on a little bit late, and in the time I've been watching I've seen one Carolina basket. Their offense has been cover-your-eyes awful so far today.

[pfrduke]

They've also now blown 2-on-1, 3-on-1, 3-on-2, and 4-on-1 fast break opportunities. I think Roy is not in the dadgum early afternoon spirit.

[BD80]

Dickie V lamenting carowina's shooting woes: they are feeling the pressure, its being harped on in the local papers.

Like the tar heel basketball players can read the local papers!

[pfrduke]

This game would be a ridiculous blowout if Cooney could hit an open 3. Syracuse just beats you down - they force you to make mistakes and then take advantage of them.

[Ggallagher]

Dickie V has also commented on the academic issues at uncch - as much as I really never want him doing a game I'm watching - thanks Dickie V :)

[GGLC]

Gbinijie looking pretty good out there.

[throatybeard]

Roy Williams is not in the dadgum spirit of the Afterfeast of the Theopany.*




* - No, I'm never going to get tired of this.

[Gthoma2a]

Dickie V touting UNC's graduation rate for players, but how many really had to attend classes to do it?

[BD80]

Dickie V touting UNC's graduation rate for players, but how many really had to attend classes to do it?

I love ol' roy's defense:

We didn't cheat, the players GRADUATED! What do you mean they couldn't read? They GRADUATED!

But roy, listen to the question, how did they graduate? How could you not realize they couldn't even read?

[wilson]

Dickie V touting UNC's graduation rate for players, but how many really had to attend classes to do it?Right. He's completely missing the point...It has nothing to do with program graduation rates. Rather, it is about the fact that unc apparently has a systemic practice of setting forth shockingly low standards for the awarding of grades and degrees to many students, a preponderance of whom were high-profile athletes. It's easy for the program's graduation rate to be high when the university is basically giving away diplomas.

[throatybeard]

That game elapsed in an extraordinarily timely fashion.

[westwall]

Dickie V touting UNC's graduation rate for players, but how many really had to attend classes to do it?

Yep. His impassioned defense of Roy/UNC is over-the-top absurd -- perhaps reflecting his ignorance of the extent of the revelations. His partner has tried to cut him off, with mixed success.

[duke4ever19]

Someone get an air freshener. UNC just stunk up the Carrier Dome.

[hurleyfor3]

That game elapsed in an extraordinarily timely fashion.

Is there anything not thoroughly enjoyable about unc basketball this year? Even when you invest your time watching them, the experience is as brief as possible.

[jipops]

Syracuse's defense is very, very impressive. They are very long and athletic in the front court. This will be a very tough matchup for our guys.

[weezie]

Syracuse's defense is very, very impressive. They are very long and athletic in the front court. This will be a very tough matchup for our guys.

It's making me queasy already....

[devildeac]

So I turned this game on a little bit late, and in the time I've been watching I've seen one Carolina basket. Their offense has been cover-your-eyes awful so far today.

Near the end of the first half at one point, unc had scored 1 FG in a 10+ minute period from about the 12 minute mark to the 2 minute mark. I wish it had been 0 points total in that segment;) . Who do you think was my preference to win that game?

[DukieInKansas]

I love ol' roy's defense:

We didn't cheat, the players GRADUATED! What do you mean they couldn't read? They GRADUATED!

But roy, listen to the question, how did they graduate? How could you not realize they couldn't even read?

Perhaps the fact that many appear to have limited reading skills could explain why a player in 2010 made it to practice 50 whatever and didn't understand what he was supposed to do. Roy, that might have been a clue.

I think I remember the year correctly. I just remember Roy talking about a player, I believe by name, that didn't understand a play and Roy shared it on his radio program.

[devildeac]

Syracuse's defense is very, very impressive. They are very long and athletic in the front court. This will be a very tough matchup for our guys.

But, (if) we can score >60 points against that zone, can we hold the Orange to about the same total that the cheaters did today. Think about it that way.

[CharlestonDevil]

I wonder if the unc players were distracted worrying about all the classes they are going to have to start taking.

But in all seriousness, I would love to see Ole Huck's post game press conference and him answering questions about his team's poor performance and how many of his previous players were in these fake classes. not that he will answer any of those questions directly..

[pfrduke]

Perhaps the fact that many appear to have limited reading skills could explain why a player in 2010 made it to practice 50 whatever and didn't understand what he was supposed to do. Roy, that might have been a clue.

I think I remember the year correctly. I just remember Roy talking about a player, I believe by name, that didn't understand a play and Roy shared it on his radio program.

Dexter Strickland, and yes, it was 2010.

[IBleedBlue]

As much as I enjoyed the UNC loss, we have to keep in mind that we have to travel to the dome and play the zone with that long front court.
And so far we have struggled against zone. Coach K has to come up with an exceptional game plan against syracuse zone.

[TKG]

ESPN.com's front page lead for the game:

No. 2 Syracuse cruises past floundering UNC.
Associated Press

[77devil]

Surprised Shulman brought up the scandal but not surprised Dickie V glossed it over. In his mind there is no wrong in college basketball.

[obsesseddukefan]

Someone get an air freshener. UNC just stunk up the Carrier Dome.

Sadly we played just as bad at Clemson. As much as I would love to pick apart UNC, something tells me we won't have much to talk about as well. After all we are 1-3

[devildeac]

ESPN.com's front page lead for the game:

No. 2 Syracuse cruises past floundering UNC.
Associated Press

Another headline tonight could easily be:

Clemson cruises by defenseless Duke.

[TKG]

Another headline tonight could easily be:

Clemson cruises by defenseless Duke.

True dat!

[DukieInBrasil]

UNC lost to #2 Syracuse on the road by less than Duke lost to Clemson at Clemson. Does not bode well.

[vick]

UNC lost to #2 Syracuse on the road by less than Duke lost to Clemson at Clemson. Does not bode well.

I'm not a pollyanna about this team, so think of this as more of an anti-UNC position if you want, but UNC's loss to Syracuse was much less competitive than our loss to Clemson. Using Pomeroy's win probability, Syracuse never had less than a 75% chance of winning and was never below 95% in the second half. With 5 minutes to go, the game was 55-36.

By contrast, in our loss to Clemson we led win probability for almost all of the first half, and Clemson didn't take the lead for good until 8 minutes to go and hit 75% (again, the level that Syracuse was never below) with 6 minutes to go. Obviously, Clemson isn't Syracuse, but looking at the final scores here is really misleading. UNC was awful against Syracuse, and what happened in garbage time in that game vs. ours doesn't change that.

[DukieInBrasil]

I'm not a pollyanna about this team, so think of this as more of an anti-UNC position if you want, but UNC's loss to Syracuse was much less competitive than our loss to Clemson. Using Pomeroy's win probability, Syracuse never had less than a 75% chance of winning and was never below 95% in the second half. With 5 minutes to go, the game was 55-36.

By contrast, in our loss to Clemson we led win probability for almost all of the first half, and Clemson didn't take the lead for good until 8 minutes to go and hit 75% (again, the level that Syracuse was never below) with 6 minutes to go. Obviously, Clemson isn't Syracuse, but looking at the final scores here is really misleading. UNC was awful against Syracuse, and what happened in garbage time in that game vs. ours doesn't change that.

You allude to one of the things that in my mind causes foreboding about this team: yet again Duke was winning with less than 10 minutes to play and lost, this time getting whooped in the final 8 minutes. This team does not close games well and gets "out-toughed" a lot. I don't have the solution, just observations.