Off the cuff: It's no real surprise that Michigan beat North Carolina. But for the Tar Heels to just roll over after a decent first half of action is disconcerting. From the last minute of the first half through the fourth minute of the second half, the Tar Heels were outscored 18-4. Not only that but late in that stretch and even over the next five minutes, the Michigan players posed and taunted and celebrated in the Tar Heels' faces. There was plenty of time for Carolina to make a comeback but the Wolverines were acting as if the game was already over - in essence it was. Carolina's 11-0 run to cut the deficit in half at 73-62 ultimately didn't hurt much as the Heels were outscored 11-5 the rest of the way. Andrew Platek, who only played three minutes in the game, had a chance to cut the deficit to single digits but he passed up an open three from the corner and chose to drive closer for a floater than didn't have a chance. At the first of the year, most of us felt the Tar Heels had plenty of scorers and than if one had an off night someone else would do the scoring. Problem is that most are having off shooting nights at the same time. I understand that it doesn't matter how much you score if you don't play defense well but Carolina has to get more consistent on offense as well. Coach Williams' emphasis is on defense as it should be but the Heels hit only one of 12 shots at one point. Of course they were getting dunked on and shot over for threes on the other end. We knew Carolina had a tough stretch here and would be hard pressed to win them all - particularly at a streaking Michigan - but there needs to be more fight in this team. My guess is we'll see that in the future but there still could be two or three more losses even before the tough ACC schedule begins. |
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