Off the cuff: Not sure if we learned anything about the Tar Heels in their lost to UConn but we did learn that the Huskies are a hard team to like. From Dan Hurley taking a page from the book of Bobby by exorting the crowd to cheer (when the game was in hand) to Cam "Chatty Cathy" Spencer bragging about his shots to the defender, UConn is not likeable. Spencer did get a technical on the heels of Bacot wrongly getting a technical for celebrating a dunk. He wasn't directing his celebration at anyone in particular like Spencer always did. They are a good team and a deep team - or at least they have several players who can score. And they can either play inside or outside. It was mostly outside in this game as the guards killed Carolina. UNC guard RJ Davis hurt UConn but ultimately didn't kill them. He has become the most consistent Tar Heel. Seems he's always the top scorer. Depending on the opponent, it would be good for an inside guy like Bacot or a swing guy like Ingram to be the top scorer. Bacot keeps racking up double-doubles but he should have had more than 13 points. He hit just 33 percent of his field goals and he missed five of 10 free throws. That's a lot of points left on the table. He should hit 60 percent from the floor and at least 75 percent from the free throw line. That would have been about eight more points - enough to make this a one-possession game. Also, with a third of the season done, Cormac Ryan is going to have to go on quite a three-point run to simply get his stats in the average category. He missed all six of his three-point shots in this game and he's only 12 of 47 for the season - just over 25 percent. Anything under about 33 percent is a liability. He's also just 12 of 26 from inside the arc. Certainly no Brady Manek. All this being said, Carolina had its chances to win this game and the flashes of brilliance still leave Coach Davis encouraged for the future. "I'm encouraged about what this team can be and where it can go," Coach Davis said. "I'm excited about what we can become." ----------------- A lot of times when a team hits a lot of threes early, they can't keep it up. But the fear in this game was had Florida State already done enough by hitting nine of 17 threes to go up 45-31 with 17:20 to go? The Seminoles did cool off a bit as they hit only two threes over the last 16 minutes of the game. Meanwhile Carolina was cold from the three-point line all afternoon as the Heels were only five of 22. What Carolina did do is control the pace of the game over the last 15 minutes. And the Heels outrebounded the Noles 39-30 and hit 25 free throws compared to just four by FSU. Even though Carolina committed fewer personal fouls than Florida State, there was a stretch where Tar Heel fans were ill as a hornet. Late in the first half there were at least three calls that drew the Carolina faithfuls' ire - and with good reason. First, Armando Bacot was credited with a basket on a basketball interference call on a Florida State player for getting his hand tangled up in the net. Three minutes of game play went by before the next timeout. During that timeout, officials took away the basket, saying it actually wasn't basket interference. Excuse me? Bacot had gotten the rebound as the whistle blew, awarding him the basket. So, the officials took away the basket and the Carolina possession as well. That should not be a call that can be changed. If it is changed, the team that got the rebound should be awarded an extra possession. For instance if the possession arrow was to Florida State, it shoulid at the very least be changed to Carolina. But again, it shouldn't be a reviewable play. If that's reviewable, the two phantom fouls on Cadeau and Bacot over the next couple of minutes should be able to be reviewed. Another poor call by the officials was initially called correctly but changed after seeing it again on video during a timeout. On that play, it was ruled to be a shot clock violation when actually a Florida State player touched the ball as it went out of bounds with a second left on the shot clock. The TV crew was too busy yuckin' it up to discuss any of these issues. ---------------------------- Archives
Carolina Football: Golden anniversary of a redeeming 50-0 victory over Duke. Carolina Football: Excerpts from an article on the history of the Carolina-Duke rivalry.
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Editor's Note: HeelPrints chronicled the UNC basketball, baseball and football seasons for 2008 and 2009. Since the vast majority of comments I get about the site relate to basketball and since this isn't a paying job for me, I decided to limit my coverage and analysis to basketball. Baseball and football will remain archived and if I have comments or opinions I want to make on those or any other sports at UNC, I will make them here on the front page and then archive them in the corresponding sports section. Thanks for all the positive comments I have received about the site. Should I get sponsorship in the future, I will reconsider adding baseball and football again. Ironically, my favorite sports to watch in person are baseball and football. But my first connections to UNC came from watching Dean Smith's basketball teams on TV or listening to them on the radio in the days before all the games were televised. It should come as no surprise that people pay more attention to the basketball coverage. Thanks for your interest in this site. |