Author’s note: I’m making B.B.E. two parts this week. I wrote way too much about Duke-UNC to fit in my usual stuff, so I’m going to just put in the recaps and a much smaller version of “Around the Power 6.” Tomorrow, I’m going to take a stab at breaking down the Conference tourneys, and at picking my All-League teams for these conferences.
Duke 82, UNC 50: Just typing that score would have been unfathomable last year, two months ago, hell even two days ago. I brilliantly predicted that UNC would pull off the upset, but they weren’t remotely in the game from the opening tip. These two teams aren’t even in the same stratosphere anymore. The matchup was about as one-sided as if my Chancellor team played against Oak Hill Academy.
The only thing I kept thinking of was when I was playing 8th grade AAU ball. We lost to Prince William like 96-20, and the game was called after 3 quarters, making this the first and only time I’ve ever seen the slaughter rule applied to a basketball game. Honestly, they could and probably should have called this one at halftime. It wasn’t just a talent discrepancy because Carolina arguably isn’t that far away from Duke in this area. But in terms of heart and other intangibles, it wasn’t even close. Carolina didn’t fight. They were the pacifist who just kept getting punched in the mouth repeatedly. They had worse body language after turnovers than the 6th grade girls team my father coaches. By the time you hit college and have a D1 scholarship, you should have learned to run back on defense without pouting or sulking.
So where does Carolina go from here? I mean aside from the NIT, which they might not even get into. Honestly, and this might be a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction here, but I feel like Roy should do what Calipari did when he took over at Kentucky and just clean house. Scholarships are renewable, and from the way that these players “competed” this season, it might be wise for Roy to basically tell some of them they should try out another program. Kentucky brought in John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Daniel Orton, Eric Bledsoe, and Darnell Dodson, keeping Patrick Patterson, Darius Miller, and DeAndre Liggins as the only holdovers from the Billy Gillespe regime. Why couldn’t Roy do the same with Harrison Barnes, Reggie Bullock, and Kendall Marshall? Rebuild everything around these 3, keep John Henson, Dexter Strickland, Tyler Zeller, and maybe the Wear brothers, see if Ed Davis comes back, shorten the rotation, and go from there.
From what I saw this season, I don’t want Larry Drew running the offense, and I don’t want Will Graves erratically launching airballs from the perimeter. You could argue that UNC has won two national titles in 5 years, and that they shouldn’t necessarily go drastic with changing everything and panic. But it’s not just the 16-15 record, it’s the way they underachieved. This wasn’t the only time this season that they were simply outworked in route to losing. It happened repeatedly, and inexperience played a role; but, in the one-and-done climate that is college basketball today, you can’t sit around and wait for freshman and sophomores to figure things out. Injuries played a role, but they shouldn't have to the extent they did. They still had plenty of depth and should have been able to play through everything.
I honestly think that if Bobby Frasor would have been granted a 5th year, things might have been different. Frasor might have been able to do what Ginyard and Thompson obviously could not: lead this young team and get them to go all out and represent Carolina basketball the right way. Hometown biases aside, Frasor was a tremendous leader last season, never bitching about playing time, and stepping in for Lawson when he was injured, providing quality minutes and not making the mistakes that were made this season, always scrapping and hustling along the way. Ginyard and Thompson were always supporting actors, not leads that can carry a picture. Their lack of leadership had this team doomed from the jump. I just don’t even feel remotely comfortable with what is coming back, and again, it would be different if they lost a bunch of close games where they fought like heck and gave it all they had. But they laid down in way too many games and I don’t know if Roy can fix this stuff in practices. To go from having probably one of the hardest working teams in the country to the one that underachieved the most means that it’s not going to be just a matter of the team magically getting it next year and taking back their spot in the top 25. Roy needs to change things up, cut the dead weight, and start over. I don’t want to see Duke 82, UNC 50 ever again. Carolina’s the only consistently good team that I cheer for, I’d hate to see this change, with Roy’s legacy fading into the background in the process.
Man of the Match: Duke’s Program in general
Maryland 79, Duke 72: I went through a lot to watch this game. I had to go somewhere during the first half, so I decided to DVR it and watch the whole thing after its completion. I was about 5 minutes in, when my ex-girlfriend called, which resulted in us fighting and talking for a good hour. I then proceeded to watch everything up until 1:27 left in the second half, where the DVR shut if off. I’m new to having a DVR, and didn’t realize that everything would shut off right at 11. I didn’t know what to do, but luckily ESPN 2 was showing a replay of the game from 1:30-3 in the morning. So I jumped right back in at the 1:27 mark, trying my absolute hardest to watch without looking at the bottom line updates. Long story short, it was Duke-Maryland, and with the Terps getting the win, it was well worth my struggles to bring my loyal readers, all 5 of them, my thoughts. Both of these teams will be around until at least the second week of the NCAA’s. Begrudgingly, I give Duke credit for coming back from an early 11 point deficit. Scheyer and Smith seemingly hit shot after shot, which bodes well for the Dookies because guard play is always a factor in the dance. Brian Zoubek has turned into a rebounding machine, and although he seemingly always shoots about 5-14, Kyle Singler is usually good for a couple of clutch 3’s and big rebounds each time out. As for Maryland, Grevis Vazquez is simply one of the best guards in all the land. I think the last, or second to last shot he hit, where he dribbled into 3 people and seemingly just threw the ball at the rim, is a microcosm for who he is as a player. It is one of those shots where coaches scream “No, no, no, Yes!!!” You question his methods sometimes, but he gets the job done. Jordan Williams bears an uncanny resemblance to a young Sean May, and he had a very Sean May-like output of 15 points, 11 boards, and 3 blocks. Vazquez led the Terps with 20, while Nolan Smith also had 20 for Duke. Now, the clash in Durham between Duke and the Tarheels takes on added importance, with UNC now getting a chance to spoil Duke’s chances at winning the league. (As you read above, you saw how that turned out).
Man of the Match: Vazquez 20 pts, 4 rbs, 5 assts
Tennesee 75, Mississippi St. 59: I watched UT play for the first time this season, so I could argue more effectively with Langston about their merits or lack of them. I also wanted to check them out because they have beaten arguably the two best teams going in Kansas and Kentucky. I don’t really think this game was a case of the Vols playing great, but simply Miss. St. playing terribly. They got down 17-0, then pretty much ignored Jarvis Varnado and just shot threes. What Tennessee does have going for them, aside from “Rocky Top” being a pretty sweet song, is that they are deep and athletic. Scotty Hopson relies on shooting triples a little too much, but when he’s on, he’s tough to stop. J.P. Prince led the Vols with 16, while Brian Williams had 10 points and 13 rebounds. UT could go anywhere from the Final Four to out in the first round, but either way they’ll make it interesting.
Man of the Match: Prince 16 pts, 6 rbs, 3 assts, 2 stls
"Around the Power 6"
ACC
Ascending: MarylandDescending: Georgia Tech
Player of the Week: Greivis Vazquez (21.5 pts, 5 assts, 2.5 stls)
Big East
Ascending: West Virginia
Descending: Cincinnati
Player of the Week: Deshaun Butler (21.5 pts, 8 rbs, 4 assts)
Big 12
Ascending: Texas A&M
Descending: Oklahoma
Player of the Week: Cory Higgins (24.5 pts, 4.5 rbs, 3 stls)
Big 10
Ascending: Wisconsin
Descending: Illinois
Player of the Week: Raymar Morgan (19 pts, 9 rbs, 2 stls)
SEC
Ascending: Tennessee
Descending: Mississippi St.
Player of the Week: Mikhail Torrance (15 pts, 9 rbs, 7 assts)
Pac 10
Ascending: Arizona St.
Descending: UCLA
Player of the Week: Matthew Bryan-Amaning (14 pts, 10.5 rbs, 2 blks)
8 comments:
I hope the cleaning house idea is a knee-jerk reaction. First, it would kill Roy as a recruiter. Cal didn't recruit any of the guys he pushed out the door, so he's able to still claim loyalty to "his" recruits. If Roy were to push out his own players, what recruits would want to play for him? How could they believe a word he says?
March 8, 2010 at 8:30 PMSecond, you say get rid of the dead weight, and then you name 6 guys you would bring back, so who would you force out? Just Graves and Drew? With Kendall Marshall coming in, Drew most likely moves to the bench, where he would be a great back-up. He's also a sophomore, so it's probably too early to give up on him. Next year, I also doubt that Graves is given the green light to shoot as much. This year the team had no other option from the outside; in fact, he was the only three point shooter on the team. He launched it 154 times. The next closest guys were Drew with 84 attempts and Ginyard with 69.
And, if there's anything that could have helped this year's team from last year's, it would be Wayne Ellington. Ellington is one of the best shooters in UNC history. He would have made it harder for teams to double on Zeller and Davis at the beginning of the year. He also has a decent midrange and post up game. He could have created his own shot; something no one else on this team could do with consistency. Wayne's shooting ability would have relaxed Drew and perhaps brought more purpose to Drew's movements. Prior to Zeller's injury Drew actually looked like a pretty good point guard. He averaged 5.9 apg and 1.8 to/g for a 1.89 assist/to ratio, which isn't much worse than Frasor's 1.81 ratio (his freshman year...when he was in a similar situation to Drew). Ellington at the 2, would have allowed Ginyard to play the 3, with Deon and Ed down low. Off the bench that would have given UNC Zeller, Graves, Henson, and Dexter for a solid 9 man rotation (sprinkle in the Wears etc)
The injuries really did decimate this team. They came at the wrong times and to the wrong guys. The one strength this team had coming into the season was depth in the post. Where did the injuries strike? The depth in the post. Who was left to lead? Deon Thompson, Ginyard, and Graves. Deon's not a leader; he is who he is, and who he is helped UNC reach two Final Fours and win a title. Graves was suspended last season, and Ginyard played the last two seasons of his UNC career shattered by injuries.
I don't want to see any of these guys pushed out the door. I want to see them get better, grow and mature, and redeem themselves, and I don't understand the logic of wanting Roy to be more like Cal, especially when Roy had done everything better than Cal his whole career and done so cleanly.
And not to bring up Chancellor too much...but this team reminds me of our cross country team the year after you and Keeling graduated. The seniors on the team weren't leaders; they were just there. KJ would smoke cigarettes in his jeep before practice. He became more and more nonchalant as the year went on, and the younger guys showed more and more that he couldn't keep up with them. The best guys on the team were Russ, Steele, and myself, but we barely knew what we were doing. We weren't a team, but two years later we ran as a team and in a pack and competed for the District title, losing in one of the closest District matches there's been. These freshmen and sophomores can become leaders. Right now, I expect they feel like I did as a sophomore. I looked to KJ to lead the way when really I should have just grabbed the reigns and done what needed to be done--easier said in hindsight.
March 8, 2010 at 8:38 PMPS hopefully, this is the last time I go so in depth about high school cross country again
haha.....that was great with the xc analogy, even if you and i would be the only two people who understood the reference...so was i ty lawson or wayne ellington? My post would have been even more harsh if I had written it on Saturday night right after the game. In hindsight, no I don't want Roy to be like Calipari. I despise Calipari. I just don't understand how they fell off like they did this year. Granted, they were ranked way too high in the beginning and may have gotten overconfident. But 16-15? 6-10 in the ACC? And like I said it wasn't the losing, it would have been different if they were just snakebitten and lost a bunch of close games, being able to build off of that as they learned to win. But they got blown out a lot. They got outhustled a lot. Other teams just wanted it more almost every single game. I don't see how you change that. That's not something you can fix in practice. I just don't know how you can just change that in 6-7 guys and make them play 100 times harder next year. Who knows, maybe this season, combined with the infusion of new guys will combine to make everyone who's coming back to be humbled, making them work harder than they ever have before. I really hope so.
March 8, 2010 at 11:50 PM(As for the cleaning house idea, it was definitely rash. But I only said to definitely keep Henson,Dex,and Zeller. I said maybe the Wear brothers. And I'd say it's probably 50/50 Davis comes back. If you can't get rid of them, bury them on the bench until they decide that they give a shit).
I have heard rumblings of both Drew and McDonald transferring, which neither would surprise me. All of the recruiting gurus and message board posts I have read about Kendall Marshall basically compares to him to Greg Paulus except he's taller and he's black. He passes really well, is a leader, is a hard worker, does alot of things well, but doesn't have the greatest foot speed and quickness. Basically what they said about Paulus. That would be pretty funny, but who knows at this point.
March 9, 2010 at 11:57 AMIt seems to me entitlement was the major downfall of this year's team, with injuries a smaller reason. The young players just can in and thought they could take over right where last year's team left off because of the name on the front of the jersey, and the seniors that were there just aren't the best leaders and couldn't direct the team. They are more talented then their record, but the lack of desire and hustle really showed in some of the games I watched, especially the last Duke game. Ginyard made some interesting comments where he saw signs of trouble even before the season started. Will be an interesting offseason for you guys.
Another thing I didn't understand was Roy tried to make Thompson, Ginyard, and Graves center-of-the-offense type players when it was obvious they guys just rode the coattails of last year's team and were excellent role players and not feature guys. He should have played his younger players more, especially his guards Strickland and McDonald, and he should have played Henson at the post more when it was obvious they guys weren't getting it done. It's weird to criticize Roy for this, because usually Duke fans criticize K all the time for not playing the young guys, but its true this year.
March 9, 2010 at 12:15 PMLove the cross county reference. Coach Bane should have given us the keys to team at the start of the season, it would have gone much better.
I think for the first time ever in his career, Roy Williams witnessed his plan and his programmatic strategy struggle and ultimately fail. More than the team itself, I think Roy has struggled internally this year. He is a great coach; his gameplan, recruiting, and style of play have always worked in the past, but this year the hallmarks of Roy Williams team did not equate success.
March 9, 2010 at 2:51 PMDon't get me wrong, Roy has had teams that have struggled before, but they continued to buy into his system and to fight throughout the season. Something happened with this group that hasn't happened before.
For me it seems like this group was:
1. Very young and under-confident
2. Lacking leadership
3. Lacking consistent PG play.
These three factors combined with Roy's faltering confidence in his system and team led to their demise. I don't think Roy has abandoned his coaching principles or his overall programmatic strategy, but I do think that his ego's fragility was aired in public view this year, especially regarding some of the comments made publicly. The things listed above are obvious indicators for any team that success is not in the cards, but for Carolina and Roy Williams this year the drop off from expectations to reality was the ultimate deathblow to confidence, cohesion, and the will to play.
Think of the confidence of the young guys like a balloon. There was nothing there but air. They hadn't done anything to be that confident. The balloon popped, and I think it popped for two reasons:
March 9, 2010 at 6:45 PMFirst, the injuries.
Second, and probably more importantly, the team lost to good teams early on and then to College of Charleston. Zeller, Strickland, and other players have pointed to that game as a turning point. Graves and Ginyard did not play in that game. Ginyard was never the same after it, until Senior Night. The team folded.
I can see where Roy thought Ginyard, Deon, and Graves could carry the offense. Deon, especially when Tyler was out, was a centerpiece of last year's offense. His scoring in the first half gave UNC its huge lead against Mich. St. in the title game. I expect Roy thought Deon would blossom without Tyler, but I don't think he expected more than maybe 15 a game. I think he also thought Graves and Ginyard could drop in 10 a game. All of that pretty much happened. Deon went for 13.7 ppg on 49% shooting. Ginyard and Graves went for 8.1ppg and 9.5ppg. Ginyard shot above 40%; Graves did not. Ginyard and Deon, for the most part, did their parts and did so efficiently.
What Roy also needed was for other guys to step up. This was always going to be done by committee.
Zeller was averaging 10 a game when he got hurt. His injury pretty much kept him out of ACC play. Ed Davis was scoring 13.4 ppg when he got hurt and missed half of conference play. Combine those two guys averages with the three guys above and that's 53.7 ppg. All of that was expected.
The unknown variables were Drew, Dexter, McDonald, Henson, and the Wears. Drew put up 8 a game. Dexter and Henson wound up putting 5ppg each. That brings the total per game up to 71.7, which is respectable for a team that was supposed to win with defense and depth. When players started to get hurt, there was no way to keep the number of points up. The baskets by the Wears and McDonald were now an effort to keep the team around 60 or 70 as opposed to getting the team up into the 80s.
The players and Roy knew this, and guys not used to losing started to lose; and losing made everyone press and soul search. The players tried to do it all themselves and quit passing the ball and doing the little things that win, and Roy grew frustrated because the guys he knew weren't ready (otherwise he would have played them more at the start of the year) for the limelight were now asked to carry not only this year's team but an entire century of UNC tradition.
I expect Drew and McDonald wind up staying. They'll take a step back and look at next year's roster and realize there are minutes to be had on the perimeter. If one does go, I'd expect it to be McDonald and not Drew.
March 9, 2010 at 6:47 PMPost a Comment