An Angry, Less Sophisticated UNC Rant

To steal from a little Jay-Z diddy entitled "Public Service Announcement," Allow me to reintroduce myself, my name is Brod, B to the Rody. And while i've never moved snowflakes by the oz, I similarly broke the law and paid the price for it. With that sordid chapter now behind me, I can move on with my life and discuss socially relevant topics like college basketball. Namely, the defending champions who are currently defending their championship like a bunch of hyper-active retarded children attempting to play capture the flag. Needless to say, Georgia Tech, Clemson, and fucking UVA, amongst others have taken their turns stealing our sky blue colored flag and are stomping all over it. I had positive aspirations at the beginning of the season, knowing full well that we'd at least make a run at the Sweet 16, but now the NIT seems like a more feasable goal. In closing, I would like to call out, question, or simply wonder what is going on with 5 Tarheels that have let the Carolina nation down.

1. Marcus Ginyard: The glue guy/defensive stopper has been a turnover machine, and has not been anything near the stabilizing force that a 5th year Senior should be on a team loaded with underclassmen. While he is playing hurt, Ginyard has disappointed by allowing countless blown leads and sloppy basketball to continue on his watch. Ginyard and Thompson have been there through the glory years, and one of them needs to draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough. We will get this defensive stop, we will get this loose ball, because that's what winning teams do.

2. Will Graves: Teach gave us an extensive pyschological profile in a previous article about Mr.Graves, so all I can say is that he's the only legitimate perimeter threat, so why isn't he getting more looks? I've been saying since the beginning of the season that he needs to emerge as the main offensive weapon, yet he still disappears for large segments of the game.

3. Dexter and Larry: One supposedly plays too fast, the other doesn't look to run enough. Which means if Roy could somehow magically combine them into one uber-hybrid point guard.....they still wouldn't be as good as Ty Lawson. Drew has great assist numbers, but kills the boys in blue with inopportune turnovers. Neither can consistently shoot, nor run a team efficiently.

4. John Henson: The much ballyhooed McDonald's All-American has been putrid. He's only 30 pounds bigger than me, and I'm a robust 5'10 160!!! He's fucking 6'10 190..... Suffice to say rebounding and banging inside are out of the question against the Lawal's and Aminu's of the world. So he brings about 1 block and 2 points a game into the fold. Way to earn that scholarship John boy.

5. Ed Davis: Yes superstar, I'm even going to call you out. Despite also being injured, Sam Perkins Jr. has also been a disappointment as of late. The boards and blocks are still there, but with all this NBA buzz (slated to go 9th in the first round of the latest mock on nbadraft.net), tell me how he's going to score in the Association if he can't lead a bad Tarheel team in scoring. He has no low-post game to speak of, and with the injury, looks tentative and scared.

Despite these countless flaws, I still predict Roy's boys to make a deep run in the ACC tourney, and will win at least one game in the dance. Bill Simmons talks about there being a 5 year grace period where fans cannot get angry until 5 years after winning a championship, so I probably need to take a deep breath. We're in a rebuilding year, but champions don't rebuild, they reload. Carolina better get a different firearm however, because the trigger is stuck. Only 9 more months until the Harrison Barnes era begins. At this point, the only way we beat Duke is if the Wear brothers challenge the Plumlee brothers to a steal cage match or possibly a pie eating contest. Because on the basketball court, it may not happen this year.

photos via Inside Carolina

North Carolina Basketball: The Stone Masons

Every Final Four run and every national title won leads to mass exodus from any college program. Teams that traverse the Ides of March, with success, find themselves, more often than not, watching their best players depart into the Heavens on chariots of fire, leaving behind a roster of role players, bench warmers, and incoming freshmen to lead the program out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. For the more elite programs of college basketball, this feat takes place with so much regularity people often fail to appreciate the ethereal labor that goes into the construction of great teams.

In 2009, the North Carolina Tar Heels captured their fifth national title. Following their blowout victory of Michigan St., the team saw four seniors graduate, most notably Tyler Hansbrough, and two juniors, Tywon Lawson and Wayne Ellington, leave early for the NBA. The Carolina teams that featured Hansbrough, Lawson, and Ellington are among the most successful in the school's history: a national title, two Final Fours, three Elite Eights, two ACC Tournament championships, and three ACC regular season titles; for most schools, their departure would temper expectations, but Carolina is a program adept at the commissioning of prophets. The sky blue of their uniforms wreaks of predestination.

When Moses could no longer lead and could not enter the Promised Land, Joshua became the leader of the Israelites, marching them without fear into hostile territory. In the classic film The Ten Commandments, Joshua is a stone cutter, a fitting occupation for a man who would help to lay the foundations of Israel. His story is one of legacy through obedience. Without a Joshua to carry the burden of leadership after Moses, the story of the Israelites stalls out; their blood drying up like a drop of water on desert sands. No House of David. No Wisdom of Solomon. No Temple. No Messiah. And Constantine is just an emperor who dreams with the sun in his eyes. No Pope. No Schisms. No Martin Luther. No Puritans. No Thanksgiving. The chain of western heritage breaks into pieces that evaporate in the sun. But there was a Joshua, so history flows on like a mighty river, like the written word, like the traditions that guide our daily lives. The Israelites had a Joshua, and Carolina has a Marcus Ginyard, a man who went part way up Mount Sinai with the 2009 team, before succumbing to a foot injury that led to his redshirting the season and his current place on the 2010 roster.

The leadership role that Marcus Ginyard provides this UNC team is nothing new; it is a role that is vital to any program's ongoing success, year after year, decade after decade. Every time the Moses' succumb to the Golden Calf that is the NBA, or the Elijah's ride off in a fiery chariot, a Joshua, an Elisha, must come forward for the story to continue. When the time came for Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter to pass into the next realm of being, Ademola Okulaja was their to guide the young Tar Heels through the '99 season. Okulaja eventually gave the reigns over to Easy Ed Cota, but, when Cota departed, no leader was ready, and captivity in Babylon followed. Times were tough, but faith overcame; and the Promised Land was regained through the triumphs of Felton, McCants, and May. After 2005's success, David Noel seized the banner, laying the foundation for a freshman named Tyler Hansbrough.

Every group of heralded freshmen learns the "Carolina way" by seeing it modeled by those who are left behind, who work behind the scenes like a secret fraternity, pushing, prodding, and pulling strings. Their sense of duty is the mortar that runs through the Carolina program. Without them, there is nothing to build. If Ed Davis, Tyler Zeller, Dexter Strickland, Leslie McDonald, and John Henson maximize their potential, then know that the effort, time, and deliberation of Marcus Ginyard laid the cornerstone for whatever eminence they achieve.

UNC vs. Duke

Tomorrow will be the last time the seniors on this North Carolina team go into Cameron Indoor Stadium. This class has never lost there. The clip shown earlier is from when Tyler Hansbrough, Bobby Frasor, Danny Green, and Marcus Ginyard were all freshmen. They ruined Senior Night for Sheldon Williams and JJ Redick that night. The three that Psycho T made over Sheldon Williams in that game was the beginning of his legend. In basketball, there are good players, great players, and then there are legendary players. Legendary players have moments in their careers that transcend their talents and accomplishments. Tyler Hansbrough has been that kind of player for Carolina fans. Tomorrow, he'll attempt to add to his Paul Bunyan-worthy canon. (I'll have more on this idea of legendary vs. great later.)

North Carolina vs. Wake Forest: Yeah, We're 0-2 in the ACC (so what)

I wanted to recap this game last night, but then I realized all I would have written would have been the dialogue from this scene in The Wire, as I tried to figure out what exact angle Jeff Teague used to put a bullet in North Carolina.  Seriously, it felt like someone died.
(NSFW)

Digger Phelps will beat this loss into the ground with a highlighter until Carolina plays Virginia on Thursday, so I'm going to try and keep these points brief (won't happen):

-What started the season as an extremely deep team may not be as deep as we first thought.  First, let's mention what no one talks about when they talk about who's not here from last year.  At first glance, we didn't lose much at all, just Quentin Thomas, a favorite of mine, but an average backup point guard.  People keep forgetting that Alex Stepheson transferred to USC, which would not matter much either, except that Tyler Zeller broke his wrist in the second game of the season and is out for the year.  A front line that once promised to include senior All-American Tyler Hansbrough, juniors Deon Thompson and Alex Stepheson, and freshmen Tyler Zeller and Ed Davis is now down to Tyler Hansbrough, Deon Thompson, and Ed Davis, which wouldn't be so bad except for the next two points.

-Tyler Zeller is not the only injury affecting this team, which seems like an obvious statement because Marcus Ginyard is somewhere between bench warmer and suit model.  Ginyard is the team's best perimeter defender.  His injury means Danny Green starts, which means the spark off the bench for Carolina the last two years now has to start.  Carolina would be able to overcome this injury to Ginyard if Zeller were still healthy, but with Zeller out, the Carolina bench is minus two double-digit scorers.  There is no spark, like a relationship that just trudges on out of habit, which is what this team seems to be doing at the moment and leads into the next topic.

-Tyler Hansbrough hasn't been Psycho T this year.  His stats are there.  He's averaging 22.4 ppg and 7.5 rpg, and in the two losses, he put up 21 points against Wake Forest and 17 against Boston College while piling up 20 rebounds in the two games.  Those numbers are solid.  They'll earn a guy recognition on all-conference and all-American teams, but numbers don't tell the whole story.  The story of Tyler Hansbrough is the story of Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and Hercules.  Whenever Carolina has been in trouble over the last few years, he's impersonated Atlas.  He hasn't done this in the first two ACC games this season.  

Is he mentally fatigued?  It's possible.  He has been the most talked about, the most hated, and the most scrutinized player in the nation for three years now.  However likely this might be, I think he's physically tired.  He missed a few games out of the gate this season and couldn't have gotten the usual amount of preseason conditioning, and it's showing.  He's not getting his normal positioning deep in the paint come the second half.  His jumper is coming up short, and a couple of times against Wake he got run off the floor.  

I hope he catches his breath, but what happens to this team if he doesn't?  Does anyone else on this team have the cajones to play Atlas?  Sean May had Ray Felton and Rashad McCants.  George Lynch had Derrick Phelps and Eric Montross.  James Worthy had Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins?  Lennie Rosenbluth had a group of guys that stared down Wilt the Stilt, but who does Hansbrough have?

-One would think that either Tywon Lawson or Wayne Ellington would help Hansbrough put this team on that list of champions, but Lawson has now been outplayed by the last three premier college point guards he's gone up against.  Last year, in the Final Four, Mario Chalmers schooled him.  Tyrese Rice lit him up for 25 points two games ago, and last night Jeff Teague dropped 34 on him.  When Lawson came back to school this year, I don't think this is the kind of education he had in mind.  I like Lawson a lot.  I love that he drives to the basket like a running back, but I can't understand why he struggles so much guarding opposing point guards.  Lawson's line last night was 9 points, 5 assists, and 4 turnovers.  It's that last statistic that really hurt.

Wayne Ellington is another story.  I can see why he doesn't play great defense.  He plays smaller than his height of 6'4" and he's not that strong.  The tale of Wayne Ellington is his shooting percentage.  He's on the floor to score, and last night he put up 17 points; but he shot 4-13 in doing so and 2-7 on three-point field goals.  He's like a Robert Frost poem--he's "Fire and Ice."  

I like both of these guys a lot and hope one of them steps up soon.  Without Ginyard, one of them has to do more than just be an offensive weapon.

-A guy who is stepping up is Danny Green.  This guy is a monster, a Swiss Army knife.  He only had 9 points against Boston College, but his three point field goals down the stretch made the game closer than it felt like (it felt like BC was blowing us out).  Last night, he poured in 22 points, shooting 6-9 from inside the arc and 3-4 from downtown.  He also posted 6 rebounds and 5 steals, but his best play of the night was a dive on the floor that showed just what kind of a player Danny is.  

He does everything it takes to win, and he wants to win badly.  Danny by far has the most NBA potential on this team, depending on how Ed Davis develops over the next three years.  He's also the guy who keeps this team loose, whether he's dancing before the game or telling guys not to get involved in one on one battles, as he did a couple times last night with Tywon Lawson.  

-As I catch by breath and put things into perspective, I realize that a 14-2 record is nothing to be ashamed of at this point in the season.  The 2005 championship team lost to Santa Clara in the season opener and they lost by 13 at Wake Forest that year and later to Duke  at Cameron.  The 1993 title team lost to Michigan in the Rainbow Classic, and later beat those same Wolverines for the title.  The '93 team also lost consecutive games to Wake Forest and Duke, both of which were away games.  The '93 team also lost what I as a third grader thought was the most heartbreaking thing I'd ever seen in the ACC championship game to Georgia Tech.  The 1982 Carolina team lost at home to Wake Forest and got blown out at Virginia.  This team may be focusing too much on its long term goals, forgetting that it takes baby steps to get there.

This 0-2 start in the ACC by a veteran team is not insurmountable.  Tyler Hansbrough is a sleeping giant.  Lawson and Ellington will take this to heart.  Danny will keep dancing, and the freshmen will continue to develop.  The BC loss can be blamed on the team shooting 55% from the foul line.  Wake simply beat them, but keep in mind the last Carolina team to start 0-2 in conference still made the Final Four.  Heck, the 2000 Carolina team made the Final Four.  The time to panic has yet to come, as long as the team disagrees with Lawson's statement that "this will work itself out."  Chances are it won't.

In the meantime, this team will have to live with the scrutiny that comes from expectations that are placed on them by outsiders.  The talk of an undefeated season was ridiculous and premature and will earn this team extra skepticism.  Also, I'm not trying to lay more criticism on the team that's wins and losses determine my mood, like a mood ring; I'm just venting, trying to erase the image of Jeff Teague taunting our guys.  It's all I've got.  I can't go out there and play.

I just want this team to do whatever it has to in order to keep Teague from saying Boston College is a bigger deal than playing Carolina, to put the cap back on Digger's highlighter, and keep the message boards from going crazy, and the answer is to bring it against UVA.  Until then, here's Eddie to help everyone in the Carolina family deal with expectations and the frustration that sometimes comes along with them.  It can feel like 5 against 1.