It was a perfect storm of crapitude resulting in the worst loss of the Roy Williams era. Road game with an amped crowd. Kendall Marshall had a ridiculous number of turnovers. No one could shoot. An opposing player goes off. The Heels were caught flatfooted early and never really recovered. So we can sit here and analyze the what we saw here today which I am not convinced is fully indicative of how the season will turn out or we can forget about it and move on. I still go back to how UNC played versus Kentucky and Texas as enough evidence they will be there when it counts. Obviously today is tough to swallow. For some reason this particular group is prone to having games like this. It doesn’t mean these Heels won’t be there when it counts, it is just bizarre. All you can hope for is the team takes this does what it needs to do to get better. Now it is on the players to have the pride and put in the effort to make this right.
What’s done is done. All that matters now is how they bounce back in Blacksburg on Thursday.
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At about the 10 minute mark in the second half Roy should have pulled the starters out for the rest of the game. They needed to be reminded that playing time has to be earned through effort not reputation.
I can understand having a bad day on offense. Sometimes the shots don’t fall and you can’t control it.
You can always, ALWAYS, control your defensive intensity and you can always take good care of the ball. The amount of points that FSU scored and the number of turnovers that UNC committed were an absolute embarrassment.
and, he said it.
“i have to do a better job(coaching)”
that was an easy bet.
God help us….Roy just said it was the worst coaching job he has EVER displayed and the worst preparation of a team he has EVER done. When will it end?
We know why this team is prone to this. They are not intense enough as a team - Roy has said as much.
And a win at Blacksburg will not qualify as “bouncing back” from this game. That will require an ACC championship and at least a Final Four.
I’m extremely disappointed in John Henson this game. He had 3 rebounds. 3. Oh yeah and he took bad shots and got a technical foul. This team needs to learn how to play while losing, because it seems as if they just don’t know what to do if they aren’t in control of the game. I’m sure Roy will get the team together, because he’s the best in the business
Here is a major thought. When facing a screen, Barnes and Marshall need to realize who they are defending. If either of them is facing someone like Austin Rivers. They need to stay under the screen to defend the drive. If they are defending someone say……Deividas Dulkys or Seth Curry who are guys who like to gun from downtown they fight through the screen. Even if they fight to get around a screen, they have shot blockers!
Anybody else think the early departure was solely so Henson wouldn’t clock some random college kid?
It takes no skill, talent or intelligence to play with effort and heart. You wear the jersey of one of the most storied programs and that’s the ind of effort we get. In the 32 years of being a Heels fan and watching almost every game; this was the worst by far. One guy played with some effort and that was Zeller. He looked like he was playing one on three all day in the paint. Henson is a baby, Barnes was a no show again and always looks tired. Did D. Strickland even play? Marshall looked like Larry Drew III. Bench was awful. McADoo Who?
So bad a beat down that we had to leave early. THE TEAM LEFT THE FLOOR EARLY. Embarrassing.
Go to Chapel Hill and just be a twitter team and enjoy the free shoes, gear and scholarships. I’d rather watch the walk ons. At least they will give effort and have pride on the opportunity they have been given.
And I was the fool to watch to the end and even with 7 minutes left I believed Carolina could come back.
Sometimes taking tactics and stats is just missing the point. We have to play with heart and intensity or we will be underachievers. Period. Stats will flow from that.
If you don’t know why the team left the floor early, you probably shouldn’t even think about commenting on it.
this team will not win the acc, much less the ncaa. it was not a fluke game, they were embarassed.
Well 2 years ago we went to GT (I was there) and we played with absolutely no heart. Last year we went to GT again (I was there again) and again, we played with no heart. This year we do not play at GT, so instead we came out at FSU without heart. In the long run, we’ll be ok
TECHNICAL FOUL on THF! Don’t attach Dean’s picture to this crappy game. Dean would never have let Dulkys repeatedly shoot unguarded.
40yrheel…I don’t believe that this game was a fluke either. I think the soul of this team is weak and soft. I think they will run over lousy teams and I think any marginally talented team can beat them.
This was the worst game and effort in North Carolina basketball history.
This group is a bunch of front-runners that when someone stands up and hits the bully in the face the bully runs home crying with their tail between their legs vs. staying and fighting.
If I was Roy I would cancel the charter flight home and make this group take a bus home, then I would remove all the names off the back of the jerseys and make them practice in Wollen Gym.
You have days when the shots don’t fall, but you can’t have days we you don’t bring the effort and quit. Only Z and maybe Bullock brought any type of effort whatsoever, the rest expected their press clippings to do the talking for them. Pathetic and gutless.
Barnes and Henson sure looked like lottery picks today didn’t they, especially Henson being classless smacking the ball out of the FSU player’s hands in a dead ball situation.
And how can a guy that is supposed to be a great shooter like Hairston, shoot so many airballs.
This team needs to decide what they want to be and work for it, they currently are playing like a group that has never worked for anything and expects everything to be handed to them because of the name on the front of the jersey and for some (you Mr. Barnes who is challenging Marshall as the worse perimeter defender in UNC history) because of the name on the back of their jersey.
This is the most disappointed I have been with a Carolina teams effort EVER, and that includes the 2010 and 2002 seasons.
I can forget about the game. I’ve seen this before. What I can’t forget is the coach took his team off the floor before the end of the game. I’m as embarrassed as a fan of Carolina as I have ever been in my life. Total disrespect of the Game,opposing coach,opposing players, and to their own university. It never has happened at dook, Maryland or Kentucky,so why today? Never seen it in my life. It’s a sad day for me as a fan, and had nothing to do with the game…….
Let’s not write this team off just yet,long road to go. 2009 we started 0-2 in ACC. This loss felt like losing twice. I know this team will rebound from this loss, take the lessons, and move on. Florida State played the best game of there lives and Carolina played there worst, ever, by far. From adversity comes greatness, unfortunately we saw too much 2 years ago, and this game brought back bad, bad memories. I have confidence in RW ability to bring this team back quick. GO HEELS!
partsman, hamilton suggested it to roy.
*facepalm* at anyone who doesnt know that by now, 40yr.
cmon, guys.
partsman….really? You can’t figure out why we left early?
why would you not take your players off the floor to protect their saftey?
There will be two basic reactions to this game and neither is useful.
One will be to say that everybody has days in which nothing goes right for you, everything goes right for the opponent, the opposing crowd was in a lather, etc., so let’s put it behind us and be loyal fans and…..rah, rah Carolina, on to VT.
That’s just denial. And it shows no serious desire to figure out what happened.
The other will be to say the team has no heart, no desire, no toughness and basically is an overhyped disgrace that won’t go anywhere.
That’s just emoting. It’s also not true (although it has some substance to it). It dismisses the Texas, Wisconsin and Kentucky games as if they did not exist. And it purports to predict a future that this very game shows us is anything but predictable.
I would hope for a third approach, which would be to try to think HARD about what happened to ferret out the causes. This is a nasty chore; it’s like being asked to think hard about a train wreck. But I submit it’s better than either denial or fury.
I am not enough of an expert to do the figuring out that needs doing. I can figure out the first half, yes: They had a guy who hit all his three’s; Barnes continued his cold spell; and Henson missed all eight free throws. OK, I get that.
What needs explaining is the second half — a half that, as others have observed, was the worst in living memory, coming from a team that, after 17 games, was justifiably ranked # 3. I stopped watching the second half after five minutes, although I could hear the TV still going in the room I vacated.
So, putting aside both denial and anger, can anyone actuallly explain this?
jerseys?
They shouldn’t get the honor of wearing that jersey again until they’ve earned it.
They can play in gray FG shirts like regular students in Woollen.
Of course, I’ve seen better hustle and heart every time I ever played in Woollen, so maybe just plain white tee shirts will do it.
THF, I kinda think your analysis here is-well, the fact that you can’t explain it doesn’t mean there ain’t an explanation.
To avoid using all the negative psychological terms that people on ESPN boards use when their teams stink out the joint, I will use very abstract and moderate language.
I propose that the overall strength of a team is a composite of athletic ability, basketball skills, and mental qualities-weigh these factors as you deem appropriate-and humbly submit that the latter of these three attributes is not our greatest strength.
It’s time to admit it: Drew sucks. He turns it over WAY too much, he can’t shoot, the offense stagnates when he’s in. Horrible recruit by Roy.
And another thing while we’re at it…the Wears are SOFT with a capital S. A waste of two scholarships. Period.
And Henson…a 5-star recruit??? Admittedly, he’s a freshman, but c’mon man, here’s a quarter, go buy yourself a shot.
Sheesh!
I think this comes down to a team full of players that aren’t well-rounded.
Marshal: Great at passing, but weak at shooting at driving. If there are no shooters to spread the defense, he presents no offensive threat.
Strickland: Great at driving and getting better at passing, but no 3-point shooting to speak of. If there are no shooters to spread the defense, he presents no offensive threat.
Barnes: Great at 3-point shooting some of the time, decent in the paint, but his ability to drive is suspect. If no shooters (including himself) spread the defense, he presents no credible threat inside or outside of the paint.
Henson: Has developed a much better mid-range game, but get’s crushed when double or triple teamed (to the point of getting flustered and complaining about a lack of foul calls). If no shooters spread the defense, he presents little offensive threat.
Zeller: Probably the one player on the team that can actually get angry and play reasonably well when the defense is collapsing all around him because they don’t have to defend the perimeter. I’d still prefer him to be able to make perimeter shots when needed like Hansbrough.
Bullock/Hairston: If their 3′s aren’t falling, regardless of why, they just aren’t a threat anymore. This weakens every other player on the court.
I think this game resulted from a combination of terrible officiating and a team finally attempting to shut down single aspects of our players’ games leaving them with nothing left to fall back on.
The only thing I can think of that might have saved this game (assuming that you can’t fix 3-point shooting mid-game) would be Roy telling the players to just go out and beat the crap out of some people. The physical play more than simply rattled them, it destroyed them.
rathskeller…I don’t know whether this team has any heart or not. I do know that they displayed NO heart today and if we have another one or two of these displays, then I am free to determine that this team has no heart, or at the very least, not enough of a heart to be a great team. That’s not emoting if it becomes a pattern.
wow, step off the ledge people. It’s one game. They got hit by a buzzsaw today. We had no answer and our frustration showed. We do have some glaring issues that I don’t belive we can correct, our bigs can not play against bigger bodied opposition and if the other team scores we can not play half court offensive.
Nick says, “overall strengths…mental qualities.”
Are you outside of your sweet fancy mind, man?
BoyWilliams: excellent post! I’m serious.
The rest of the chicken littles: yeah, it was that bad, but way to give up on the team like that!
I didn’t see a team with no heart, I saw a team that panicked and couldn’t get its act together. Totally different things. I saw guys try too hard to put them back in the lead with each shot, and it just doesn’t work that way.
Williams, by the way, did and should take the brunt of the blame. That’s his job. Not saying it was all his fault (it wasn’t) but he absolutely should be saying that.
Everyone needs to take the loss like an adult.
This is the second time the Heels came out flat in the second half. What is Roy telling these guys at half time? I know it sure as hell wasn’t handing them lube and telling them to bend over. Previous title contender teams were able to come out of half time guns ablazing. Maybe we were spoiled by 2009 and 2005, maybe this team is just not National Championship material.
BuonRotto,
Even if your shot is not falling, you can still play hard on defense. How many wide open shots did Dulkys make? It isn’t the fact that UNC lost. It is how they lost. Panicking is not a good excuse, if they were freshman at their first road game maybe it works. However, championship teams do not play like this. This team is just not mentally tough enough.
i agree that this team is not championship material.
You are right Marcus, and it is a pattern at this point. The key factor is heart. Heart may not make you the best, but it will allow you to be the best you can be. And that’s all a fan can ask for. That is why the 2006 team is one of my all-time favorites. I didn’t care so much about their stats and record, cause it was so fun to watch a team compete nearly every second they were on the floor.
According to this thread the season is over….
Harrison’s defense is killing the tar heels. How many times in the first half did he go under the screens to leave his man open for 3.
However a leader did emerge today, and Tyler
Needs to get in everyone face and get them working hard again.
Relax with writing off the season, bc the same exact thing happened last year. However the heels showed that ’10 quitter mentality and that bothers me.
BuonRotto et al would like to give the guys a trophy for showing up today, as though it were a tee-ball game.
The talent gap between the two teams is not 33 points.
Especially not in FSU’s direction.
We breathe oxygen in my world…what do you all breathe? Sweet-tart vapor? Laughing gas? Jones Angell respiration?
please.
And to think there was serious discussion on this site of this team going undefeated during the regular season. This team needs tons of work. Yes, today was embarrassing, shameful, and inexcusable, but it is not the end of the world. On the other hand, chalking it up to an anomaly or simply suggesting playing better the next game suggests a ostrich, homer-mentality.
Maybe it was just the HD reception on my screen, but John Henson’s face did look especially smooth today.
Yeah, but VT will gone down hard now. We will be so pissed. The beat down is coming….oh, hold on….that is how UNC teams used to be. Is our team even capable of anger?
^ No indication that they are capable of that, but who knows? I’ve seen too many personalities of this team to figure out which one is going to show up at any given game.
Oh well…we lost…big…it will probably happen again but it can only get better from here…cheer up heels fans!
I think rathskellar nailed it above. Yes, today’s performance was embarassing, and, no, it cannot be simply dismissed as a fluke. Nor is our season DOA from here on out. I remember preparing for another 2009-10 season after the GT loss last year, but that ended up being the pivotal moment that got the team back on track. Hopefully this debacle will serve as the same sort of wake up call.
Having said that, I’m not sure there are any easy adjustments to get the team back on track. Last year, the obvious solution was to get SOK out of the lineup. Personnel isn’t the issue this year. I’m sure even the pro-Bullock contingency would agree that putting him in the starting five isn’t going to radically change the direction of the team in the way KM did last year.
I still think the naysayers should relax. We’ve seen Roy bring teams back after disastrous performances, and we’ve seen this team come back after embarrassments like this in the past.
the reason there are so many of us naysayers (sic), is that there’s no evidence that this will change or get any better.
As I articulated on the other thread, nobody’s expecting perfection; however, improvement, or a lack of gross regression in f’ing January is a reasonable thing to expect.
And Roy shouldn’t have taken the guys off the court. That deprived them of a great opportunity and him of a great coaching moment to have them fully experience what it feels like to be humiliated, and take responsibility for it.
I understand that Roy doesn’t want to- and shouldn’t - throw his players under the bus, but he also doesn’t have to punctuate every horrible loss with “this is the worst I’ve ever coached”. It’s like the boy who cried wolf. At some point, the students have to do their own homework and take their own tests.
To others mentioning other losses in the Roy Williams era as worse than this one: every one of those examples cites the Heels losing to excellent teams with clearly superior talent than the UNC put on the court — nowhere near similar to that ish we witnessed today.
Not even close.
Nothing happened today that can’t be fixed. In Roy I trust and you naysayers can p and moan all you want.
the help D must stop. period. end of story.
there is no reason on God’s green Earth to drop down on the likes
of Xavier Gibson, Bernard James, or anyone else not named
Blake Griffin or Jared Sullinger or Tim Duncan.
stop.
it.
This game is not on Coach Williams but entirely on the starting five. It seems like every season we get to a point where we wonder who will lead the team. Well it’ s that time again. Which player is going to have the courage to call out the team and remind each of them the challenges that come with putting on that Carolina Blue jersey. I am not speaking of the fans expectations but instead of what they owe the history of the program. Today was not the Carolina way.
nobody else notice Henson’s especially clean face today?
not a whisker to be seen.
must be that new Gillette.
Moustache, thanks for reaching into my brain and finding my real thoughts. I didn’t even know I had them! Yes, trophies all around. Exactly what I meant. Time to grow out the ‘stache by the way. I’m thinking a handlebar, so as to get a grip.
Clearly though, the season is over. No point in watching either. We give up on the team, as a team. Show ‘em how it’s done.
that’s it, bud.
I don’t like it when I’m watching a game where I’m working harder watching than the players are playing.
You can reference my uniformly glowing commentary from the Miami game for evidence that my comments are sometimes quite positive and upbeat.
Until then, juice boxes for everyone!!
Experts such Mike DeCourcy are already saying that UNC will never recover from a loss like this.
http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2012-01-14/north-carolina-might-not-recover-from-florida-state-beatdown
They are comparing this loss to Wake Forest’s complete emasculation at the hands of Illinois in 2005. Wake Forest clearly recovered enough to annihilate Carolina. Still, I see this happening here. I am not sure what Roy can do here. He can’t yell at them and compare them to Wanda. They feel simply awful as it is. What do you work on? Defense? Defending the three better? I don’t know I was under the impression the guards try to steal the ball from the bigs as part of Roy’s defense to generate fast breaks. Offense? Do you juggle the lineup? Roy won’t do that because that would destroy some already fragile egos. The world isn’t over, but there is a very good chance their title chances are done though. Roy will have to show his Hall of Fame chops if he wants to salvage this team’s confidence.
Well at least nobody got hurt.
welp an AOL guy says there is nothing the heels can do… cancel the season
We have lost two games by double digits this year.
Q: What do they have in common?
A: The other team was physically stronger and nastier.
So that is the place to start looking for answers. We can’t just say it’s a crappy, heartless team, because we know from the previous 17 games that ain’t so (plus that answer doesn’t lead anywhere).
The problem, of course, is that we can’t add in mid-season a 6’8″, 280 lb. character who’s going to knock people down and enjoy doing it. I have only limited answers. Here are two.
First, Roy needs to tell them that if they aren’t getting protection from the refs, they’ll have to protect themselves. They should be able to figure it out from there. Second, Roy should tell them that embarrassing the program is not an option at North Carolina, and that henceforth there will be responsibility and the penalties that go with responsibility.
Because he is the coach, he will take the first bite at the new regimen. In light of today’s disaster, he is suspending himself from the team through the VT game. He is also refunding to the school one-thirtieth (or whatever) of his salary, since to say the least he didn’t earn it. The players are to figure out among themselves (with help if they want from the assistant coaches) what the game plan will be for VT, and then execute that plan.
His parting remark (until after the VT game) will be that, “I know all of you, and I have faith in your desire and ability to have a top-flight season. While I’m on suspension, I will reach down deep to try to figure out how to help you do that. I hope all of you will reach down just as deep, and knowing you as I do, I believe you will.”
Well Wayne,
What do you think Roy should do?
Roy needs to have a heart to heart with Mr Barnes, and educate him on how important rebounding and defense is. How many times can you go under screens and give up open 3′s before you learn.
I made a point about 2-3 weeks ago about harrison not wanting any part of defense, and this trend is continuing. When you jumper isnt falling hit the glass, so many easy point down there, but you have to earn those.
Impressed with Tyler today, never quit and became the leader of the team. He (as the senior) needs to have a players only meeting and question each man on this team.
To much quit today, and there is no Larry Drew or Wears to uses as a scape goat.
However fans that are giving up on the season need to relax and see how the heels respond, nothing is given.
Everybody lays an egg now and then. Not enough adjectives to describe this loss. However, leaving 5 players out on the court while protecting the coaches and scholarship players by exiting the court early is the real embarrassment. Since when did FSU’s coach start giving UNC’s coaching staff advice? Fans have been storming basketball courts for ages. Man up Roy. The starters created the scoreboard deficit, and then Roy and the culprits rolled, leaving the innocent ones to fend for themselves. Tacky.
makeitWayne22 -
“Impressed with Tyler today, never quit and became the leader of the team. He (as the senior) needs to have a players only meeting and question each man on this team.”
Bingo.
Since when did critically analyzing a terrible performance by our team become outlawed? We LOVE UNC, that’s why we critique them. We expect excellence nothing less. I’ve been a fan for 35+ years, been to many games and love the Heels, but this was by far one of the worst performances EVER! The Kansas Final 4 game was almost as bad, but Kansas was very good that year.
Just an observation: we aren’t that good yet because we haven’t played enough good competition! For example:
MSU-a 12 point W before MSU became good, we played good, not great.
USC-a 15 point W; again played good, not great against an avg team at best
UNLV-bad loss on the road against an avg team
WISC-played very well, but Wisconsin has turned out to be avg
KY-the ONLY game we’ve played excellent and it was on the road against a great team-best game of the year, by far.
LBS-6 point W at HOME vs. another good, not great team
Sandwiched in a bunch of cupcakes that were absolutely terrible and did nothing to help this team get better!
TEXAS-a decent win at HOME against a very avg team
BC-BC is terrible, should have won by 40, but still a W at HOME
MIA-played very avg against a bad team and won by 17 at HOME
FSU-played terrible against a very avg FSU team and got absolutely embarassed by 33 on the Road.
So the bottom line is this: We’ve beaten NOBODY on the ROAD and NOBODY really at HOME. This team just hasn’t done much yet. That’s not to say they won’t. This team has the talent to win it all in New Orleans. I’m not giving up on them EVER! But seriously this schedule didn’t help them at all. Look for at least one L against Duke, UVA and possibly NCSU. We’re probably looking at a 2 or 3 seed in the tourney and could make a deep run unless they play like today. These guys absolutely MUST Bring it every game! No days off. Come on guys!! They need to come out and beat down VT by 20+
I guess Roy could tell them that while this game was a freak occurrence(I highly doubt Dulkys scores more than 20 points again), it was lack of effort of defense which caused this abomination of a game. Good defense will lead to offensive opportunity. Despite the fact that UNC is leading the nation in scoring, this is not as efficient offense as seen in 2008, 2009, or 2005. This team will have to hang their hat on great defense when their offense is not performing. Their offense will have games like today and it will be their defense who will be asked to save the day.
Admittedly, if we’re going to lose, I’d rather we lose bad and the loss really sinks in and makes people rededicate themselves to practicing and playing hard…
Er… better now than in the ACC or NCAA tourneys.
Two ways for Roy to handle this:
1. Rewatch the tape to understand how unacceptable this is.
2. Burn the tape and start over.
Missing shots, turnovers and the expected lack of guarding aren’t the problem. Toughness is. Ironic when Zeller, the one criticized most often for being soft is the one playing with the most fire.
(Stephen A Smith) HOWEVER, Karmic principles were leaning this way: UNC playing well recently, FSU unable to hit the ocean falling off a boat, and it being the 3rd conference game, and first on the road. I fully expected a loss to FSU, just not by 33 pts.
We needed something to force a “Come to Jesus” meeting that got us back to playing with ferocity. This had better be it.
There are certainly different personalities on this team. It is easy to be buds and smile when things are going well. However when things are tough, looking for excuses and showing your temper by ignoring your team role and attracting technical fouls is not the way.
I thought some of the starters simply did not know what to do as the game progressed. They could not find a positive way to get offense going. They were taken out of the game by the very partisan crowd. They rushed and made mistakes, did not look for passes and I am sure they paid little attention to the coaches.
Losses are learning experiences.
Zeller did have moments when he was more assertive, but he is not a dominant player like Tyler Hansbrough. He needs at least one more front court player to rebound and run the offense through. In this game there was no one.
Barnes had a very strange game. Last year he played more catch and shoot. This year he has had big games when he has moved around in the flow of the offense. In this game he was immobile, had poorly conceived drives and shot very poorly. It unfortunately seemed that when the game did not start well for him he became extremely ineffective.
There is always an element of every fan base that seems to give up when things do not go well. In this case it is very hard to tell what this team will do in reaction to this game. It is really hard to see how they could get worse as long as there are no significant injuries.
So they may rise up as a group and keep this from happening again. One of the mysteries of this sport is that it does involve very young players who live with a huge amount of attention. The UNLV loss was partially due to an aggrandized view of who they were and how they were playing.
So they can certainly improve again. They have shown an ability to do that this year. I am going to support their effort. I hope they will represent the program as they are able.
What’s worse, Henson’s admission (again!) of the team’s lollygagging and laziness:
” ‘We didn’t come ready to play,’ said forward John Henson, who finished with 10 points and three rebounds.”
OR
Roy’s baldfaced lie during the press conference:
” “It definitely goes back to poise,’’ Williams said of Saturday’s defeat. “I didn’t think our guys laid down.” ”
?
AZ-
at the current level of play, you can “support their effort” about like I can go swimming with the Loch Ness Monster.
What part of what Roy said was a lie?
Mustache
Sadly it is hard to figure out what everyone thinks or intends to say after a game like this. But it is unfair to accuse Williams of lying. You can accuse him of using a colloquial expression that is maybe difficult to understand.
Williams is not the only one in print saying that UNC lacked poise in this game.
Henson had some howlers as a player last year, but overall he had a great season. He has done lots of good things this year, but he tends to remain very unpredictable. Sometimes this helps him if he makes a cool move to the basket. Unraveling at the free throw line is not cool. However he is in the small group who really DO know if they came to play.
Finally, if you don’t want to support the UNC Men’s Basketball Team, just take your electrons elsewhere.
Lengthy Analysis…
Dulkys had 16 at halftime. Dulkys has 16 after halftime.
Not that perspective matters, but for the ones who haven’t jumped off the cliff, I recall my beloved Celtics putting an epic beat-down on the Lakers in the first game of the 85 Championship…aka the “Memorial Day Massacre” 148-114. I’m pretty sure many Lakers fans thought the series was over (as did I). Anyone who’s ever played organized sports has likely been through one of these type of games. Lengthy analysis…some days it’s just not your day, but it is the other guy’s.
“the help D must stop. period. end of story.”
+1 especially when a guy (dulky) is getting hot on you in the first half. I know we dont like gimmic defenses(box & 1) but dang when you let a guy go off early it sets the tone and give his team TREMENDOUS CONFIDENCE. nothing BREEDS success like seeing the ball go in the basket early and often. how many times have we seen this same story play out against us and coach wont make any adjustment to cool off said HOT hand. for once no help,stay with your man and let our BIGS defend the middle.
UNC played one of the worse games ever. FSU played probably their best game ever. Result: 33 point loss. __it happens! Let’s be thankful this game wasn’t a NCAA tourney game, and early enough in the season to right the wrongs. Roy’s got work to do. Trust in Roy! The team has some soul searching to do. Trust in the team. Go Heels!
There was reason to still be hopeful after Ga Tech clobbered us last year because we knew there was a player on the bench who was clearly better then one of the players in the starting lineup… so there was an obvious change that we could make.
What do we do this year? Our biggest struggles are on perimeter defense. Who do we have on the bench who can help us fix that problem and which starter needs to be (at least temporarily) taken out of the starting lineup to make that fix? Unfortunately, I don’t think there is an obvious answer to that question, but finding the answer to that question is the key.
In addition to bad defense, lets not forget the other big factor that lead to yesterday’s loss. There have been stretches this year where Marshall has been uncharacteristically cavalier with his passing. Yesterday that lead to 7 turnovers. One of the coaches needs to show him film of every one of those turnovers over and over again and simply say “you’re smarter then that” (because he is). I don’t know what to tell Barnes about his 5 turnovers. The kid is an enigma. No doubt he already knows he needs to play better. Who knows what its going to take to get him to actually do what he knows he needs to do.
Ok, technically not a “lie”, since he prefaced his statement with “I don’t think (our guys laid down)”.
You’re right — it’s an opinion, so it can’t be a lie. I should amend to say: Roy expressed an opinion completely divorced from easily observable reality.
Of course they laid down (Zeller excepted, as his hustle and attitude and composure were the only positives from this game).
Anyone not a blatant homer with eyes to see can observe that without too much trouble. I mean, if Dick Vitale can repeatedly observe as such about his second favorite team, it’s getting pretty bad.
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Anybody see this piece in the N and O? It’s full of quotes like I was fearing from the players re: how they got out played/hustled/intensitied (not a word, but still), as though it were a passive force, outside of their control, acting upon them:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/01/15/1779134/tar-heels-enter-house-of-horrors.html
For me, I consider support something other than blind homerism.
All I expect from the team is that they play with pride and character, win OR lose. Sometimes you lose because the other team is simply better or you have an off night shooting or someone goes all Randolph Childress. I get that. You can still play with pride and character and lose in such situations. But, anyone being honest with himself who thinks that display yesterday reflected any such traits is delusional.
are they healthy? alot of sprained ankles and still alot of playing time.
Practice today; take down the backboards, run defense only drills until exhaustion, run gassers, 30 minute break, repeat entire process except gassers end when the first person pukes. No mention of FSU game at all.
Monday, day off.
Tuesday, begin prep for VT, again no mention of FSU game at all, ever again.
I hope Barnes is the one who pukes.
^ Yea, I’m starting to think we definitely over-payed for some of these free-agents. Everybody thought Cashman was a genius when he brought Barnes in, but he has yet to bring us a championship. The money these kids make is obscene. They can’t puke enough as far as I’m concerned.
Good day to be leaving the country for a week, so don’t have to listen to the rehash of this debacle.
It has been said before that the formula for beating this team is to play very physical D and make 3′s; and that formula just beat us again. Z played very well yesterday but he is not the dominant physical presence that Tyler Hansbrough or Sean May were; nor is Kendall the physical,tough presence or scoring threat that Raymond or Ty were. That is what this team is missing. When this team faces physical play, you see Henson abandoning the lane and settling for jumpers,Kendall turning the ball over 7 times, and Barnes shrinking into a shell. Dulkys is an average player who shot out of his mind in part because Barnes wouldn’t guard him. Instead of fighting over screens, he took the path of least resistance and repeatedly gave up wide open looks. On offense he couldn’t throw it in the ocean and turned it over 5 times. Barnes is far physically superior to Dulkys and should be able shut him down defensively. He needs to develop a passion for playing defense, be stronger with the ball, and more aggressive. Overall, this team must find a fighter’s mentality. Even if their shots aren’t falling there is no excuse for this team getting outrebounded, or turning it over 22 times, or allowing uncontested shots. I don’t know that it is so much an effort issue as it is an attitude issue. They should view the tape of this game as many times as it takes to learn from FSU what playing with a fighter’s mentality looks like.
in other words, BeachHeel, Barnes is quickly turning into sophomore year Joseph Forte.
great.