I guess it was not meant to be.
I debated writing a post this morning about Roy Williams’ decision to pull the team off the floor vs FSU with 14.2 seconds left to avoid the crowd rush. Then I decided it wasn’t that big of a deal and it wasn’t. The decision to leave was the right one and while I didn’t agree with Roy leaving Blue Steel to fend for themselves it was largely irrelevant to the larger problems faced by this team. So here I was all prepared to let is fade away when the story takes another odd twist. Apparently Roy Williams thought the game had been called and did not know Blue Steel finished the game.
Roy addressed the end of the game on his radio show Monday night(via Inside Carolina)
“After the game, I always usually say a couple of things to the team, sometimes a little longer. One of our wins this year I kept them in the locker room a little longer. I think the media made a statement about that because I was concerned with how we were playing. I had a friend of mine who said, ‘You’ve been so frustrated, but you’ve been winning, you’re winning by 20.’ And I said, ‘I’m concerned about how we’re playing. We’re not trying to prepare to win one game in the regular season. I’m trying to get us to be the best team.’
“But usually I say a couple of quick things, get them together, I say a little prayer, they don’t have to pray, they just have to put their hands in with me, whatever they want to do. And then we go on and I go to the press conference. Coach Smith would always come in and not even do that. We would just get up, put our hands together and say a quick little prayer. I’d say, ‘Coach, I’ve got to blast them sometimes.’ This is when I became a head coach and he always said, ‘You should wait until you see the tape and you know exactly what you’re saying and know if you’re exactly right or wrong because sometimes coaches can mess it up, too, something that they thought they saw.’
“So I basically have adhered to that, but I say a few things. Well, after the game Saturday, our players got in the locker room and I walked in and said one sentence: ‘Everybody up.’ We came together and we put our hands together. I said a little prayer and I walked out, because I did not want to talk to my team at that point.
“We got on the bus, went to the airport, got on the airplane, came home, the bus pulled up down into the ramp at the Smith Center. Everybody that we call AYOs – all you others – get off the bus and I walked to the back of the bus and this time I gave them the schedule. I said, ‘We have Special Olympics [on Sunday], everybody be there at 12:45.” And I got off the bus. I still didn’t say one thing about the game, because I still wasn’t mature enough to say anything… Today we met. We had a film session. They did weights. We had another little film session. We went out on the court, went back into the locker room [and] finished watching the tape.
“And I apologized to five guys because I did not even know until I watched the game tape that my five walk-ons stayed out there on the court. Did not know that. Regardless of how, in my opinion, unfairly people have treated Steve Kirschner when he tried to give them a response, that’s the exact truth. There’s nothing else. That’s the exact truth, because if you watch the tape, Joe Holladay and I at first are talking. Joe said, ‘We’re going to have problems getting off this court again, because they’re already in the aisles. We’re going to have problems.’ I think Jamie Luckie was in front of our bench. And I’m whispering or talking into his ear while the game is going, I said, ‘Jamie, we’re going to have a problem getting off the court. Do you have any suggestions?’ He said, ‘I don’t know what to tell you.’
“And then all of a sudden there’s a dead ball and a timeout and I start walking and I motion for Leonard Hamilton to come. Leonard comes up there and I said, ‘Leonard, I’m worried about getting our guys off the court. Would it offend you if we were to leave?’ He said, ‘No, I think that’s what you should do.’ Which I thought was great on Leonard’s [part]. I’ve known him for 100 years and he’s always sensible on things like that. He said that and I told him, ‘Leonard, I appreciate that. Please understand this is not intended to be an indictment on your security.’ …
“I turned to Joe Holladay and I motioned. I said, ‘Come on,’ and I took about three steps. You could see it on TV, regardless of what those people are saying to Steve Kirschner. Leonard said something, ‘Roy – your players.’ And I turned around and said, ‘Come on!’ And you could see me motion my arm again. I take off but I stop and try to congratulate as many players as I can… I go to the locker room and it is a long way down the side of the court, it’s all of the way back there. And I get back there and I’m standing outside of our locker room waiting for every player to get in. And I said, ‘Is that everybody?’ And they said, ‘No.’ And I’m standing there and all of a sudden here comes Joe Holladay and Patty Crouch. I said, ‘What took Patty so long?’ He said, ‘He got caught up in the crowd.’ And I didn’t know what the crap he was talking about. I went in and I did exactly what I told you earlier…
“I am watching the tape of the game and it’s the first time that I realize that the five Blue Steel guys stayed out there on the court. Every prospect, every walk-on that I’ve ever had, I say one thing: ‘If I ask the biggest star on our team to run a sprint, you’re going to have to run a sprint. If I eat steak, you’re going to eat steak. Whatever happens to every scholarship player, you have to do.’ I would never leave five kids out there. If I’m going to do that, why wouldn’t I stay out there? …
“Steve comes to see me [on Monday] and I said, ‘Are we getting drilled?’ Because I hadn’t read Sunday’s paper until [Monday]. And he said, ‘You’re just getting drilled because of leaving those five guys out there. I said, ‘It’s funny you say that because I just apologized to my team 20 minutes ago.’ I said, ‘Guys, there was miscommunication between me and Coach Holladay. I did not even know that you guys stayed out to play the game.’ Stilman [White] comes up and said, ‘Coach, I came up to you but you were talking to Coach Hamilton. I didn’t know if you just wanted me to stand there and dribble the ball or not.’ I said, ‘Stilman, I would have sacrificed you, but I would not have sacrificed five of you.’ …
“So Steve Kirschner calls some people on the radio and tells them that and basically – I’m not going to speak for Steve – but they get on the radio and say it’s not true. You’ve got to handle a lot of things in life, but you’re not going to call me a liar. That’s exactly what happened. Every player on our team will tell you that, every coach. I even told the coaches — today was the first time that I told them I didn’t know our guys stayed out there. I didn’t want to talk to any coach. I was going to kill some-frickin-body. We just got beat by 33… It was a mistake. It was confusion. It was miscommunication. But the fact of the matter is Florida State kicked our rear ends.”
On Monday afternoon, UNC associate AD for communications Steve Kirschner contacted members of the media to get the official story of what happened out there because there was plenty of criticism for Roy having left Blue Steel behind. The story, which Kirschner relayed to Adam Gold & Joe Ovies on 99.9 The Fan has been met with a fair amount of skepticism. In fact Adam Gold even asked Kirschner if he thought it would be unfair if people didn’t “buy” this story. That type of reaction is some of what Roy is responding to here.
I went back a looked at the end of the game on DVR. A couple of things stick out. The first is ESPN announcer Dan Shulman saying it was happening at Leonard Hamilton’s request and that the Blue Steel players were unsure of whether they were staying on the court or not. Secondly, as the final seconds are ticking off you can see C.B. McGrath on the sideline walk towards midcourt and motion for the reserves to exit the court. Aside from that, if I can borrow instant replay terminology here, there is no video evidence to dispute Roy’s side of the story. You can see him talk to referee Jamie Luckie with 30 seconds left, you see the conversation with Leonard Hamilton, the motioning to the players to follow him, Stillman White walking up to ask a question but never getting to and then the exit shaking FSU players’ hands.
The skepticism is not surprising because it is an odd story. In fact Kirschner even admitted he was in between that PR “rock and hard place” of letting the story die or doing something to give it another news cycle to run(not to mention having every local reporter camped out at The Top of the Hill for the radio show.) The problem was leaving the players behind is a legitimate criticism and Roy would asked about it on his call-in show. That meant preemptively presenting the new story to the media in the afternoon in an effort to at least contain the damage.
I don’t know how well that worked and I am pretty sure it doesn’t make Roy look any better. That being the case, that is almost evidence itself that Roy’s story is true. Either that or UNC is attempting to spin it from “Roy doesn’t care” to “Roy is clueless” which in my opinion is worse. As noted above, I can’t find anything in the video that contradicts what Roy is saying. I also know, Roy would consider leaving even walk-ons on the court in this manner a cardinal sin against Dean Smith and the Carolina Way. So unless you want to believe at some point today Roy sat down with Kirschner, concocted this whole presentation based on the video as spin to explain why five players were left behind so Roy could be stupid instead of uncaring be my guest. Otherwise, I think Roy is telling the truth. Roy can be criticized for many things but his loyalty to his players and the respect he affords everyone, opponents included are not usually among them. On that basis I can’t see where Roy would intentionally leave his guys out there.
It was a perfectly logical thing to do handled poorly. Add to the long list of things that didn’t get executed particularly well that day in Tallahassee
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I would like to say that Roy was so pissed off he was “out of it.”
It’s really easy to second-guess somebody who had about three seconds to react to a situation that no coach should be put in. A team in a really bad mood was about to be bumped and targeted by trash talk by thousands of fans. The probability of something happening which would result in a suspension was unacceptably high. Anybody who wants to criticize Roy needs first to understand that bad situations by definition are hard to deal with effectively. This was a terrible situation, and I was very grateful that Henson will be playing against Va Tech, instead of sitting in Chapel Hill after decking some drunk fan. The real problem is that they were allowed to come onto the court at all. It would seem if we were so “over-rated” they wouldn’t be so excited as to rush the court.
I was at the UNLV game in Vegas and watched Roy and the players leave the court early with Blue Steel still on the court. We watched those poor boys fight their way off the court as fans rushed it. So don’t tell me Roy cared that they were out there. That’s twice already in one season they’ve been left to fend for themselves.
I believe Roy. I just don’t really get the move to leave the court. I know Roy wants to protect players. But how many times do fans rush a court every year in college basketball? How many times has this happened to Roy’s teams? Should we just end all upsets early when the game is in hand? Seems to me suffering through the court rush like every other team who has been upset would have been the first message that just because we are UNC we are not entitled to special treatment.
tlohmeyer,
Except that’s not what the video shows. It shows the team standing at the bench until the horn and the five players running off the court to join them as they walk out before any fans made their way onto the court. Roy and the team didn’t leave them to fend for themselves in fact Roy was one of the last to enter the tunnel with the guys who ran off the court.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX-BoQvn5tQ
How about this… put the focus on the correct parties, -fans and security! Coaches feeling the need to get their players off the court early is the sign of a real problem. Maybe not for us watching the television, but it must certainly exist for the losing team. Otherwise, coach Williams would not be doing it. Face it, aberrant fans storming the court, insulting, bumping, tearing, taking cheap shots at the players is mob mentality. I think a stern overhead verbal warning by venue security coupled with a show of force in these situations would stop this.
Williams said there have been incidents… maybe its time to stop this foolishness before major injury(s) occurs.
Stop the game, have fans empty the isles and return to their seats. Warn that storming the court will not be allowed.
[...] and could leave in peace once the students were on the court. Anyways, that’s my two cents. Here are Tar Heel Fan Blog‘s (with Williams’ comments from his radio [...]
tlohmeyer is outright trying to stir this up. What would be the purpose for your statement? Obviously the clip shows a completely different story.
This is really a non-issue to me if anyone wants to be fair and logical about it. The end-of-game confusion, and miscommunication (which led to Blue Steel staying), in a situation like this is understandable.
And, no, Roy would have absolutely not walked off and left players on the court had he known about it.
______
“I just don’t really get the move to leave the court. I know Roy wants to protect players. ”
It’s not just the players. If I’m remembering this correctly, Roy said that one of the managers (?) got knocked to the floor after the UNLV game. Knowing this is a hazardous part of the job or not, I’d still hate to have some kid I was responsible for get hurt when it might have been prevented.
It’s amazing that the locals are still talking about the last 14 seconds instead of the overall whooping FSU laid on the tar heels. It almost like Roy wanted to deflect the attention off the players and on to himself..
^^what he said. non-issue. *yawn*
1. Anyone who thinks Roy Williams’ first priority is anything other than his players is either an idiot, an ABCer (oops I already mentioned idiot), or has no clue about Roy Williams or Carolina basketball.
2. Who gives a crap, besides the aforementioned ABCers?
3. All it is going to take is one player getting injured during a court-rush to cause the you-know-what to hit the fan. I say let it be some other team that suffers such a problem and not the Heels, because our coach was smart enough to protect his players and staff.
4. The best way to keep this from happening is to not get beat by an inferior team.
THF,
I was at the Orleans Arena after the buzzer sounded the UNC bench was simply engulfed.
ok here is all i am going to say. Roy Williams has never given a reason not to trust him and his coaching. if Roy says he didnt know then he didnt know. Now in addition as soon as the game ended there was all kinds of negativity on facebook and twitter about roy and unc but what was concerning to me was that all the negativity about roy and unc was coming from our own fans. i think that we as a fan base have gotten so spoiled by our heels that we forget that teams have bad days and teams do lose. Now this was a pretty tough loss but last time i checked they dont give out any trophys in january. Roy will fix the problems like he always does and we will be in the mix in March and April when the games truly are a make it or break it situation.
Actually the best part of the entire quote above is Roy talking about Dean teaching him to wait until he sees the tape before ripping the team to make sure he is right about everything he thinks went wrong.
The rest of it is just here for posterity.
Agree THF! For the rest of it, who gives a “frick” what anybody else thinks. That whole episode was a nightmare but it’s done and being dealt with.
lets harness all this negativity and channel it into being mad EVERY GAme. UNC has now been tarnished and lambasted. Roy doesnt care about his players and leaves them to fend for themselves. Now what are you gonna do about it.
gregrustin,
1. Tell me your joking.
2. Didn’t you say you were not going to comment after the VT game?
“Except that’s not what the video shows. It shows the team standing at the bench until the horn and the five players running off the court to join them as they walk out before any fans made their way onto the court. Roy and the team didn’t leave them to fend for themselves in fact Roy was one of the last to enter the tunnel with the guys who ran off the court.”
Exactly.
But it does make it more perplexing, given the video, that Roy would say that he didn’t know until watching the film that the guys were left out there until the final horn.
It don’t add up.
Moustache,
I was referring to the UNLV game and answering a comment from someone who claimed Roy left his players on the court in Las Vegas which the linked video clearly shows he didn’t.
At FSU Roy and most of the team did leave the bench early and he assumed the whole team came with him.
Coach K did the exact same thing when Duke was upset at Tallahassee in 2006. He sent all of the players on the bench to the locker room while there was still time left on the game clock.
My two cents’ worth as a PR professional. Steve Kirshner proactively contacted 99.9 the Fan and went on the air to give Roy’s/UNC’s side of the story because they didn’t want to have a lingering impression that Roy abandoned Stillman and Blue Steel. At the end of the interview, Adam Gold asked, “Would you understand if some people don’t believe this story?” That’s basically asking, “Would you understand if some people think you’re lying?” PR is based on credibility. If the media think you are lying, your credibility is shot. I don’t believe Roy or Kirshner have any history of lying to the media about anything. Unless there is proof to the contrary, I’ll give Kirsher and Roy the benefit of the doubt (however odd the explanation sounds). And to quote Forrest Gump, “That’s all I have to say about that.”
99.9 the HOME OF THE ABCERS! especially Adam Gold and that Joe O guy. Those 2 are the worst 2 radio guys ever
“I don’t believe Roy or Kirshner have any history of lying to the media about anything.”
Exactly. If anything Roy has gotten into trouble in the past because he has been (way) too honest with the media…
Please stop. Only people who never listen to them except on days when UNC has something go wrong and they are snarking on it say this. They take plenty of shots at NC State and Duke.
Adam Gold? really you are going to say he is not a state homer?? really THF really?
sorry I missed that you were referring to the Vegas game.
and I agree: 99.9 is not at all an ABC crowd…calling them as such puts us in league with the Black Helicopter NCSU crowd.
Don’t do that.
I don’t think he’s a State homer. If anything he has been accused of being a little too cozy with Coach K but I listen to them quite a bit and engage them on Twitter both on the public timeline and via DM and I don’t see it that way.
I also know both Adam and Joe read this blog and think highly of it.
THF - Do you have the “Joe O hates your posse” picture from back in the 850theblog days? I miss it showing up every now and then.
“Actually the best part of the entire quote above is Roy talking about Dean teaching him to wait until he sees the tape before ripping the team to make sure he is right about everything he thinks went wrong.”
This is probably good advice for fans as well. Most people get the essence of how games went, but some of their impressions, particularly in the details, can often benefit from a second look, and it may make them feel better…….. or worse.
“Seems to me suffering through the court rush like every other team who has been upset would have been the first message that just because we are UNC we are not entitled to special treatment.”
I was at the game and believe that getting the players off the court was the best thing to do. I do not believe that anything would have happened due to ill will of the students charging the court but when that many people make a mad dash onto the court things can happen. The students filled the isles preparing to rush the court and security (perhaps wisely) wanted no part is trying to stop or slow down the charge. Coach Hamilton and the FSU fans that I know thought it was the correct decision.
Adam and Joe poke everyone. Their goal is to get a reaction. They poke State to get a reaction from State Fans, they poke UNC to get a reaction from UNC fans.
They don’t really poke Duke that much, probably because their radio station has a broadcast relationship with Duke.
Bomani Jones, on the other hand, never hesitated to poke Duke. Of course he also no longer works for that radio station. hmmmmmm.
While I’ve got no particular love for Gold I do know that he is a Maryland guy and in no way a State homer. He sucks at the teat of koach k, but he is also one of the few that has been granted admittance into k’s ivory tower for a one-on-one.
They ought to bring back Chris Clark and team him and Joe up; let Gold ride off into the sunset.
“They don’t really poke Duke that much, probably because their radio station has a broadcast relationship with Duke.”
Plus, their station doesn’t reach into New Jersey, so no Duke fans would hear it, anyway…
You rang?
There had to have been a second spitter behind the bushes on the gravelly road.
Joe: you a state homer?
People just get so PISSED at things Roy Williams does and it cracks me up.
Roy left the court early, hes the worst coach ever. The man restored the program and won 2 championships, he could of left at halftime, bc thats when most of us stopped watching anyways.
They play on thursday, lets see what happens.
I think that 99.9 has done some serious, Jedi-esque market research and fanbase psychological testing, and come up with a formula for how they discuss anything and everything that happens in ACC sports. And, it apparently gets listeners. That said, my gut tells me that they hate everybody (except the ‘Canes), UNC being top of the list.
Of course, when I don’t like and/or don’t agree with what they’re saying, I just turn ‘em off.
This conversation is like game. What happened in the first 39:45 is more important than what happened in the last 15 seconds.
STRICKLAND’S ANKLE: Speaking of Strickland, Williams said there might have been a play or two Saturday when the starting shooting guard’s hurt ankle affected him. The junior made both of his shots, but had three turnovers and didn’t look as energetic, especially defensively, as usual in the loss.
http://tobaccoroadblues.com/2012/01/17/acc-defensive-charting-the-good-bc-and-miami-the-bad-fsu-and-the-ugly-still-fsu/#more-2727
lengthy but interesting analysis as always, by feedmyego.
so FSU set about to shoot from the perimeter. huh. why would a team do THAT vs us??
and youll see that contested to heavily contested 3s, in the 3 ACC games, 0/17. huh again.
it also seems that a less than ready to play Strickland was played. 1 deflection and 1 denial vs FSU? WAY below his norm.
^67% of FSUs three point attempts were open or lightly contested. For the season, 68% of all three point attempts against UNC have been open or lightly contested.
FSU had 18 of all of their attempts in this manner. They made 12 of them.
The Seminoles simply made the attempts which BC and other teams were simply unable to knock down. I called it. I am not happy about it, but that is it in a nutshell.
^^That is interesting
I wouldn’t really know how to interpret some of the stats, since I don’t have a benchmark for what is typical, but it does seem like UNC’s 68% avg. for “open to lightly-contested” 3PA is pretty high. And, no doubt, it hurt them in this game, and against UNLV. Must get better.
But, hey, please don’t view this as encouragement to get started up again, HTTE……I do understand what you’ve been harping, er, ah, um, talking about.
Again it goes back to the scouting report: Barnes and Marshall do not want any part of defense.
How many times are these two guys going to go under screens, and leave wide open threes. Roy was pissed at Harrison for doing that in the Wisconsin game.
In the first half, every possession, high ball screen, Kendall or Harrison doesnt fight to go over the top. 3 pointer made. Rinse repeat.
Until the 2 leaders start wanting to play defense, expect more of the same.
^guessing the players didn’t see the scouting report.
all i know is i would be VERY disappointed in 67% open to lightly.
BC is a team that shoots 34% from 3 overall, but they made 41% of basically open 3s.
FSU is only NOW a 31% 3-pt shooting team, and they made 67% of their open 3s.
and if they can do it, any team can. 12/18 is like 100% from 2. you have to overcome 36 pts in just those 18 possessions.
so GUARD the darn thing.
i ask again, are our players so NONinterchangable (6’8″ Barnes-6’7″ Bullock/6’4″ Marshall-6’3″ Strickland) that they cant just switch on screens?
The thing that is not being talk about, and what scared me the most, is how easy this team quit like the 2010 team did.
FSU scored 20 points in the first 5 minutes of the second half. The quitting mentality is still there without a lot of these players.
that really is something. forget the stats.
how did they come out for the 2nd half with more of the same when they got a reprieve, and being down just 8 was just that, a reprieve. why wasnt the first half a wake-up call?
If you could bottle up all of this passion and inject it into the team, you really might have something.
I find the whole “Carolina Way” angle interesting. I have read that the Boston Celtics had two sets of rules for their teams during their glory rules. One set was for Bill Russell, and the other set was for everyone else. Somehow, Boston overcame petty jealousy and managed to win 11 titles in 13 years.
My initial loyalties are to the “blue team” guys, but I think we can probably all realize that pushing the everybody is equal myth too far, simply emphasizes that no, not every one on the team is equal.
As we watched the teams take the court and begin warmups before the start of the second half, my son noted that UNC seemed to have low energy compared to FSU. I replied that it could be intensity and focus. I think that I missed the mark on that one. After having seen three great down to the wire victories in the last three UNC @ FSU games, this was a bit of a shock to the system.
even a young Tar heel can spot “QUIT” a mile away. Thanks for the insight Tallahasse Heel. Your son has a great eye.
I’m still very high on this team, which suffers most from youth and from an abundance of talent, a combination of which can result in toxic overconfidence. That won’t be a problem the rest of the season.
A loss like this can focus an entire team for an entire season. It can open ears that maybe thought they were listening but really weren’t.
I am not saying it’s a good thing – but failure can be a powerful teacher. It depends on the students.
Go Heels.
And I still think they will destroy Duke.
Now that I am getting beyond the disbelief of what I witnessed last Saturday, I realize this season is more intriguing now. How will this team respond? Not just at VT, but the whole season. From here on out, the media and fans will not be impressed almost no matter what UNC does. Winning championships is the only way to erase the FSU disaster.
What will this team do from here on out? It will be fascinating to watch. Plus I don’t feel the pressure of a NC now…I already mourned that loss (right or wrong). I can just watch with curiosity.
I’d like if Roy just said that the five players that show the most intensity and effort at practice today get to start against VA Tech. I’m not saying change up the playing minutes much, if any, but something of a stick and carrot to make sure nobody’s slacking off. I’ve always seen starting as a little bit of prestige that doesn’t have to be tied to total minutes like some people seem to think.
And then afterwards say that he might do it again some time. Or every time. Whatever he feels like.
“Now that I am getting beyond the disbelief of what I witnessed last Saturday, I realize this season is more intriguing now.”
I’ve had similar thoughts, gso, and kind of decided that, while I hated to see such a humiliating beatdown, being able to watch them crawl back out of a hole and do some cool things might make for a more interesting season.
Now it’s not like they have to return from the dead (I mean they are still in the Top 10), but with being the pre-season favorite, and having all the hype, it does kind of make it seem that way.
This team is obviously not suited to be a front runner right now, so let them play from behind a little and see what they’ve got. At least they now know, in an emphatic way, that they’re not going to get where they want to go by just showing up.
What would be this team’s reaction if Roy started the blue team the next game? If it had no fight, then it would wilt and whine and pout. If the rotation guys cared though, they’d be so mad they would come out like gang-busters to prove old Roy wrong. I think the FSU game was so bad…a once a decade-type losss…that it is warranted.
never gonna happen, Thrawnyboy. he wont ever even change the 2nd half starting lineup based on merit.
“I’d like if Roy just said that the five players that show the most intensity and effort at practice today get to start against VA Tech”
This is one of those message-sending tactics that seem to be popular after games with a much less-than-desirable effort, but if it simply rewarded marginally better effort (it would need to be a stark difference, IMO), at the expense of players who are executing better, then it would be a dumb thing to do. Lately, FSU game aside, the current starters are certainly executing the best.
I just don’t see effort at practice this week, top to bottom, being much of an issue. If it is, then we’ve got much bigger problems than who starts Thursday.
I’m more concerned with Z and John getting pushed around down low than I am about the soft (or lack of) perimeter defense. The perimeter defense should be easily “fixed”. But being out muscled and pushed around is amazing, especially considering the guys spend most of the summer playing against some great Tar Heel big men now in the pros, ie Hansbrough, May, Williams’, etc etc. It’d be too easy and pretty d00kish to complain the ref’s let too much go on down low, so it’s time for our bigs to toughen up. It seems Coach Williams prefers more of a finesse approach with his big men to fit the “run and run” offense, but at times our guys seem to get pushed out of the way for offensive rebounds or have the ball stolen off a rebound. Can you teach toughness?
I don’t remember seeing Zeller being pushed around easily except against that thug Josh Harrellson. Henson on the other hand, I have seen tossed around like wet noodles too often. I guess that is the issue with being only 220 lbs.