Hey Dukey

It's official--you can now shut up about the Heels until they win the NCAA Tournament. I don't want to hear how great they are, how much they will win by. They couldn't beat GT. Period.

UNC GOT OWNED.

For the record, I am not a fan of either school, as I have no rooting interest being from illinois. I do hate rantings and ravings by fans who otherwise don't have much of a clue.

 

First off all GT is a very good team.http://www.thisboardrocks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82933

 

yeah, not like duke.

 

shut up. there is no way in hell you thought UNC was going to lsoe today. Its UNC fan-itis. "my team is soooooooo much better" but when the chips are in the miffle, UNC busts when it matters most.

GT is good, UNC has more talent. UNC choked. Better win 6 in a row now or Roy ain't gonna ever get a title.

 

UNC will be fine Rashad McCants is back.And called me crazy but maybe it not that bad that we lost.The only reason for the with this lost UNC has some time to fix thing.This was a wake up call.
Lucas: Energy Shortage

Adam Lucas on the loss to Georgia Tech.

March 12, 2005

By Adam Lucas

WASHINGTON, D.C.--The number hung there rankly in front of Jawad Williams.

The senior was sitting back, shoes off, in front of his MCI Center locker. But when someone informed him the Tar Heels had handed out just nine assists as a team in their ACC Tournament semifinal loss to Georgia Tech, he leaned forward and raised his eyebrows.

"How many?" he asked.

"Nine."

"I didn't know that," he said. "Nine assists is something Ray can usually get by himself in a game, or maybe in a half. We didn't do a good job today moving the ball and executing our plays, and it shows in that stat."

It's even simpler than that: Carolina didn't do a good job, period, against the Yellow Jackets. Much of the attention will go to their defense, which Will Bynum shredded for 35 points, stepping onto a list of UNC's ACC Tournament villains that includes Randolph Childress, Len Bias, and Mark Price.





The defense needs to improve--as demonstrated by the fact that the Heels played as much point zone (usually a last resort for Roy Williams) on Saturday as they have all year--and it likely will when Rashad McCants is completely integrated back into the rotation for his usual number of minutes. But the offense, which looked halting for much of the weekend, is also leaky. Raymond Felton had a stellar scoring game in the quarterfinals against Clemson, but the late-game rally camouflaged the fact that the rest of Carolina's offense was lacking. The Heels ended that game with just 10 assists, a season low to that point, which in hindsight looked like a warning sign for Saturday's performance.

After the 9-assist showing (a figure also lower than any 2003-04 team total for the Heels) against Tech, Marvin Williams said the source of the problem was simple. "We're just not executing right," he said. "Everybody has to work together, not just the person with the ball."

There was a more ominous feeling in the Carolina locker room than there was after the two most recent losses, road defeats at the hands of Duke and Wake Forest. After those games, there was little outward indication of worry. There were obvious holes to be fixed, and the Tar Heels seemed to know exactly how to repair them.

That wasn't the case on Saturday, when no one seemed exactly sure why Carolina would turn in an extremely disappointing first half against Tech after seemingly getting a second life after surviving Clemson. Lack of energy had been a problem against the Tigers; instead of being corrected, it again was a factor in Saturday's first half.

"I have no idea what to do," David Noel said.

"For some reason we were a step slow the last couple of days and today it cost us," Jawad Williams said. "I don't know why."

The good news is that he doesn't have to know why. That's up to the coaches, who will likely spend Saturday night--the team stayed in Washington and will return to Chapel Hill on Sunday--beginning to diagnose the problems.

It's not as though they have to plug holes in the Titanic. The Heels remain a very good basketball team, a likely recipient of a top seed in the NCAA Tournament, and a legitimate Final Four contender.

But the worry is that Georgia Tech may have exposed a blueprint for some enterprising NCAA foe to follow. An athletic, deep team will likely try to bully the Heels, just as Tech's Mario West did to Felton for much of the second half. They will push, they will pull, they will dare the high-octane Heels to go through them rather than around them, and they will try to limit the transition opportunities (Carolina got just five fast-break points in the semifinals).

In the end, it may be a blessing that Rashad McCants wasn't able to shoot them out of the hole they'd created against the Jackets in a game where a 61-58 deficit with 10 minutes remaining felt more daunting than a 13-point deficit with 8 minutes to play the previous day. Another late-game victorious rally might have obscured the fact that the Heels haven't played their best basketball in the past four games--yes, even including the first 37 minutes of the Duke game. Dating back to the home contest against Florida State, something's been slightly askew.

Now Roy Williams get a chance to fix it. Remember, losing in the ACC Tournament isn't always that damaging. Bill Guthridge said recently he thinks his 2000 team's loss in the ACC Tournament ended up helping them reach the Final Four. He took his team back to Chapel Hill, practiced them hard for a few days, and harped on the fact that they were, in fact, a good basketball team. It was exactly what they needed to hear.

Williams has consistently shown that after two years with this group of players, he knows what they need to hear.

His chance to let them hear it began Saturday afternoon at about 4:15 p.m.

 

i dont care what a writer has to say. UNC nees a 6 game win streak now, or their best shot to win it all evaporates into thin air.

 

Ray is only 56years old.i think he will Coach for next 10years or so.You know in 2000 no one did give UNC a shot of makeing it pass Moze in the 8-9send.I was the only guy in Charlotte that pick UNC to go to Final four.Mike you mitt not like me.And i have no idea why you don't like me.But i am a true UNC i was here lass here we when lose to TEX.

 

North Carolina junior center Sean May
It was a disappointing loss. We didn't play well and we didn't do the things that we've always done up to this point. Even yesterday we didn't play. We need to go back and regroup. Georgia Tech is a great team and they deserved it because they played better.


(On what went wrong this weekend)
I think we got fat and happy. We won the conference regular season and coming up here when Clemson beat Maryland that was a sigh of relief for us that we didn't have to play Maryland in their backyard. Clemson came out and just shocked us. The coaches had us prepared to play today, it was the players who just didn't get the job done. The good thing is we have a couple days to go back, regroup and try to get this thing rolling again.


North Carolina senior forward Jawad Williams
We did this to ourselves. We went out there and gave our best effort and they played a great game. We didn't do the little things and it cost us.


North Carolina junior guard Rashad McCants
We can't continue to just be a second half team. We can't play bad in the first half and have to come back all the time. Also can we agree that this was not a must win for UNC Would i like to win the game sure.but this was not a game that we must win.On Fri it a must win.And i am sure ROY will get the player ready

 

dukey, i like you. lets get that clear. this is not about you. you are the biggest UNC fan I know, hence the thread.

 

its a whole lot easier to win 6 in a row than it is to win 16 in a row. Had they won the ACC tourny that's what it would've been. So I have no problem whatsoever with the loss. Its a loss. Would I have rather they won it? Of course, but they've got a strong team this year and a legitmate chance to go a long way in the tournament. So I'm not gonna freak over a loss to a team that played in last year's national championship team returning most of their starters. You talk about Carolina not playing up to their potential, but yet Ga. Tech is the team more people should be questioning in that case. They've got a shit load of talent and I won't discredit them one bit. We're at the point in college basketball where a couple wrong moves mean the world in a basketball game. I've seen no name teams rise up and beat talented superpowers. So for this loss... I'm not exactly concerned. Congrats to Tech on a great game.