North Carolina 97, USC 65

By KEITH PARSONS, AP Sports Writer
November 28, 2004

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) -- Just getting re-acclimated to the Eastern time zone was the biggest challenge for North Carolina. It sure didn't get one from Southern California.

Playing their fifth game in eight days, the 11th-ranked Tar Heels got 23 points from Jawad Williams and another 17 from Sean May to beat the Trojans 97-65 Sunday night.

Raymond Felton added 12 assists for North Carolina (4-1), which won the Maui Invitational in convincing fashion last week, outscoring its opponents by an average of 21 points. An all-night plane ride got the players back to campus late Friday, and they practiced almost immediately.

Another workout followed on Saturday, then the Tar Heels quickly went to work on USC (1-1).

``It's really tough, guys were really jet-lagged,'' May said. ``We had to do what we could do to get ourselves back on this time schedule. Then we did a pretty good job of playing with energy.''

The score was tied only at 2, and Jackie Manuel's jumper gave North Carolina the lead for good. It reached double figures on a 3-pointer by Rashad McCants about 6 1/2 minutes into the first half, and May's free throw made it a 20-point margin with about 5 minutes left.

``I was worried about us being a little stagnant, a little too casual out there,'' Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said. ``I feel very good about the win, I think we played exceptionally well.''

North Carolina had a 22-5 run to close the opening 20 minutes, and the Trojans never recovered. This wasn't quite the homecoming coach Henry Bibby wanted -- he grew up in tiny Franklinton, N.C., about 30 miles from Chapel Hill.

Jeff McMillan scored 10 points for USC, which fell to 0-7 all-time against North Carolina.

``It just shows me how much work we need to do to get where we need to be,'' Bibby said. ``I thought the kids played hard out on the floor, but I don't think we always played smart. They'll get better as things go on.''

Scoring never was a problem for the Tar Heels, who returned the Atlantic Coast Conference's top scorer (McCants), top rebounder (May) and assist man (Felton) for Roy Williams' second season. This was their third straight game with at least 90 points.

``We played probably a Final Four team,'' Bibby said. ``We aren't going to see too many teams better than the team we faced tonight.''

Their play on the other end of the court has been the focus, and so far, North Carolina appears better. The Trojans shot only 35 percent and had 28 turnovers, including 16 in the first half.

``I think we were in a little bit of a frenzy defensively in the first half, and that's good, if you can still be fundamentally sound,'' Roy Williams said.

The change was apparent during the decisive spurt. USC shot 2-for-10 in the final 7 1/2 minutes, including a block by the 6-foot-4 McCants on the 6-11 Rory O'Neil. That started a highlight-reel fastbreak, with McCants whirling around Derrick Craven and passing to Felton, who lobbed the ball to Jawad Williams for a powerful dunk.

At that point, the Tar Heels led 56-25 -- their first 30-point lead of the game -- and the second half essentially was garbage time.

``I think we were doing some trapping out there that was frustrating them,'' May said. ``They lost their rhythm.''

Another point of emphasis for North Carolina this season has been sharing the ball, and if the first half was any indication, that problem is solved, too. Every player who got on the court had at least one assist, led by Felton's six, and 17 of the 22 baskets came after assists. ``When you see somebody passing the ball to a teammate, it makes you want to pass it,'' Manuel said. ``To me, when I pass the ball to somebody and he scores, that feels just as good as when I score.''

 

nice win for the first home game

I wonder if Jawad Williams and May's stats met krissy's approval tonight?

nice little stat in the story - 5th game in 8 days - including a flight from Hawaii and the jetlag that goes with it and they still ran USC into the ground.

There is not a better offensive team in college basketball right now.

 

I just hope they aren't worn out. Kentucky and Indiana on tap this coming week.

 

seriously - with all the travel involved that makes for a tough stretch of games over two weeks

the thing I like about the four wins in a row is they throughly kicked ass in the first half of every game. - damn they have scored almost as much in the first half of their wins as they did the whole game against Santa Clara -- now I wish I had watched that loss just to see how they could have been that bad



and DAYUM - did you just see the TD catch Ronald Curry made? :scared2: :xyzthumbs

 

Not really, he played 3 minutes more than Sheldon, and only had 1 more point than him. He lost in rebounding, lost in shooting %, lost in all aspects of defense, except for steals.

Oh and ur comment about UNC being the best offensive team..... the diffence between UNC and Dukes average in ppg is about 2, but as far as average points alllowed; UNC, 73, Duke 50

 

Oh HELL yes I've been waiting for this one.

I KNEW you'd try to come with that one. But your own boy Bilas bitched you on that topic, but then again paying attention in the real world seems to be a problem with you when it comes to knoiwing what's going on in the games.

 

UNC is playing on the top of their game right now, but every year we hear the same thing about how Duke sucks and they won't win the conference and over the past decade they have done it pretty much every year (since Smith retired), which is why I can't stand UNC fans. UNC is playing good, but to say they'd have a loss after playing 5 unranked teams isn't that great, and UNC had their chance to reach #1 in the polls at the beginning of the year and blew it in the very first game. They've been playing very well, and Duke seems to be having a "Down year" but even with a down year they are still ranked above UNC. The only time I might consider cheering for UNC is in the ACC-Big Ten challenge. I've had like 20 people down here (I go to UGA) come up to me knowing I'm from North Carolina and say that the Big Ten has beaten the ACC in the challenge before and it's really frustrating because the Big Ten is overrated. Iowa should finish 4th or 5th in the conference and UNC is ranked #4 in the ACC right now according to rankings and UNC crushed them. So not that I like UNC, but their wins help the ACC look like the best conference in College B-Ball which it is

 

Yeah, I'm sure that what it is, what a dumb fucking excuse for allowing shitty teams to put 80 and 90 points on you. What about margin of voctory? For Duke it is 33, for UNC it is 24 in the games that you haven't lost. So that means Duke has better dominated the teams they have played against that UNC has. Possiblt because we play a hell of alot better defense? hmmmmmmm. Go ahead and find you next excuse now.

 

Ask Bilas about Carolina. He's a Dookie and that's who I quoted.

As far as Dook dominating.

Tenn. Martin
UNCG

and barely pulled on out against fucking Davidson. So that's the weakest damn reply you've come with yet. Furthermore your margin of victory argument doesn't fly. Look at the minutes UNC's bench has averaged versus dook's bench. Carolina has guys like CJ Hooker and Charlie Everette in the games early and they allow the opponent to make the final score closer. Moron. Why even say this stuff without looking into it?