UNC 68, Washington State 47
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Recap |
Game FlowDo you think UNC will get a little respect now? The fashionable upset to pick in the sweet 16 seemed to be WSU over UNC. Or at least analysts thought UNC would have a tough time. It is easier to slow a team down than to speed them up. WSU has the second best defense in the country. UNC doesn't have a half-court game, etc. etc.
WSU is a good team, but don't equate giving up the second fewest points in the country to the second best defense. That has to do with pace, not how good your defense is. And our boys from Chapel Hill showed how true that to be. Ultimately, a slow-em down kind of team is doomed against a speed-em up kind of team unless the speedy team is having a horrible night. The reason? You have to assume that UNC would get at least a few fast breaks or makes off turnovers. Once a team like WSU gets behind, they can't come back (again unless their opponent misses a bunch of shots). In the second half WSU had to play more to Carolina's liking and the result was a 21 point blowout.
We won by 21 and yet we still didn't play nearly as well as our previous two games. In fact, the only person I'd say had a great night was Danny Green. Danny came out of his mild slump to pour in 15 points on 6-10 shooting. He gave us a needed boost in the first half when everyone else was missing shots.
WSU was able to shut Tyler down in the first half, but he got on track in the second once that tempo picked back up. And he still isn't getting the calls. Ever since the Duke game, the refs must have gotten together and agreed to stop calling fouls for Tyler. But he still went to the line 10 times. He only made 6--I'm not sure what is up with his free throw shooting lately, but both he and Wayne Ellington have been struggling from the charity stripe.
Ty Lawson had an uncharacteristic game with 2 turnovers and 0 assists (but he did score 12 on 5-11 shooting). All-in-all, WSU was successful in slowing us down, but UNC is still clearly the better team.
Next up we have a resurgent Louisville team. We beat them in about
every stat category except blocks and turnovers. I saw them pressing Tennessee a bit. It should be considerably more up-tempo than the WSU game. We got this far last year, let's see if our boys can get to the Final Four!
