Did you catch the Carolina game the other day?
The now legendary UNC vs Former Players game that takes place during the Summer UNC Basketball camp was caught on video (most of it anyway). Jawad, Jackie, Melvin, and Stackhouse were just a few of the former players that played.
Most talented team in college basketball ever?
That's a pretty bold question, but I think next season's UNC team ranks among the most talented collection of college players ever to be assembled. Let's look at the facts:
- This past season UNC made it to the final four
- UNC is losing two players (Quentin Thomas and Alex Stepheson) who averaged just 16 and 15 minutes per game respectively. They ranked 7 and 8 among minutes played.
- We lose a backup point guard and backup power forward. We gain a top 15 point guard, #11 overall power forward, #12 overall 7-foot center, and an unrated shooting guard that averaged 22 points a game last year.
- We should also gain a healthy Bobby Frasor.
- We have the returning consensus National Player of the Year in Tyler Hansbrough.
- We have one of the top 2 or 3 best point guards in Ty Lawson.
Here is the depth chart: Point Guard: - Ty Lawson - Bobby Frasor - Larry Drew
Shooting Guard: - Wayne Ellington - Danny Green - Will Graves - Bobby Frasor - Justin Watts
Small Forward: - Marcus Ginyard - Danny Green - Will Graves
Power Forward: - Tyler Hansbrough - Ed Davis - Danny Green
Center: - Deon Thompson - Tyler Zeller
The starting 5 is unchanged from last season: - Ty Lawson - Wayne Ellington - Marcus Ginyard - Tyler Hansbrough - Deon Thompson
The second 5 is probably a top 25 team too: - Bobby Frasor - Will Graves - Danny Green - Ed Davis - Tyler Zeller
What about the 2004-2005 UNC team? They are probably the best comparison to next season's team:
Thats 6 picks for the 08-09 team and 4 for 04-05. There is a very good chance Ed Davis will be a stud and be better than David Noel. There is only a slight chance Tyler Zeller will be better than Marvin. So a good chance my picks would go 7-3. And that's compared to a national championship team!
Let me caveat this brief analysis by emphasizing one word: talent. I did not say the best team in college basketball ever. I wouldn't even make that claim for just next season. This past season UNC was arguably the most talented and we know how that went.
Just as we heard so much talk this year and in 04-05, everyone wonders how a team with so much talent will gel. With 3 players seriously looking at the NBA this year and one of which that got into trouble off the court, there are questions about chemistry next season. Will Danny continue to remain satisfied being the best 6th man in the country? Will Bobby Frasor and Will Graves get more significant minutes?
How well the team takes advantage of its talent will dictate how successful they will be. We won't know until the end of next season. The one question we can tackle now is which team is the deepest and has the most talent. My vote is for UNC 08-09 being among the most talented ALL TIME.
Posted by Robbie Allen @ 6/16/2008 08:31:00 PM 16 comments
Everyone is coming back!
Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, and Danny Green, all of whom were very serious about entering the NBA Draft, decided today to return to UNC for one more year. This is great news as long as the returning players can shake off the disappointing loss against Kansas and work together as a cohesive team despite the extremely deep bench.
There is no doubt who will be preseason #1 now.
Posted by Robbie Allen @ 6/16/2008 06:11:00 PM 0 comments
Ty Lawson arrested
Ugh. Ty was arrested at 2:33am Thursday morning and was charged with three misdemeanors: driving after consuming alcohol, driving with a suspended or revoked license, and violating a noise ordinance.
The difference between "driving after consuming alcohol" and "driving while intoxicated" is pretty significant. Ty is 20 years old and no one under the age of 21 can have alcohol in their system while driving. Had he blown a .08 he would have also been charged with a DWI. So he was sober, but it still is an offense because he is under age (he turns 21 in November).
While he wasn't charged with a felony, all of the charges are very serious. Driving with a suspended license? That indicates prior infractions.
Everyone wants to know how this will impact his draft status. Here are my thoughts:
- He likely won't get drafted 20 or higher as he hoped. Carmelo Anthony got a DWI and Denver is trying to trade him (not just for that, but it didn't help). NBA teams don't like this kind of trouble with a player because they are working hard to maintain their image. This will likely drop Ty to the second round.
- Won't he stay at UNC for another season? It depends on the severity of Roy's punishment. Would he make Ty sit out games? How many? He made Wayne Ellington run until "Coach Williams got tired" after instigating a technical foul last year. How about getting in trouble with the law? Ty may want to forgo that punishment and the punishment the local media will likely inflict on him most of next year with constant questions about the arrest.
We'll have our answer by June 16th (last day to pull out of the draft).
In summary: Ty probably had a beer or two (like many college students) and was sober, but got behind the wheel (which was dumb with a suspended license), and played his music too loud (like many college students). While he didn't commit any felonies, even misdemeanors are a big deal for Carolina basketball players. We hold them to a higher standard and for that Ty will be punished far more than just what the legal system dictates.
Posted by Robbie Allen @ 6/06/2008 03:15:00 PM 2 comments
Coach Williams moves fast! Alex decided to transfer last week and this week Justin Watts from Jordan High School in Durham signs with the Heels. Justin is a 6-3/6-4 guard that averaged almost 25 a game last year. He looks like a good solid player.
Posted by Robbie Allen @ 5/22/2008 11:40:00 AM 1 comments
My new favorite museum
I've been to the Louvre in Paris. I've been to the Uffizi in Florence. I've seen the Sistine Chapel in person. I've been to countless museums all over the US and Europe. But the one I visited last week in Chapel Hill, NC is my new favorite. That's right, I made a trip to the brand new Carolina Basketball Museum across from the Dean Dome and it was a pure treat!
I spent over an hour and a half at the museum and could have easily spent twice that. The museum is very nicely done and has memorabilia ranging from hand written boxscores for old games to championship trophies to a pair of Sean May's shoes. I highly recommend it for even the casual Carolina basketball fan that is within driving distance to Chapel Hill.
Below are the pictures I took from my visit. I'm going to comment on some of the more interesting pictures in the coming weeks (not a lot to write about here during the summer).
Alex Stepheson to transfer
If you'll recall earlier in the year, Alex Stepheson had to miss a couple of games while he attended to his father in California who was sick. Apparently there are still some health issues in his family and he is transferring to be closer to home. I feel for Alex! He is a solid player and has a lot of potential to get better. I wish him the best.
Like Wayne and Ty, the odds are low that Danny will actually enter the draft. These guys just want to "test the waters" to see how they stack up with the competition.
Posted by Robbie Allen @ 4/27/2008 10:43:00 AM 2 comments
The speculation is over, now time for speculation
The various UNC message boards have been in a near frenzy over the past few weeks as various people said their "sources" were telling them one thing or another. I've heard every combination of the "big 3" coming and going and once that got tiring, rumors about Danny Green leaving started to surface.
The truth? Tyler is staying. Wayne and Ty are putting their names into the pot but not hiring agents. With Ty projected as a late first rounder and Wayne projected to go in the second round, there is a very good chance we'll still get all 3 back for next season. I imagine these guys want to see how the various team workouts go, but won't enter the draft unless they get a guaranteed contract (lottery), which isn't likely.
If either of them go I'm going to suspect they weren't happy with the idea of playing at UNC for one more season rather than they think they are ready for the NBA. Obviously both of these guys need at least another year in college and if they continue to improve will be in a much better position for next year's draft. Maybe they need the money now and there have been plenty of rumors floating around as to that being the case too.
Posted by Robbie Allen @ 4/25/2008 04:27:00 PM 1 comments
In case you need a little cheering up
A couple of people asked me if there was a picture of Danny Green's FACIAL on Greg Paulus when we beat Duke on their Senior Night (Youtube here). Thanks to Jim Hawkins from Inside Carolina here you go. This is classic!
Roy responds to criticism concerning him pulling for Kansas
My post on the "sticker incident" has garnered more comments than any other post I've written in 4 years. Fans are decidedly mixed on their opinions. Now Roy responds to what he calls "the most unsettling thing to have happened to him in the 5 years" since he's been back at UNC...
Roy and the Kansas sticker
Last night I turned on the championship game with about 3 minutes left to go in the first half. At one point they showed ol Roy sitting in the crowd. I was a little surprised to see what looked like a Kansas Jayhawk sticker on his shirt. At halftime he participated in an interview with CBS and had a jacket on, but you could still see part of the sticker sticking out.
I turned to my wife and said: I know some of the Carolina faithful won't like that.
What do I think?
I'm as big of a Roy Williams fan as you'll find, but it didn't sit that well with me. I know Roy spent 15 years at Kansas, but that was the team that just beat us badly a couple of days ago. Root for the Jayhawks sure, but why wear the sticker? I'm sure he meant nothing negative by it, but you have to know some Tar Heel fans won't like it. I also know Roy won't care if people didn't like him wearing it. Ultimately, this is a very small issue in the grand scheme of things and let's hope it doesn't get blown up more than what it is: a college coach rooting on his former team.
Posted by Robbie Allen @ 4/08/2008 07:34:00 AM 35 comments
It is an understatement to say that this game didn't go the way I expected. I imagined a tough game, but for Kansas to come out and punch us in the mouth the way they did--we couldn't overcome it. We got it all the way back down to a 4 point deficit, but Kansas took control again in the final minutes of the second half to secure a 18 point win. And despite the great comeback, Kansas still outscored us in the second half--40-39--so they won that half too.
StatSheet's Game Stats put this game into perspective. The first half was our lowest scoring half of the year. Our total points was our lowest of the year. It was our worst FG percentage of any game (35%). Our next worst percentage was 38% against Ohio State. It was also our least number of assists. So the numbers speak for themselves, this was one of our worst games from a stats perspective.
Now for the players. No one had a great game and outside shooting was especially lacking. Danny Green gave us a few bursts and shot relatively well (46%), but he also led the team with 5 turnovers. I was shocked when Wayne Ellington was named the UNC player of the game by CBS. I can only assume they did that because he led UNC with 18 points, but he was a dismal 1-9 from 3 point range. When your "best" outside shooter shoots 11% from 3 point range, you know you are in for some trouble. After a while I was screaming at the TV for Wayne to stop taking 3 pointers. At least Danny had some success.
Tyler played ok, but wasn't able to take over the game as he has previously. The Kansas bigs definitely gave him some trouble. Bill Self had a great game plan: take it to the UNC big men. And it worked. We couldn't defend their big guys. They were tougher.
Where in the World is Ty Lawson? That was a question I was asking myself for much of the game. Gone was the dangerous slasher. Gone was the consistent outside shooting he gave us. Gone was the leadership. Does he already have one eye on the NBA Draft? Was he still babying that ankle? At least Wayne went down firing. Ty went down without much of a fight. Extremely disappointing.
And what about Roy? Should he have called more timeouts? Every other coach seems to use up timeouts when their opponents go on big runs. Roy typically doesn't. He did eventually tonight, but it was too late. But that's just Roy. He's never used many timeouts and he probably never will.
I'm left with a feeling much like that after the Georgetown game last year. In fact, if I look at my blog post after that game, I had similar comments. Ty lost his aggressiveness, Wayne couldn't hit anything from deep, etc. Is this a trend? Can we win even if Ty and Wayne stay? Maybe they just don't have what it takes to win at the Final Four??
But I don't want to get too down. This was one heck of a season. We beat Duke on their Senior Night. We went undefeated on the road. We won the ACC Championship and ACC Tourney. And we went to the Final Four. All good stuff for sure. It is just a shame because this team could very well be the best team in the nation, but will not be taking home the NCAA trophy on Monday night.
Time to decompress. The end of the season always seems to come so suddenly. Now another 7 months before Late Night with Roy....
Worst half of the season
Great timing to have our worst (and lowest scoring) half of the year in the Final Four. Kansas made us look like we were walking out there. We went 9 minutes without a field goal. That's almost half of the half!! We finally got our act together toward the end of the half, but do we have any chance coming back from being down 17?? Kansas was totally unstoppable, and let's hope they don't have that much energy in the second half. Regardless, someone on our side has to make a shot. Come on Wayne!!
Posted by Robbie Allen @ 4/05/2008 10:02:00 PM 12 comments
If anyone had any questions about Tyler Hansbrough being the national player of the year, I hope this game answered them. As he did so many times when Ty Lawson was hurt earlier in the year, Tyler put the team on his back--and now they are going to the Final Four.
This is the second game in a row where our guard play wasn't quite up to the level that it was the first two games in the tourney. Danny and Wayne went a combined 7-20 and 2-8 from 3 point range. And most of the made buckets by Wayne came in the first half. Ty had a better game scoring 11 points and dishing out 9 assists with 4 turnovers. However, I can't fault him too much for the turnovers because he had to do the lion's share of the work in getting the ball across half court since Louisville pressed almost the entire game. It is next to impossible to trap Ty in the open court. Don't even try it!
Deon and Alex had ok games, but Deon got in foul trouble early. Alex only played 9 minutes. Marcus Ginyard had his usual quite, but solid game.
We did very well in the first half, but Louisville battled back tough in the second. This is different than the way UNC played much of the year, not getting warmed up until the second half. Now we are coming out of the gates ready to play in the first half and have to withstand runs by teams in the second. Our Heels are tough as we showed again in this game. If it wasn't for Tyler, I'm not sure if the outcome would have been much different than last year's season ending defeat to Georgetown. Louisville was guarding us extremely well on the perimeter. Wayne couldn't get good open looks and wasn't sinking them as a result.
Now, for the first time ever all four #1 seeds will be going to the Final Four. We have a tough Kansas team next, which I feel is a slightly better team than UCLA and Memphis. If we can beat them next Saturday, I'm going to be feeling good about the Championship game. But first things first, we have to get by an experienced, talented and deep Jaykawk team. They love to run too, so it should be an exciting game!
