Carolina ends the year against Albany
The Dean Dome
After the shaky game against the Scarlet Knights Monday it’s game night once again for the Tar Heels. Tonight at the Dean Dome (tip off at 7:00 p.m. EST – televised by ESPNU) ninth ranked North Carolina (10-3) will host Albany (4-9). While on paper this should be a glorified practice for UNC, with the team having gone to two a day yesterday this has better best one of the best practices that head coach Roy Williams has seen from this team. It also has to be a practice that is fully focused from the opening tip off to the last whistle. A practice that won’t have fifth year senior (and team leader) Marcus Ginyard. In other words this game has to be one of those that fundamentals are key and mistakes are the least possible.
What am I saying? Pretty simply this: this game has nothing to do with Albany, who might be a great team for all I know (even if the record says otherwise), and everything to do with the head coach getting mad during the Rutgers game and the team reacting positively to the coach’s rants. This game has nothing to do with scoring in triple digits (thing that I believe will happen) and all to do with how the team scored those 100+ points. It has nothing to do with how many shots go in, while it will have everything to do with “if it was the best shot available” and “if it was done as it was done in practice”. It has nothing to do with who starts and who doesn’t and everything with giving 100% to the team while you are on the floor donning the Carolina Blue.
The Las Vegas insiders have Carolina has a 26 points favorite, which is about what I would see that, since I see Albany scoring in the mid sixties and UNC getting close to the 100 points mark. I am predicting that at least five players from Chapel Hill wil score in double digits and that Ed Davis will once again have a double double night. I can see point guard Larry Drew getting 6 to 8 assists while only turning over the ball once or twice. The only player that might not have the same performance as last game is Dexter Strickland, who I believe won’t be focused on scoring but more on finding the open man on either the wing or the inside. Lastly, John Henson, I think will get more playing time than usual, but is still not to the point where we will see him explode.
This is the end of the year, a year that brough a national title to Chapel Hill, sent four players from last year’s team to the NBA (and a couple of more overseas), that brought in a great recruiting class and added many others to the upcoming classes. I would say that this team will know this and will want to finish the year on a high note, and unfortunately for Albany, they will be the ones that will have to take the pounding for it.
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