Carolina loses third straight, but…

And so it came, the first time under head coach Roy Williams’ regime that UNC loses three games in a row. It was Wake Forest (13-4 ~ 3-2 in the ACC), who came into the Dean Dome, and gave #24 North Carolina (12-7 ~ 1-3 in the ACC) a 82 to 69 loss. If you read some of the UNC web boards this is basically the beginning of the end. If you read this post it’s now where close to that, actually I think it’s totally different, or at least definitely not as “the sky is falling” as some people would make it out to be. And what I am about to say is not just my personal opinion, it’s the facts you can see for yourself if you check the box score. Sure I will put my spin on things, but with the fan base in an uproar I am going to try and stick to the numbers on this one.

First off, this team is missing two players (one starter) from the front court, and if you do not think this is having an impact, both on the field with production and off of it, with players starting to think that the injury bug is actually an epedemic, then I guess you think that having at least five different Heels miss games due to injuries is something that happens each and every year. Adding to that, when you have a team that is looking to gel not having everyone on the court does not help at all! Look at the boxscore for this one, Al-Farouq Aminu (3 personals) and Chas McFarland (4) could have easily been out of the game for long stretches had another foul been assessed to them. With Ed Davis and Tyler Zeller in the game that could have easily happened, even with just Davis it could have. But as I have said in other posts, the theme of this year has to be “it is what it is”.

Next this team only committed nine turnovers in this game, and anyone that has been watching the Heels this season knows that is a very, very small number compared to the season average. Yes, Larry Drew did have four of them, but the good news is that Dexter Strickland had none in this contest, a good response from the “some what out of control” performance on Saturday. Combined the two players that handled the ball had 10 points, 8 assists, 4 turnovers and a steal. Like it or not, accept it or not, I feel that while it’s not much, it is improvement over the past couple of games. Young team need baby steps, this is one of them. Of course people are going to come back at this with the fact that Wake Forest’s Ishmael Smith had a field day running up and down at will, scoring 20 points, and looked Ty Lawson-like as he slashed in the lanes for a basket or dishing off for one of his six assists. All true, but again, baby steps, Smith had no steals and four turnovers on the night, so while he did his damage against the Heels, he could have done a lot more. Head coach Roy Williams said this of Smith:

“He’s a really gifted young man who’s playing well for them right now,” Williams said of Smith. “In the past, he hasn’t been the threat that he is right now, and he is a threat for them.”

Staying with the guards for now, last game against Georgia Tech it was UNC’s Will Graves that hit a lot of threes that if they hadn’t gone in no one would have been surprised. Tonight it was the Demon Deacons, who did plenty from behind the arc, but lots of those were tightly guarded and if they had not gone in no one would have been surprised. The reality is they went in and all of a sudden most people forget what the shot looked like and if it was even the right thing to do in that play. When the shots go in people do not question them, just like wins, good or bad, most fans just take them and move on. In this game the Demon Deacons went 9 for 16 from beyond the arc, while the Tar Heels managed to hit 6 out of 26 (just that second number should tell you something), and that is nine of the 13 points difference in this one.

In the end this game goes down in the loss column, nothing will change that. But if you watched it (I finished watching it for the third time), and do it with an open mind, you can see that some improvement is visible. Again, baby steps, and again: it is what it is when it comes to this season. But I think the biggest sign that this team is improving is that the players on it get what is going on. Like what Travis Wear said after his first collegiate start:

“We’re all down right now,” said freshman Travis Wear. “Carolina basketball isn’t supposed to lose three straight. It’s kind of mind-boggling at this point, that we’ve lost three (ACC) games, and we’re North Carolina.”

How many times have I said that this team has pressure on it that they might do a lot better without? If that is not proof, then I don’t know what is! These young men are feeling the pressure of following a team everyone loved and a team that won it all, not an easy feat for anyone.

Here is head coach Roy Williams’ post game press conference:

With six days to work on the problems and make more baby steps forward let’s hope that the next recap has more positives than this one.