Heels defeat the Tribe and move to Round 2
For all of you that didn’t want this team to play in the NIT last night’s game, atmosphere in Carmichael (not calling it Arena), the chemistry between players, should have proved you wrong. It was exciting and it brought memories to this old Heel (who was there when they closed it down) and saw many great players don the Carolina Blue on that floor. For the first time in 24 years a game was played in this old venue, while for the first time since December 30, 2009 the team scored 80 points in a game. It was all about history, something that as fans we forget quite often, last night this group of players reminded us about it on their way to a 80 to 72 victory against William & Mary. It might not have been a perfect game by any means, but it was a perfect way to end this season on the UNC campus!
As I wrote in my preview of this game I thought that the big men (Deon Thompson, John Henson and Tyler Zeller) all needed to score in double figures and with the exception of Henson (9 pts) all did, with Thompson leading the way with 20 points and Zeller adding 13. I also said these three bigs need between 22 to 25 rebounds, the got 23 in all, 10 being offensive ones. I then talked about Larry Drew and Dexter Strickland and their need to hold on to the ball, something they did as they only turned it over 3 times between them. My thoughts on Marcus Ginyard was that he needed to concentrate on defense, again that happened last night, as the fifth year senior had five steals (to go with 12 points and four assists). Lastly my focus went on Will Graves, who needed to hit some threes so that the Tribe’s zone didn’t always collapse on the bigs. That was the only thing that I might have missed on my theories, as Graves hit just one, however Drew and Ginyard both hit a pair and McDonald added one more, which was enough to keep W&M honest.
In all William & Mary took 62 shots, 43 were from beyond the arc. In my preview I did talk about playing against a team that might take more shots from 3 than they would from 2, but I never thought the numbers would be like that! The Tribe was pretty cold in the first half from the “trifecta”, allowing the Heels to take a 41 to 30 lead into the half. But as soon as the second 20 minutes started it was evident that something was different as William & Mary nailed any and all that they shot. It was less than three minutes into the half that head coach Roy Williams had to call time out. A 180 turnaround as it was W&M’s coach calling time out right away in the first half when Carolina rattled off nine in a row to begin the game.
All in all this was one of those games that reminded you of the Heels that once played in Carmichael, one of those teams that you didn’t imagine could have lost the number of games it did. In all it was fun to watch, to be part of something that you might not see again for a long time. Next up it will be Mississippi State, who defeated Jackson State 81-67, on Saturday in Starkville.
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