In the mecca of basketball it’s OSU vs UNC

Welcome to your month long test Tar Heels. Beginning tonight and going on for the thirty days the Carolina basketball program is going to show its coaching staff, its fan base and itself how good they truly are and/or can be. It is fitting that such a tough month, with UNC facing five Top 25 teams (three of them Top 5), would start in the mecca of basketball, Madison Square Garden. (On a side note: I was set to go see these games but as you all know something happened to my wife and those plans were all shot!). Tonight it’s going to be #15 Ohio State (game tipping off at about 9:00 p.m. EST – televised on ESPN2), which could be the lowest ranked of the five that UNC will face off against, then tomorrow night it’s either #12 Cal or #24 SU. Yes, Carolina could be facing back to back Top 15 teams on consecutive nights. Only one thing comes to mind here: “what don’t kill you makes you stronger“.

Make no mistake, this team has the skills and talents to be a good team. Is it worthy of being a Top 5 team right now? I would have to say that the ranking is more merit of what the players that have gone on to the pro’s and what type of head coach/staff it has than the merits of the squad on the floor right now. Having said all of that, come March Madness this UNC team could definitely be in the thick of things, but right now it’s mid November, it’s New York City, it’s MSG. Right now this team needs to rely on three players that have never had to step up while being at North Carolina, and whether they can make that transition or not is going to be the key to whether Carolina comes out of this month with some small bruises or permanently scarred.

We all know that Marcus Ginyard can play defense. That is a given and probably one of the few things that coach Williams does not lose sleep over. But can Ginyard be the leader of this team? Can he take the intensity he has while guarding the best perimeter player the other team has and do the same when talking to his team mates? Can the fifth year senior step up on the offensive side, hitting open shots, in order to open up the inside game for the Tar Heels? Can he be that vocal and on the court leader that the rest of the team can look up to and want to be like? I believe he can, I also believe that he is going to have to pace himself throughout the season, because he can not burn out, or the rest of the team would greatly suffer for it.

Inside Deon Thompson, the other senior on this team, needs to be the go to man. What he does not need to be is Tyler Hansbrough, no one will ever be him, just like no one will ever be Michael Jordan (or anyone else that is in the rafters). Thompson needs to play his game, learn to trust his team mates, and work hard on each and every play. If he does that the California native could end up this season as a 20 pts/10 boards per game player. If he does that the 6’9″ big man will help his team by having defenses collapse and having the young shooters opened, and we all know that it’s a lot easier to hit an open shot than a contested one. Can all of this happen? Once again I have a feeling it can. The only difference is that I think Ginyard is going to be able to do everything he needs to do on a game in-game out situation, while Thompson might not. The good part is that Thompson has plenty of help down in the blocks, like Ed Davis, Tyler Zeller, John Henson and the Wear twins.

Now for the most essential player for this season, point guard Larry Drew. While the first two players I talked about have been role players, they have also have had the luxury to be in Chapel Hill for a long time. Being a sophomore Drew does not have that on his side. What he has to do is bring up the ball, lead the team, find the open man, so on and so forth. He has to do it knowing he is going to be pressured, knowing that people love to compare to the ex pg’s (Felton and Lawson), knowing that he is the one and only that can really do this. Larry Drew played last year and had his ups and downs, but last season this wasn’t his team, it was Lawson’s. For what I have seen so far this season is that Drew is still not sure of himself in certain situations, giving away the ball too often. The key for him is to get it through his head that this version of the UNC basketball team is his. Play within himself, find the open man (aka look for Ginyard on the wing), make sure that the tempo the team plays is the one that the coach wants, and he will be fine. Of course all of that is a lot harder said that done, will the sophomore be able to fulfill that list? I think he will, but not as soon as most would like and that means that the team will have some losses that will have the masses yelling/screaming on the web boards!

Talking about stepping it up, tonight it’s Ohio State, a team that has talent on it’s roster and would love nothing more than have a resume win against the defending national champions. The first three games have not been great for UNC, but the one thing that I learned watching the 24 hours marathon of basketball on ESPN is that it seems the top teams played well when going up against better competition than when playing sub par opponents. If this trend is the same for the Heels we should see a lot of improvement tonight against the Buckeyes. These types of games will also show who is going to step it up and who needs time to do so. I have a feeling that Tar Heel fans are going to talk alot about John Henson after this game. Hopefully it will be for the right reasons!

Tonight UNC will face 6’7″ Evan Turner, who is probably going to move in and out of three/four different positions during this game, and as he goes so does his team. I have to believe this is the type of assignment someone like Marcus Ginyard craves for! The Buckeyes will have a much different line up than the Tar Heels will, with OSU going with a much smaller team than UNC. Coach Williams’ team needs to be able to play tough defense and give no second chance points to a team that is going to be giving about 4″-5″ at two of the three spots in the front court. However, UNC can not be caught having its bigs going too far out, or else the smaller opponents are going to have a field day in driving past them. This is where both Drew and Ginyard have to truly step up and keep the guards from making easy passes.

On the other side of the court, I am thinking that OSU is going to have to play some sort of zone if they don’t have to go to the bench early because of foul trouble. That again means that someone like Ginyard is going to have to step it up and hit the outside shot and his senior counterpart Thompson is going to have to find the weakness of the zone (just below the foul line) and make the shots when open. But we all know that head coach Roy Williams does not play a short bench, and so that means that when the younger players are out on the court they too will have to make the shots when open and find the open man when needed.

This is going to be a test for sure. One because it’s against a good team, but more importantly, because this team is coming off a bad game and they need to bounce back. Will they? I say yes, but it’s not going to be a walk in the park by any means. The Vegas insiders have Carolina as a five point favorite, I have to say that is about how close I see the game, with the Heels winning it by the final of 71 to 65.

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