On the road to… Charleston
Tonight ninth ranked North Carolina (11-3) gets back onto the hardwoods, this time on the road, against the College of Charlestown (7-6). A game that tips off at 7:00 p.m. EST and televised on ESPNU, and will close out the out of conference schedule for head coach Roy Williams’ squad. Interesting tidbit, that will most definitely be shattered tonight, is that UNC hasn’t won on the road yets this year, with an 0 and 1 record, while CoC is unbeaten at home, 5-0. Of course the other numbers we should look at is the fact that the Tar Heels are scoring 85.7 per game (89.6 at home and 76 on the road) while the Cougars are a lot lower at 69.7 ppg. And maybe the key stat to this game is that Carolina will once again be without the services of fifth year senior Marcus Ginyard.
However, the good news, is that both Justin Watts and Will Graves, who both had sprained ankles, will play in this one. The Vegas insiders put North Carolina as a 14.5 points favorite and this is probably because of: Ginyard’s absence and the fact its a road game for the young Heels. I see it differently, thinking that UNC is going to win this one by 20+ points because the team has had enough time to work on the mistakes and “it’s now or never” if they are going to go into the ACC without being mistake prone.
The key players in this game are going to be the three big men for the Heels. I see Ed Davis, Deon Thompson and Tyler Zeller scoring in double digits, with Davis also grabbing 10+ rebounds. Between these three big men and the three frosh (Travis Wear, David Wear and John Henson) I can see 50 points coming out of this unit. Also look for Davis and Henson to both get several good blocks in the game. Yes, as usual, it has to be the front line that drives North Carolina to victory. While in the back court Larry Drew and Dexter Strickland have to find a way to get the ball to the big men and feed them as much as possible. It would be a victory to see this pair at least 10 assists.
On defense this team is going to have to watch out for Andrew Goudelock, who could easily score 20+ points in thisone. But the Cougars are not a one trick pony and have at least four players that can easily score in double digits. On the defensive side of the ball Carolina is going to have to show a good game, and with Ginyard out and two other guards who are not at their best, that is going to be an uphill climb. The key here is pretty simple: do not make anyone from College of Charlestown have a record night. How you do that? Basic or fundamentals, or put into basketball terms, avoid turnovers (especially live ball ones) and play solid team defense.
So how do we judge this squad tonight? First a solid win, playing for the whole game and not good for a part and out of focus for the other. Secondly by playing team ball, with good passing, looking for the open man, and most of all, by giving 100% at all times. If the Heels can do this, which I am leaning towards they can, this game could be over by half time, and unless they do like last game (letting Albany back into the game) the second half should be full of substitutions giving the non starters a chance to get more and more precious minutes.
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