One down and one more to go on Monday
Watching Tyler Hansbrough stand with the ball in his hands as the last seconds ticked away, I thought about how this team would be playing for it all Monday night. In a game that wasn’t perfect top seed North Carolina (33-4) took care of Villanova (30-7) by the final of 83 to 69, and once again I have to say that the final score doesn’t do much justice to the way the Tar Heels controlled the game/tempo for most of the night. Sure, for the ABC’ers and haters, there is plenty of material out there today, like the below average free throw shooting or the couple of lapses that the team had where they let ‘Nova back into the game, but for all of that, there was plenty of good as well.
Maybe, just maybe, for the number one scoring machine in the 2008-09 season the old proverb “defense wins championships” is the truth. This Carolina team has stepped it up a notch in that area, and it shows. From the floor the Wildcats went 26 for 79 (32.9%) and from beyond the arch they shot 5 for 27 (18.5%). I’d just like to add that the ‘Nova fans on many Tar Heel boards were hoping for Wayne Ellington and his “slow release shot” to take plenty of three’s. He ended up going five for seven, matching the entire Villanova squad in shots made from behind the line. But back to defense, overall if you watched the game, the intensity of the North Carolina team has been just as good on both sides of the court, making it now harder for teams to try and match “shot per shot” with head coach Roy Williams’ team.
By no means do I believe that Carolina played the perfect game last night (check the box below). Their free throw shooting was 22 for 37, and leaving 15 points there by shooting 59.5% is not going to make the coaching staff too happy. Also, the much taller team let ‘Nova out rebound them by 5, 53 to 48. That too won’t make a coach and his assistants happy. However, I have to say this, the free throw shooting might just have been a fluke, Tyler Hansbrough began the night missing two in a row, something that I attribute to game time jitters, and as far as the rebounding, ‘Nova crashes the boards with many more players than I believe Michigan State will. If the Heels big men box out they should be fine in that department come Monday night.
What I saw in this game is that once again this Carolina team played through some foul issues and still was able to be dominant for most of the game. And why is this you must ask yourself, the answer I believe to be “balanced offense”. Ty Lawson, who played with three fouls from halfway through the second half, led the team in scoring with 22, adding 8 assists and 7 rebounds. Wayne Ellington, who was the only starter not to have foul problems, scored 20 points to go along with 9 rebounds and four assists. Tyler Hansbrough had a double double even if he had to sit for a long while due to his fouls, scoring 18 and adding 11 boards. Danny Green had 12 points, which isn’t bad since in the first half he sat quite a while after picking up his third foul of the game. The “magnificent four” as we could label them right now, had 72 points of the 83 scored by UNC, but there was one player in this game that needs to be talked about, who didn’t score but had a great impact on this game, Bobby Frasor.
The senior guard went 0 for 1 from shooting, but had an assist and a turnover. Plus he added seven rebounds, five of them offensive, and gave a spark when in there as he worked harder than anyone on the floor for any and all loose balls. The rebounding numbers I gave you for the young man were impressive, but what didn’t make it on the box score was much more impressive for this senior last night. Every time you saw a shot go off the rim, rattle out, and it went long it was Frasor that somehow, someway, would end up with it and give the Heels another fresh clock and opportunity to score. Asked the following after the game: “Were you trying to be a round machine tonight?” Bobby Frasor said this:
“Yeah, I’ll do anything it takes, I guess. Just making smart plays. If you see a shot and it’s going to be long, you have to track it down. I did that a couple of times tonight. I don’t know if that is a career high in rebounds, but I think it’s got to be.”
As I said before and will repeat now, it was not a perfect game by any means for the Tar Heels, but they set the tone right off the bat, after letting ‘Nova lead the game 4-2, by going on a 14 to 2 run and basically never looking back. It was what I was hoping for, as I said in my preview, taking the lead and not giving the underdog a chance to believe too much they could stick around in the game. And while ‘Nova did have a couple of runs (one in the end of the 1st half to cut the lead to 9 and the other in the beginning of the second half, where the Wildcats got it to as low as a 5 point deficit) it was North Carolin in control of this game. I think what coach Williams said after the game kind of summed it up for me:
“We’re still playing,” UNC head coach Roy Williams said. “That’s what we wanted to do. Jimmy Valvano’s line about survive and advance is what we wanted to do.”
Now, with less than 36 hours until the final game of the season, the final game for many of those great young men who we have grown to cheer for and love, for this old, old Tar Heel the only thing that is left to say is “Do It!”. From about 40 games in this season, it is coming down to the last 40 minutes, and North Carolina has the possibility of winning their second national title under head coach Roy Williams in five years. So much for the haters saying he can’t win with his own players, so much for the people saying this team was over hyped. Enjoy the win Tar Heels, and buckle up one more time, the ride ends Monday night, hopefully with “One Shining Moment” being played as Carolina celebrates their amazing run on the court !
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