UNC loses to Ga Tech
UNC 100th Year Celebration
It definitely was not the way any Tar Heel fan (or for that matter the team itself) wanted to end the ACC Tournament, as 10th seed North Carolina (16-16 & 5-11 in the ACC) fell to 7th seed Georgia Tech by the final of 62 to 58. On the other hand, at least for this old Heel, it was the effort that counted in this one, and while the result was not the one that I wanted, as I have said many times if you trust the final score you usually don’t get most of the story. Sure, the Carolina boards are still going at it why this team should have won this game and how this player should have been played instead of that one in order to do so. The fact is pretty simple, if UNC had played this was for the whole conference run they would not have a .500 record and probably would be waiting to see where in the NCAA Tournament they would go. Instead, as of right now, there are article that ask the question “Does the NIT want UNC?“.
If I had seen body flying for the months of January and February like I saw last night those type of questions would not be asked. Yes, the game was not perfect, as the outside shooting once again let the team down, but the team game was there, the wanting to play, the fight, it was there, all of it, and it showed. Again, it might not have showed in the scoreboard, but if you watched the game, it showed. What killed this time was about 4-5 lay ups that just didn’t go in, and if they had the Heels would have brough a 20 (not 10) points lead into half time and that might just have broken the back of the Yellow Jackets. But, as I have said all year long, “it is what it is” and the Heels could not capitalize on those easy chip in and could only hit two of 16 from beyond the arc, making it possible for Georgia Tech to come back and win this one. But again, once the Jackets caught the Heels it was not like head coach Roy Williams’ squad stopped playing. They fought on and kept it close all the way to the end, they could not win it, but this time it’s definitely not for lack of trying/hustle/wanting.
It was a great game by Tyler Zeller, who in 25 minutes registered a double double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. The two seniors, Marcus Ginyard and Deon Thompson, had good games, with the first one scoring six points, getting six boards, having four assists and three steals, while the latter scored 10 points to go with eight rebounds. As I said before what killed us was the shooting from outside, in this case Will Graves and Leslie McDonald, who combined for 3 for 16 shooting (1 for 10 from 3). Larry Drew also didn’t help much, while having eight assists, he shot 1 for 8 (0 for 4 from beyond the arc) and having five turnovers, the last ones at the end of the game were killers. It was a tough loss, because if the Tar Heels could have hit a bit better than a third of his shots (12.5% from 3 point land) this game could have been theirs. But the reality of it all is that it didn’t happen and so the team comes back to Chapel Hill to await if the season is over or if they will be playing in the NIT.
We can now find a 1,000 of things to blame for this team as we await the off season, but I am more interested in saying “thanks” to them. Sure, they might not have had the “want” we hoped to see, they might not have won as many games as we all were imagining. But nonetheless it was a North Carolina team and one that will go down as nothing having had a great season but also having had the most injured players. Ginyard played like he did before he was hurt last year, looking for steals and then pouncing on them. Zeller looked as good as he did before his injury last season as well, grabbing pass after pass and going for the score instantly. Who knows, would both of these players at 100% for the whole season been the difference between a .500 record and a 20+ win season? We will never know, and it does not matter, but it sure is something to wonder about, no?
In my mind this team has a lot of talent and more importantly it has a lot to give, while the rumors of transfers and early departure are filling pages on the web boards, I am still thinking 12 scholarship players that won’t be seniors next season could be on the roster next year for coach Williams and his staff, and that to me is something worthwhile to think about.
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