On To The Sweet Sixteen

First of all, allow me to say that I just thought Dan Bonner and Billy Packer were biased against the North Carolina Tarheels. There is a new biased announcer in town. His name is Clark Kellog. He did a fine job of being biased especially with that non-goaltending call against Washington in the first half. I would love for him to explain to me on what gravitationally challenged planet that ball would still be going up when it was blocked. Enough about that.

North Carolina beat Washington 86-83 to make it to the Sweet Sixteen. Statistically speaking that may be one of the best games North Carolina played all year. They almost shot 50 percent, they only had 9 turnovers, 6 of 12 from the three-point line, 18 of 23 from the free throw line, but there still seemed to be something missing.

The 'Heels do not play aggressive on the ball defense. If it wasn't for John Henson's shot blocking ability, you would never know they played defense. Other teams players seem to drive to the basket at will against the 'Heels, they cannot seem to guard the three point line to save their ass (Isiah Thomas got a really good look at the basket for the last shot of the game), and if UNC bothers running any kind of a press, they get blistered two or three times before they give it up. They have a tendency to play classic "help" defense and I hate it. All they seem to do when they do that is give up wide open three-pointers.

John Henson has had a great tournament. I do not know what he was thinking at the end of the game. he had a mental lapse of some kind and gave Washington a second chance by knocking the ball out of bounds and then almost goaltending on the final shot. I always tried to get my players to think situationally. Be aware of what is going on and think about the situation in front of you.

Kendall Marshall had another great game. 13 points, 14 assists, and only 4 turnovers. Tyler Zeller had another solid game with 23 points and Harrison Barnes had 22. Dexter Strickland finally came out of his scoring shell with 13 points. They played a solid game as a team but there was still that one thing missing.