Taking A BC Powder

I am having a hard time getting a good feel for this Tarheels team. They were a good shooting team until about five games ago and then they couldn't throw it in the ocean from the beach. The Tarheels finally shot over 50% against Boston College. They play great defense at times and force 23 turnovers against Boston College. Then they have defensive lapses and allow a BC player to go steaming right down the middle of the lane twice for dunks. Marcus Paige was a preseason All-American and has averaged less than six points a game over the last five games. The good news is that the Tarheels keep on winning. The better news will be seeing how good they can be when they find their identity.

Living On The Edge

The North Carolina Tarheels continue to live on the edge. They have not been playing their best basketball but remain undefeated. They built up a 20 point lead in the first half against Virginia Tech and had to hold on at the end to win 75-70. A shooting slump has infested the entire Tarheels team like a bad case of the flu. The team shot 3 for 23 from the three point line and only hit 37.8% of its shots for the game. Marcus Paige's shooting slump stretched into his fourth game as he only hit 2 of his 10 and 0 for 5 from the three point line. Brice Johnson has been the most consistent scorer among the Tarheels this season and he posted 19 points and 17 rebounds and blocked three Hokies shots.

The Tarheels defense was worthy of note against the Hokies with 11 steals and they forced 14 Hokies turnovers and blocked seven shots. They also held the Hokies to 40% shooting and outrebounded them 48-33. The schedule for the Tarheels turns much tougher after the game Saturday against Boston College and the Tarheels depth and talent may not be able to overcome the poor shooting they have suffered from of late against the likes of Louisville and Duke.

Not The Same Hokies

I have to admit, I know nothing about this years Virginia Tech basketball team except what I have seen on the scoreboard and in the standings. A 4-2 record in the ACC with those two losses coming at Duke and at Notre Dame is impressive enough and throw in a win against a highly ranked Virginia team at home, and the Tarheels have a game on their hands. Virginia Tech's statistics do not jump off the page. As the saying goes, the game is not played on paper and Virginia Tech has taken those lackluster stats and consistently won with them. The Tarheels always have problems with teams that play a slower tempo and play primarily a zone defense. Marcus Paige is in a slump and the Tarheels are only shooting about 25 percent as a team from the three point line in ACC play so you can't depend on the Tarheels to shoot them out of the zone. The Tarheels under Roy Williams have never relied on that philosophy anyway.

Beatable

Wake Forest basketball head coach Danny Manning is right when he said that the North Carolina Tarheels are "beatable". The North Carolina Tarheels are winning in spite of the fact that their perimeter game has gone on an early spring break. Guard Marcus Paige has only scored eight points in his past three games on 3 for 25 shooting and 1 of 17 from the three point line and all three of those games the Tarheels won by double digits.

The Tarheels have won all six of their ACC games thanks in large part to their inside game. Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks, and Isaiah Hicks have all had career games since the ACC season started. Joel Berry II has been the only consistent perimeter threat because of Paige's season long slump. Paige's slump is concerning but the Tarheels keep winning. Justin Jackson is also in the throes of a slump. For the Tarheels to keep winning and to go deep into the NCAA tournament, the Tarheels will have to get over their team wide case of the "yips" from the three point line. In today's game you have to be able to hit the three with something better than 25 percent consistency.

A Deep Bench

The North Carolina Tarheels have a deep bench, the deepest in the Atlantic Coast conference. They have nine players that average more than ten minutes a game although those numbers are slightly skewed because of injuries to Marcus Paige and Kennedy Meeks. Throw in freshmen Luke Maye and Kenny Williams and the Tarheels can go eleven deep in a pinch. That is a great luxury to have.

I have seen the boxscores from other ACC games and there are several teams that only go seven deep. In Duke's loss to Syracuse, both teams only used seven players. The last man off of the bench for Duke only played two minutes. North Carolina State only used seven players in their loss to North Carolina. ACC leading scorer Anthony Barber only had nine points against the Tarheels, none in the second half. Barber averages over 37 minutes a game. The Tarheel defense had something to do with holing him scoreless in the second half but Barber also knew he wasn't coming out of the game.

As the season progresses, you have to worry about fresh legs especially come ACC tournament time. In a four day format like the ACC now has, that is a brutal stretch of games if you only have two players coming off the bench. Fresh legs do not guarantee wins at the end of the season but I would rather have them than not.

The Man In The Middle

Kennedy Meeks was the latest North Carolina Tarheel post player to have a big game and it happened in his return to the starting lineup against North Carolina State. Pound for pound, the Wolfpack has more size in the middle. Meeks athleticism got the State big men in foul trouble and they both fouled out of the game, Meeks scored 18 of the Tarheels 38 points in the second half and Meeks totaled 23 for the game.

Since the start of ACC conference play, the Tarheels post players have come up big because the North Carolina perimeter game has gone colder than a January day in the North Carolina mountains. The Tarheels are only shooting a little over 25 percent from the three point line in ACC play but Brice Johnson, Isaiah Hicks, and now Kennedy Meeks have all had career games during the Tarheels 5-0 ACC start.

A Little Magic

Brice Johnson showed he had a little bit of magic to his game with a career high eight assists against Syracuse and most of those assists were passes to Isaiah Hicks against the Syracuse zone for dunks or layups. Hicks tied a career high in points with 21 and set a career high in rebounds with eight. Johnson and Hicks games offset the Marcus Paige's lowest point total of the season with three.

Johnson's career high is assists comes the game after his career best 39 points and 23 rebounds against Florida State and for his efforts for the week, Johnson was named the ACC player of the Week for the second time this season. The Tarheels improved to 4-0 in the ACC for the first time in Roy Williams 13 seasons as the North Carolina head coach.

Brice Johnson's Game

Brice Johnson of the North Carolina Tarheels had a game for the history books against Florida State- 39 points and 23 rebounds. Johnson has come the closest to realizing his vast potential in this his senior season but he has still had his ups and downs. His game against Florida State is just two games removed from his three point performance against Clemson.

Johnson has always been an emotional player and being able to harness that emotion has been one of Johnson's biggest issues and one of North Carolina coach Roy Williams biggest battles. Johnson harnessed it for one game against Florida State and it wasn't like he was going up against a weak front line for Florida State. Johnson has flourished in the absence of Kennedy Meeks and has largely shouldered the inside scoring burden for North Carolina.

Meeks is due to come back against Syracuse and that brings up a lot of questions. How will Johnson handle it? How will Roy Williams work Meeks back into the rotation? How long will it take Meeks to work off the court rust? Will the chemistry that North Carolina has be disrupted? The Tarheels are looking for their first 4-0 start in the ACC under Roy Williams (that stat alone is hard to believe) and Syracuse will be the start for North Carolina looking for answers to these questions.

My Top Ten List- Basketball- Part IV

7. Jerry Stackhouse- Although Jerry Stackhouse only played two seasons in Chapel Hill, those two seasons left a lasting impression. Who can ever forget his "up and under" dunk against Duke where he drove right by Cherokee Parks and either Meeks or Newton and slammed it home. He scored over 1000 points in those two seasons and left behind more highlight reel dunks than ESPN could show in an hour. Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace paired to be the "Young Guns" while at North Carolina and they came in together and they left together. Stackhouse and Wallace were at the leading edge of college players turning pro early in droves. I also remember the last game of their college careers, a loss in the NCAA tournament to Boston College. When it comes to North Carolina basketball, you can only wonder what might have been when it comes to players leaving early.

8. Kenny Smith- Kenny earned the nickname "The Jet" while at North Carolina because of his speed and he could really get up and down the court. What I remember most about his career was the game against LSU towards the end of his freshman season in 1983-84 where he broke his wrist. North Carolina was in the process of putting LSU away in a game LSU had lead for the most part but North Carolina had some serious talent on that team- Michael Jordan, Brad Daugherty, Sam Perkins, and Smith. North Carolina held down the number one ranking for much of that season. Smith stole the ball from John Tudor of LSU and corralled it at about half court and was going in for the breakaway dunk. Tudor clotheslined Smith right after he left the ground and Smith came down hard on his wrist and broke it. Jordan was so incensed by Tudor's cheap shot, he went after him under the basket. UNC went on to lose to Indiana in the NCAA Tournament that season in what would be Jordan's final game at North Carolina. I always felt that when Smith broke his wrist that season and missed eight games, it messed up the balance that North Carolina had and cost them a great chance at another national championship.

The Forgotten Man

Senior Joel James has been starting at Center in the absence of the injured Kennedy Meeks but he only averages about 15 to 20 minutes and three points a game. Georgia Tech must have forgot he was even on the court as he scored six of North Carolina's first ten points in the 86-78 win. Two of the baskets were easy layups as he was left wide open under the basket and the other was a right handed half hook he hit from the middle of the lane. James tied his career high with 11 points on five of six shooting from the field and one for three from the free throw line. I would be willing to bet that Georgia Tech never expected that.

My Top Ten List- Basketball- Part III

5. Tyler Hansbrough- Hansbrough made the North Carolina record book his own personal stats guide while he was a Tarheel leaving as the all time leading scorer and rebounder and he set numerous ACC and NCAA records as well. Hansbrough earned the nickname "Psycho T" while at North Carolina and he had a will to win that was second only to Michael Jordan in Tarheel lore. The most impressive stat for Tyler Hansbrough was that he never lost to Duke and going undefeated at Cameron Indoor Stadium was a feat that had never been accomplished by a Tarheel before. I don't remember where the Tarheels were playing but someone in the stands had held up a poster comparing Hansbrough to the Muppets character Beaker. He was a monster on the glass and if the officials would have called all of the fouls that were actually committed against him, he would probably still be at the free throw line. His records at North Carolina will never be broken.

6. Shammond Williams- Williams was one of those players that occasionally comes to Chapel Hill that did not get a lot of national attention as a high school player while he was playing in Greenville, SC but Dean Smith saw some potential there and thought he could contribute by the time he left North Carolina. Williams did not even average two points a game his freshman season but he left with the Tarheel record for three pointers made (a record just recently broken by Marcus Paige) and a career three point percentage of just over 40 percent. My favorite game of Williams had to be his 42 points against Georgia Tech in double overtime. He his eight of eleven three pointers in the Tarheels 107-100 win and just completely took the game over.

My Top Ten List- Basketball- Part II

3. Sam Perkins- No matter what nickname you called him, "the Big Smooth" or "Sleepy Sam", Perkins played with an easy, natural grace that was not common to big men when her arrived in Chapel Hill in the fall of 1980. He had not been playing basketball long when began his freshman season but he quickly made an impact and was the second leading scorer on the team at 14.9. He was also named the 1981 ACC Tournament MVP and appeared in the Final Four when the Tarheels lost in the Finals to Indiana. I recently watched their Final Four game against Virginia. Virginia featured 7'4" Ralph Sampson Perkins went up and blocked a Sampson jump shot which was an impressive feat considering Perkins was giving up seven inches in height on the play. Perkins finished his North Carolina as the second leading scorer and the all-time leading rebounder. He is still the third leading scorer and the second leading rebounder.

4. Vince Carter- Carter came North Carolina with the reputation as a high flyer and his mid-air acrobatics were second only to Michael Jordan in the annals of North Carolina basketball. The two plays that I remember most from Vince Carter is the dunk he had over Tim Duncan when North Carolina completed a comeback win over Wake Forest and an alley oop thrown from past half court by Shammond Williams against Florida State. He drove right down the middle of the lane against Wake Forest with only Tim Duncan standing in the way and he rose up and over Duncan and threw it down with two hands. Against Florida State Williams threw the ball towards the basket and Carter went up and got it. While he was at North Carolina, Carter transformed from a high flying athlete into a complete player and he is just now finishing up a 17 or 18 year career in the NBA.