Carolina Fans are Ridiculous

(Photo from SportingNews). You can't quite make it out, but that white blog on Roy's shirt at last night's game is a Kansas Jayhawk.

If you haven't heard sports radio today, UNC fans are having a spell over Roy supporting Kansas. This isn't all Carolina fans, but this is just to that segment of you who are idiots. GROW UP. It wasn't that long ago that your program was in a freefall under Mad Matt. Roy saved you all.

Seriously, Duke loses in the 2nd round and has transfers, State loses period, and UNC makes the Final Four and their fans are upset with something stupid like this? I like Carolina, but man do some of these fans make it hard.

A good walk spoiled

After years of not getting around to it, I happened to see "A Good Walk Spoiled" by former Dukie John Feinstein. I've enjoyed most of his books, especially the basketball ones and seem to be obsessed with golf this time of year, so I'm finally starting to read it.

Was half asleep reading about Tom Watson preparing as the Ryder Cup captain when Roy Williams' name jumps off the page. Turns out Watson went to see Roy for coaching advice before the matches. Their discussion focussed mainly on playing in hostile environments (matches were to be played in Europe). Roy's advice, tell the players to "Listen for the Silence". On the road, that silence, indicating you've taken the crowd out of the game, is golden. He coaches is players to play for the silence, strive to hear it, revel in it on the road.

Brandan Wright Gone!

Brandan Wright just announced he will leave UNC to enter the NBA Draft. I haven't looked at what the experts are saying, but I'd expect him to be top 5, possibly #3 behind Odon and Durant.

With Roy Williams by his side, supporting his decision, both stressed this allows Brandan to take care of his family.

Damn! Heels Lose

They had this game won. All you can really point to is shot selection as how they lost it. Danny Green had 2 terrible 3's that should have never been shot, and that seemed to trigger an abandonment of the inside game completely. 2 of 21 from the field to end the game.

Roy was very emotional in the press conference. He really loves this team. Tyler had clearly been crying and was having trouble keeping his composure through the entire process. I think for a lot of fans it is hard to imagin and understand why people could be so emotional over a loss, but if you think about the hours and work they've put into it, it kind of makes sense. I honestly doubt I've ever worked as hard at anything as the average college basketball player does during the year, and for a team to be so close to getting serious dreams coming true, it has to be hard.

You can watch the press conference at
http://all-access.cstv.com/cstv/player/player.html?code=ncaa&sport=m-baskbl&category=Press%20Conference%20%28MediaType%29
but have to register (free).

26 Pt. Comeback

OK, not exactly, but I was struck by the fact that they went from 16 down to 10 up in a flash, as the Tarheels advance to the final 8. For 30 minutes USC was fantastic and it really looked like Carolina had run into a faster team and that would be their undoing. But, and offensive rebounds started turning into points, USC started bricking the tough shots they were nailing in the 1st half, and USC seemed to just run out of gas.

I think most people who watched this game would credit Roy's use of his deep bench for this win. I assume all those saying Roy was playing too many people all year will admit they were wrong today? Guess I won't hold my breath.

Blood Rivals

We'll have a couple of days to talk about this. I don't think it was intentional, it was stupid. He went in with reckless abandon, too much force for the situation, and I agree that when someone goes in a way that he doesn't care if someone gets hurt, and where logically someone could, there needs to be punishment for it. BUT, missing another game for a play like that probably isn't the right decision.

Why is it Carolina players are always the ones that end up bleeding?

Reporters will continue to try to stir this up, and I guess this all plays into the rivalry so maybe it is good. Reporters told Williams that Coach K suggested none of these players should have still been in the game anyway, much to the irritation of Roy Williams.

UNC-Duke: Mike Krzyzewski Quotes (w/audio)
		By Andy Britt Inside Carolina Posted Mar 4, 2007 CHAPEL HILL, N.C. --- Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski addressed the media immediately following the game. Read and listen to what he had to say…

Opening statement –

Well they played a hell of a game. They’re fast and deep. I thought our kids played their hearts out. And I had a chance to watch the play. We’ll take all responsibility, but if there’s anyway Gerald Henderson did that intentionally, it’s crazy. He’s moving away from him, he’s going up to block, he’s not even seeing how he hit him. He should be fouled, but that’s not the way he plays and that’s not the way we play. He didn’t extend anything, and it’s unfortunate. The officials have to call what they do, and I’m sorry that Tyler got hit. That’s not what he wanted to happen. But also the intent was not to do that. There was nothing extended, and he was hit somewhere on the forearm as [Gerald Henderson] was turning. I feel badly for Tyler and we apologize for that, but I know there was no intent to do that. Otherwise you would push your hand out. Again you go with what was called and I feel badly that that was happened.

On suspending Henderson for the next game -

I don’t know why they do that. Whatever happens happens. Somebody should look at it. If they see it different, then we accept it. I know there was not the intent to do that. And the game was over before that. I mean the outcome of the game, let’s put it that way. That’s unfortunate, too, that those people were in the game in that play.

On closing the deficit in the second half -

We got that kick to [David McClure], and we just weren’t able to handle that. [Marcus] Ginyard’s three was big when it was 53-50. And [Josh McRoberts] missed a layup. So we had some opportunities, and our kids fought the whole game. They played hard, and they do have adaptive shot-blocking. Another time Brandan Wright really made a great block on [David McClure] also. We knew that they would play really well to that.

On Tyler Hansbrough’s performance -

He’s a great player. Numbers like that don’t surprise me about him because he’s done it before and will do it again. He’s one of the best players in the country. Those kind of players put up those numbers.

On the decision to go small -

I thought it helped us really. We thought that to take advantage of that or the fact that they had been playing that way might give us a boost. Obviously you’re going to get hurt defensively. Again we got it to two doing that, and whether it was the right one, what are you going to do. You have to make adjustments to try to win a ball game. I thought our kids did a good job of that, and then they did a good job in attacking that.

On the foul called on Gerald Henderson -

Whenever you’re in those situations, it may be the right judgment. [Gerald Henderson’s] a great kid. You don’t want to make a rash judgment, and it may be the right one and we’ll go with it. I don’t know why you’d make it right then, unless they have to do it and then it’s reviewed.

On if closing the point difference took a lot out of his team -

That’s why we called some timeouts. With their height, they were able to take away two of those plays. We have to convert on those plays if we’re going to win this game as we would in most games where we’re playing against the caliber of opponent we did this afternoon.

On what he wants to see from his team in the postseason -

Well just keep getting better. We played a hell of a schedule, especially in February. Sometime you can’t see as much improvement because the team you’re playing against is better. Carolina is better than we are. That doesn’t mean we can’t win. By playing these people you should get better. And I think we have, it’s not reflected in the final conference record.

On what he wants to see this week -

Just us getting better and we have to get refreshed before Thursday because we’ve played on Sundays every Sunday for the last two months. We have to get refreshed and try to be at our best when we go down to Tampa.

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By Andy Britt Inside Carolina Posted Mar 4, 2007 CHAPEL HILL, N.C. --- North Carolina coach Roy Williams spoke to reporters following the Tar Heels’ 86-72 win over Duke on Sunday. Read and listen to what they had to say…

Opening remarks –

It was a great afternoon for us. It was a very fitting way, in my opinion, for Wes Miller and Dewey Burke and Reyshawn Terry to play their last game in the Smith Center. It was a big time game. It’s a very aggressive, physical, demanding game on both ends of the floor. Tyler Hansbrough, I told him - I guess its about as big a compliment as I would give him - that was a Sean May-like - 26 points, 17 rebounds in 30 minutes of action. He was impressive. I thought Marcus coming off the bench, giving us 13 was something. Defensively - in the first half I thought we were pretty good, in the second half I didn’t think we were nearly as good. But again, we were playing a very, very good basketball team.

I liked our defense, as I said, for the first part of the game. Early in the game, we were extremely active and got a big lead - I don’t know how big - but we basically kept that almost the whole first half.

You hate that it ended like it did - with the stuff going on but, at the same time, we were very, very pleased and we also realize that we’re very happy and very lucky. We got a lot of help down the last week of the season. We did set a goal of winning the regular season. We didn’t think we would part of it at 11 and 5 but we’re very thankful for that and now we’ve got to play.

On the incident at the end of the game -

I thought that Tyler was hit. The referees said that they would look at it. They did say immediately it was going to be an intentional foul but they wanted to look at it on the monitor. They looked at it on the monitor and then made their decisions.

On the extent of Tyler’s injury -

It’s not like a prize fight where you ask what the other guy looks like - he looks pretty bad. They say that it is not broken.

On the inside game plan today -

With Tyler and Brandan I think we should. I’m still mystified cause I thought we were maybe going to be the best shooting team I’ve ever seen and we haven’t shot it consistently all year. We make some, but don’t make some. I felt all year that we were going to be a great shooting team and we haven’t been, but those guys inside have really done a nice job. Georgia Tech, the other night, we lost. To Maryland, we lost. But if you look our big guy stats are still pretty good. We are at least sensible - we’re not the brightest guys all the time but I do feel like we have to go inside with the basketball.

On whether the team was made aware that a win would give them first place in the ACC -

I went to the baseball game and somebody came down and told me that Wake Forest had beaten Virginia and I said it makes no difference - we still have to play. If the team knew that it was first place or fifth place - I didn’t say anything about that.

On the foul on Tyler Hansbrough that led to Gerald Henderson’s ejection -

I have not seen the replays - I told you my impression. I thought Tyler got hit.

On Coach Krzyzewski suggesting that the team’s starters should not have been in the game when Tyler Hansbrough was fouled -

I don’t understand that - I mean both teams had `em in. I was sitting in the stands my first - the only game I saw when I was first here as a high school coach - we win and beat Duke and we were down by eight with 17 seconds to play. I don’t even know how much time was left when it happened. And in fact we had a substitute up at the free throw line - if you want to go back and look at that. If you go back and look Michael Copeland was sitting up at the free throw line cause I was trying to Tyler out of the game. It’s not my fault that Tyler got the offensive rebound and somebody else missed the sucker. But that is enough said about that junk.

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As with any incident, especially one like this where there is a lot of gray area, fans of each team see it completely different.

A Dukie friend of the blog says:

Hansbrough should have had a foul, possibly flagrant when he elbowed Thomas at the end of the game when Carolina couldn’t get it to half court.

From NCAA Hoops Blog

What is wrong with Billy Packer?

If you didn't see the end of the Duke-North Carolina game, you should know that Duke's Gerald Henderson committed a vicious foul against UNC's Tyler Hansbrough that left Hansbrough's face covered in a streak of blood and sent him to the locker room.

With 14 seconds left in the game and UNC leading by 12, Henderson jumped to block Hansbrough's shot near the basket. He violently swung his arm to block the shot. Instead of achieving that result, Henderson's elbow made what appeared to be not-so-inadvertant contact with Hansbrough's nose. Hansbourgh was furious, and rightly so. He had to be held back before team officials escorted him to the locker room because it simply wasn't necessary for him to still be out there on the court. Officials appropriatly ejected Henderson who by rule will have to miss Duke's next game (First round of ACC Tournament Thursday against NC State).

But CBS color analyst Billy Packer for some reason felt it necessary to act as Henderson's apologist, saying repeatedly that Henderson's violent, intentional swing motion was simply a means to go after the ball and that he didn't intend to foul or harm Hansbrough.

From Delightful Yank

The fans were understandably upset, but Coach Roy Williams did the right thing and sent his player to the locker room before things got out of hand. That's when the incompetent, idiot referees decided that they were going to manipulate the ACC Tournament. Obviously letting the UNC home crowd influence their already poor decision making skills, the refs not only ejected Henderson, they also suspended him for one game. An ACC Tournament game.
The replay is more than clear. Henderson was going for the ball, his body was shifted away from Hansbrough. There is no possible way to interpret the incident as intentional. He was charged with a flagrant, "combative" foul. Go ahead and Google combative foul. It doesn't exist. Here is the definition of a flagrant foul, including the penalty according to Wikipedia:

The penalty for a flagrant foul in NCAA and NFHS rules is immediate ejection of the offending player, plus two free-throws and a throw-in for the opposing team.

So the ejection was warranted, based on the excessive contact, regardless of intent. But the suspension is just wide-eyed pandering by the dim witted zebras. Absolutely pathetic. This will mar the ACC Tournament and make any Duke losses questionable. I prefer Duke to lose full strength, not because some dickhead UNC fans booed loud enough for the refs to react. I hope Hansborough is okay, but I also hope UNC loses badly during the tournament so that those angry, sour-faced Tarheel fans get what they deserve.

From GunSlingers

Last year on Selection Sunday Billy Packer's performance was horrible. His personal ties to power broker coaches in major conferences were on display for everyone to see, and a perfect case study for anyone wanting to discuss ethics and conflicts of interest for pundits in the media. His rants about how undeserved the at-large berth for George Mason proved to be an extremely poetic finish when the green and gold advanced to the final four. One would think that his performance last year couldn't be topped.

It was today.

With 14.5 seconds left in the UNC-Duke game, with a 12 point lead for the Tar Heels, Tyler Hansbrough took the ball to the rim, was fouled by two Blue Devils, had the ball knocked away after a foul, and was clearly, unambiguously clocked with a forearm to the face by Duke's Gerald Henderson. The foul was among the most vicious that I've ever seen. It could be considered a punch (though I'm not exactly sure - see update below). It could be considered an elbow. Henderson led with the forearm and the target was Hansbrough's face. The ball, long since cast aside, was nowhere near the direction of Henderson's thrust.

I don't typically like to presume to read the minds of others. I'll make an exception this time.

Gerald Henderson's forearm/elbow/punch to Hansbrough was 100% intentional. The facts and circumstances regarding the foul make this a clear inference. Henderson's left arm is by his side, not in the air, trying to block a shot. His right arm is cocked back and follows through after he strikes Hansbrough. His reaction after the strike is not one of "my bad, it was an accident."

Consider these facts: Duke-North Carolina is the most tense rivalry in college basketball, if not all of American sport. Duke was in the midst of suffering its worse loss of the season. The result of this game affected seeding in the ACC tournament (and NCAA seeding). Hansbrough dominated the game. 26 points, 18 rebounds.

Everything about the punch/elbow/forearm leads to one interpretation: that Henderson was frustrated with his team's performance and the result, and in order to protect whatever sense of self worth, he had to do something violent and outside the bounds of the rules of the game. This was a vicious, violent assault.

What do you think?

Defending Roy...Too Many Players

I'd never really noticed how GroupThink works in sports media before the last week. Carolina is having a great season, especially for anyone with realistic expectations for what you can do with this level of youth. But you know sports talk radio, they've got to find a negative. Carolina's had a few surprising losses. Virginia Tech domintated them, but somehow the loss at Maryland, maybe the hottest team in the country, has suddenly sent the media on a search for the fatal flaw in the tarheels.

Not sure where it started. I'm guessing that it was one writer with influence, but all of the sudden, you can't read a story or turn on the radio without another expert telling you that Roy Williams is blowing it. He's playing too many players. You can't win playing 12 players. Players are too busy worrying about their playing time, they never have time to get in a groove, they never get used to playing within their lineup.

After the Maryland game I didn't hear too many saying these kids made dumb mistakes, need to work on better defense, or that crucial misses at the line are what cost them the game. No, somehow everyone KNOWS the problem with the tarheels is that Roy Williams is playing too many players.

One talk show host, 850theBuzz's Adam Gold even went so far as to say that Coach K with Roy's players would win more games and possibly a championship. I don't believe that for a second. In fact, if you follow it through, looking at K's past behaviours, here is what would happen to the current tarheel team under K

• Forget Tyler Hansbroughs continued development as a true post player. K has a long history of mis-handling white post players.
• 3 of the 12 players getting significant minutes now lose all playing time and get ready to transfer.
• Ellington probably leaves because he doesn't yet play defense to K's standards, so he never gets into the games.
• K goes down to playing 7 players, kills the running game, and they lose to a running team in the sweet 16 because they are too fatigued to compete.

I believe what Roy Williams is doing right now is not only the right thing, but is a dream of all coaches. I can't tell you how many coaches have started seasons with pronouncements that they are going to run, press, and play 10 players ever game. The problem is, none of the other coaches ever have the guts to do it. They always pull a K and gradually reduce to just playing 7 players. I'd even argue that Roy isn't going far enough, and should be playing truly 2 separate lineups that swap every few minutes, at least for the first half of games just to wear people out.

When you look long term is where you can really see the value of this type of system. If your main rival is Duke, and you expect over the years to sometimes have the need to out-recruit them, think about this. If you are a kid trying to decide between UNC and Duke, which looks better

1) Team where only the best 7 or 8 get major playing time. Team where it is pretty easy to get in the doghouse and disappear for a month at a time. Team where McDonald's All-Americans like Crawford Palmer, Kris Humphries, Chris Burgess, Joey Beard, and Jamal Boykin realize they aren't going to play and leave.

OR

2) Team where 10-12 players get important minutes every game. Period.