Lawson, Ellington declare for draft

Well, it was only a matter of time before we heard this news. Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington will be leaving Chapel Hill this year for the NBA. It would be tough for anyone with their kind of talent to stay after winning a championship. They did their job and hung a banner, now they can move on. We’ve been really spoiled having the 2005 team and this crop of guys more or less back-to-back. It’s going to look really weird on the court next year without Nos. 50, 22, 5, 14 and 4 running the show.

I’m not going to speculate on the numbers they will wear, but who’s in next year’s starting five is an interesting question. Marcus Ginyard and Deon Thompson will probably start, but then who. Ed Davis and Tyler Zeller are great candidates, with me personally leaning toward Davis. Either Larry Drew II or Dexter Strickland (freshman) will play point guard. Who will play shooting guard? Dunno.  And how will Roy use his abundantly stocked front court? The top recruit coming in, John Henson, is 6′10″ and the top-ranked power forward in the class of 2009. The Heels are also adding the 6′9″ Wear twins. That will give them six players at 6′8″ (Thompson) and taller. Henson, being a top recruit, could be playing for a starting position over Davis or Zeller….or Thompson. 

That’s if Roy plays the same system he has been in his time at UNC, with two main big men in the game at a time, two guards and a swing man (like Green, Ginyard and from ‘05 Jackie Manuel). With all the bigs he might have to change to a system with three pure fowards in the game to get all those guys in. 

He’s got time to think about it, but right now if I were him I’d still be basking. I’ve got to order my Sports Illustrated subscription now.

Go Heels!

AP story below

Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington of North Carolina entering NBA draft – ESPN.

Madness I say

Discussion of all other topics besides Tar Heel basketball is now banned from the wom until further notice…OK maybe not ALL. This is not to say I won’t talk about something else, but that I’ll try to work in something about the Heels into every post for the next two weeks.

Anyway, after a weekend in which my bracket might as well be torn to shreds, the Heels did not fall victim to upset despite some hairy moments in the LSU game in the second round. Thank God Ty Lawson is back.

The wom’s upset picks were so close I could smell the office pool jackpot, but now those picks are putting me in the middle-lower part of the pack. Here was my downfall:

Arizona:  While Arizona probably has better talent than Utah State,  I figured their poor finish in the regular season would carry over and had them losing in the first round. Said poor finish did not carry over, and they are now in the Sweet 16, robbing me of two bracket wins.

Cleveland State: They got me good. Not only did I have them losing to Wake in the first round, but I had Wake in the Final Four. It wasn’t even close. The Rams dominated the Demon Deacons

Southern Cal: I had the Trojans over Maryland, but also had them beating Michigan State. They lost a nail-biter, eventually by five points, after leading for most of the game. Thanks, guys.

Utah State: Without Dominic James, I had planned for the Marquette Golden Eagles to fall in the first round, to no avail. Utah State lost by one. Another round of thank-yous.

Florida State: The team that beat UNC in the ACC tourney. I had them in the Sweet 16 on grounds they would eat up Wisconsin from the what-I-thought-was-a-weak Big 10 and then do similarly over Xavier, who plays in the somewhat good A10. Nope. ‘Noles lose to Badgers by two. Another two victories I won’t see.

VCU: This was the great pick! I mean c’mon. UCLA, who had not looked that good and was coming out of the unconvincing Pac-10, against a well-coached VCU team with the same star guard, Eric Maynor, that beat Duke two years ago? I filled it in right away – VCU over UCLA. VCU goes down by one.

Western Kentucky: A very similar team, with many of the same players, to last year’s Sweet 16 team. I was definitely taking them over Illinois, which they did accomplish, and tried to flex superior knowledge and pick them over Gonzaga as well. One last-second layup later, they were bounced by two points. Great D on that last play Hilltoppers. Y’all WERE my boys!

 

Clemson: Oh, this one’s the best. Given I see them play in the ACC fairly often, I was going to give them the benefit of a doubt this year. Finally, Clemson was going to pull it out and perform decently in the Big Dance. Similar to the way I predicted Fla. State, I had Clemson in the Sweet 16, upsetting Oklahoma no less. Guess the Tigers will just have to wail til next year. They didn’t get out of the first round.

So by a combined 11 points (with five of those from one game), I lost out on six games that I picked in my brackets, the games those picks actually lost and any future-round games that I might have had them winning. So as far as the office pool(s) [I'm in two] I guess I’ll be waiting til next March like most of the teams in this post.

One pick is still intact though, mostly becaus they now have the ACC’s all-time leading scorer on their team, Tyler Hansbrough. Suck it, JJ!

HEELS ALL THE WAY!

Lawson Better? Hansbrough better than JJ?

In what could be the best birthday present of all time (today is my birthday and St. Paddy’s) I just came across a column on ESPN.com that said Ty Lawson is expected to play this weekend.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

It’s become no secret that the ACC player of the year is the key to the Heels winning the championship, but now that he’s probably back, what are other teams gonna do about it? Nothing!

I shouldn’t gloat this early in the tournament. I really shouldn’t

In other very important news, Hansbrough is just two points behind JJ Redick for the carrer ACC scoring record. So unless he manages to score less than three points against No. 16 seed Radford, he’s got it.

How sweet it is. When Gay J stayed for four seasons and set the record I had no idea how long it would be before another very talented player would decide to stay that long. It would be virtually impossible to break that record even in three years. Enter Psycho T. It’s great to be a Carolina fan. It really is.

GO HEELS!

Tar Heels Outlast Hokies

 79-76

WHEW!

UNC’s opening round ACC tournament game was not the type to try and sit quietly and watch on your computer at work. But thanks to Raycom, the local N.C. sports netowrk, I was able to do so for this close one.

Playing without Lawson, it was easy for many to predict this would be a tough game. Va. Tech ain’t bad. And anytime you play without the conference playerof the year it’s going to be a different ballgame

I was fighting urges to slam my monitor into the cubicle wall for the first half and decided it’d be better to go out for my lunch break for the second. I went to Timberlake’s, a bar on Conn. Ave. near work, and was thwarted in my attempts by the odd fact that they did not get ESPN2. On channel 8 instead was ESPN News. Strange, but nonetheless unacceptable. A coworker and I moved to Buca di Beppo ,which is a chain Italian restaurant in the same building as my office.

Finally the cheers could fly, and it turned out the only other people eating at the bar at 1 p.m. were Hokies fans. Excellent.

Psycho’s back, baby! Hansbrough played tough and got really into the game, pumping his fists on that last jumpball call and cheering hard on his way to the locker room. If the team starts to feed off his energy it will be really fun to watch.

I havent’ yet checked in on the Ty Law situation, but I can see him sitting out another game. Of course I’d be much happier if he were back to the floor tomorrow, but there is a bigger prize than the ACC tournament on the horizon after all.

Overall, today was a gutsy, great win against a tough team that was fighting for its postseason life. If Maryland wins again today, they would probably have a better change of making the Big Dance than Va. Tech, but strange things always seem to happen so the Hokies should probably at least watch the selection show — albeit with low expectations.

Considering Carolina never led by more than three, I thought it showed that the team is ready to be challenged on the road to the Final Four. At times this season I’ve questioned their motivation and hussle, but today was different. They never lost sight of the win, even in this game that was not a must win for the NCAA title. Having probably safely secured a No. 1 seed, UNC could have let this one go, rested up and gotten healthy for next weekend, but where would the fun in that be?

Let’s Go HEELS!

UNC Wins ACC

It’s time to feed the blog. Other than general laziness, I haven’t updated because I’ve been consumed with the Tar Heels win on Sunday, and subsequent ACC regular season crown. Friends and I once again patronized (as in were patrons of) Crystal City Sports Pub for the game, which has proven to be a great place because of all the UNC fans it attracts. (It’s the alumni association’s bar – go figure)

We wanted to make sure we got some good seats so we got there about four hours before game time. Needless to say we were some of the few people there that early, and our tab was exorbitant. You can do a lot of damage in about six hours of drinking.

Hansbrough’s senior speech was apprently long and misty, and I wish I could have heard the whole thing. Let me know if any of you readers can find it online. Ty Lawson I think solidified himself as ACC player of the year by almost logging a triple-double – eight boards and nine assists! After the countless blue cups and cheers and curses, order had been restored. The Heels won the ACC and took over the No. 1 ranking in both polls.

Now as for that elusive No. 1 overall seed, it’s tough to say whether the Heels will get it even if they win the ACC tourney. It could be argued that if Pitt or Louisville manages to win the Big East Tournament that they should be the No. 1 overall. Pitt because they would have beaten UConn three times (once in BE tourney) and then possibly Louisville, the regular season champs, and Louisville because they would have pulled off winning the toughest (arguably) conference’s season and tournament. UConn should get a No. 1 seed, but I’m not sure they can get the No. 1 overall anymore after getting swept by Pitt in the regular season. So much to think about, and only a week until March Madness.

God, I love my birth month.

I’ve got some homebrewing mishaps to talk about another day when I’m not as busy.

Stomping Grounds

Went back to Chapel Hill over the weekend for an awesome time with some family and friends. I stayed with my brother, who’s a junior at UNC, and my parents came up for the game and some dinner Saturday.

Hansbrough set the NCAA record for free throws made. People think he goes to the line too much, and they’re jealous, but it’s still impressive to have actually made that many charity tosses. Just because you go to the line doesn’t mean you’re given those two points.

 After that rousing 30-point win – making my record 1-1 in games attended this year (CURSES!) – dinner was at the famous Mama Dip’s. Typically our family doesn’t go crazy when it comes to eating out, but the parents were so happy to see us that we went for it. I don’t think we’d ever ordered three appetizers before Saturday night. We got sweet potato biscuits and fries, and some hush puppies. For entree, I got my favorite thing that Mama’s serves up, fried chicken “smothered” (as they say there) in gravy. Desert was chocolate pecan pie.

It took some time to recover from that one, but it didn’t stop me from making sure I went out on Franklin St. both nights I was there. Went out with some buddies who still live there and even some that don’t. We went to Bub O’Malley’s (my first time there even after four years) and were kicked out – not for drunkeness – but for our unorthodox method of foosball playing. (long story) We also went to a new bar that wasn’t there when I attended UNC that was in the old Hector’s space. It made me wish Hector’s was still there. I was notorious for going there late night even if I went by myself. Also made it to Deep End.

Work’s kind of busy so I really should get back to it. That will spare ye readers the hellish story of my return trip to Washington on the Amtrak. Let’s just say it involved an unfortunate car accident, a subsequent three-hour delay, multiple delays from being given second priority to the tracks, about five loud children under the age of three  and a total of about 12 hours of ordeal.

At least it’s snowing today.

Good and Bad News About N.C. State Game

 

So it appears likely Zeller will be joining the team for the N.C. State game tonight, according to the Daily Tar Heel. If you read the story, feast your eyes on how the staff picked the Heels as having the edge in every facet of the game. When I was at UNC, they typically would give the edge in at least one facet to the opposition, even with last year’s team. Nice.

But, as I was scanning the game notes on tarheelblue.com, I found that Hansbrough might have suffered a concussion in the Miami game and could have to sit out.

That’s  no good! Any team would miss a reining national player of the year, but Hans dropped 31 on State last game (Jan. 31). Not saying it takes a 30+ point burst by Hans to beat them, but it doesn’t hurt. 

Both players are TBA, so that leaves four possible combinations of Tylers that could appear tonight: 1) Zeller and Hansbrough, 2) Zeller but no Hansbrough, 3) Hansbrough with no Zeller or 4) No Hansbrough, No Zeller.

We certainly don’t want combo No. 4, but the most exciting thing about this game for me is the chance to see Zeller play again. All I saw was the 20 minutes or so of the Kentucky game before he broke his wrist (I couldn’t pick up the Penn game). He’s supposed to be more offensively talented than Ed Davis, though not as good as Davis defensively. Let Psycho T rest if he needs it. I’m hoping for combination No. 1 or No. 2. tonight, and combo No. 1 for the rest of the season.

Another interesting stat from the game notes: Ty Lawson has shot 57.6 percent from three in the Heels current 9-game winning streak. That’s all in ACC play. What’s better? He has 52 steals on the season to 47 turnovers. No starting point guard has had more steals than turnovers for UNC since turnovers began being tracked in 1980, just more fuel for the Lawson-for-player-of-the-year fire.

I found the picture on State’s athletics Web site. I swear.

House of Hansbrough

I’m so excited and have read so much about the game last night that I feel me writing anything about it would be redundant.  But I will anyway. The best part was obviously reading about a “red-eyed” Greg Paulus getting emotional about never beating Carolina in Cameron. I can’t think of two players I’d rather see accomplish a 4-0 record in Durham than Hansbrough and Green. Of course, I guess I’d say that if any other UNC player had done it. Not only did dook lose, they got rocked. It was the first time a Coach K team had given up 100 points in Cameron since 1983. They’ve held all other opponents to 80 or less. 

It was also a comeback win. Nothing much better. UNC is starting to look like the team that everybody thought they would be, and I like. 

Watched the game at Crystal City Sports Pub in Arlington. It was a good time as the bar was full of UNC alumni and BLUE CUPS! Apparently this bar brings up authentic blue cups from He’s Not Here in Chapel Hill for Heels games. Nice touch. Takes me back to Tuesday nights in North Carolina. 

More reasons to hate Duke:

They are so touchy-feely with K
They cry…… often
Singler’s intentional foul last night

UNC 108, Maryland 91

Haven’t exactly been on top of my Hansbrough record watch, but here’s a couple of updates.

Last night against Maryland Psycho T:

• moved into third place on the ACC all-time scoring list,
• set the school record for double-figure scoring games at 119, and
• passed Oscar Robinson for third on the NCAA all-time list for made free throws.

Nice.

Heels shot the lights about against UMD. Ellington had seven 3’s, Green and Lawson each had four and Hansbrough even hit one to give the team 16 on the night, totaling 48 of the team’s 108 points. (Yes, I got out a calculator to do that.)

Thompson struggled again but did have seven boards. There was an utter lack of defense that you could tell really bothered Roy in the first half. We were giving up layups on the fastbreak like free condoms at a concert. Larry Drew II didn’t score but tallied four dishes and he didn’t look out of control. Ed Davis got around his usual on the rebounds but only three points. All in all though, we looked good and got the scrubs some playing time, which is always nice.

What a Wonderful World

Last night was the best night of college basketball that I can remember for quite some time, and not only because Duke lost.

But let’s get right to that. Wake Forest looked like they would win relatively easily – not handily, but easily- when they were staying between eight to 10 points ahead of the dookies with about six minutes remaining. But as they always do, Duke made a run to tie the game with about two seconds left.

The best part of the way it ended was that Duke’s trademark defense failed. Gerald Henderson left his man, James Johnson, who then cut straight to the basket for a layup with .8 seconds left. Priceless. If you watch video of the game Dicky V calls it before they even throw the ball in. By the way, after years of hating him, I like ol’ Dicky V again. He’s just fanatical about college basketball, and I think I’m beginning to rise (or sink?) to his level.

After the hearty Wake/Duke game came sweet desert, the Heels beating Florida State on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. Adam Lucas, the basketball writer for TarHeelBlue.com, got some good quotes from the players in this story. The one that stuck out was Hansbrough saying Danny Green’s steal-into-three-point-play might have been “season turning.”

My sentiments exactly, Roy. And that’s exactly how it felt to watch, too. Since beating Michigan State, the Heels – who many say are the most talented team in the nation – have looked lackluster. But here, when they most needed to play, Green shot into the passing lane like a psychic and converted for three points to TIE THE GAME mind you. Hansbrough then held game-high scorer Toney Douglass with his defense to draw a shot-clock violation. And if you hadn’t heard, Ty Lawson flew down the court with 3 seconds remaining to drill a 3-pointer at full speed.

The celebration by the team after Lawson’s shot was what I’ve been waiting for. They wanted to win that game. They weren’t just going through the motions anymore. They realized what it’s like to play like winners – at least for that game. Here’s to hoping it carries over for the rest of the season.

 On top of that, Villanova knocked off Pitt, Providence beat Syracuse 100-94 and Cincy beat Georgetown. ESPN says that never have four No. 1 teams been knocked off in the same month until now. The entire nation is full of great teams and it’s going to be an amazing March. Whoever is crowned – fingers crossed – will certainly deserve it. I’m even starting to turn my blinders off and think the Big East might be better than the ACC, top to bottom anyway, not strictly the top – ever.

Photos from AP