Tar Heels Show Potential and the Growing Needed to Get There
NEW YORK – North Carolina gave a snapshot on Friday of everything about their team. You saw the superb young talent, the size, the quickness on the perimeter. You also saw a team with a penchant for making unforced errors, something that could just about nullify all this talent.
Indeed, North Carolina’s 101-87 win over Tennessee in the consolation game of the NIT Season Tip-Off showed that the Tar Heels have talent but aren’t unbeatable.
“It was a frustrating night in some ways but I loved a lot of things that went on out there, too,” said head coach Roy Williams. “It’s a work in progress, but I do think we have some great material to work with.”
The great material starts with super sophomore Tyler Hansbrough, who just keeps getting better after a superb freshman season. The Volunteers, who don’t have much size and start no one taller than 6’7″, had no way to stop him or Brandan Wright inside. Hansbrough went for 27 points, including 11-15 from the foul line, and had nine rebounds. While Hansbrough is tough to stop, Wright was pretty much impossible for the Volunteers, as the Tennessee native had 19 points on 9-10 shooting and eight rebounds.
“He creates a lot of mismatches for how tall he is,” Hansbrough said of Wright. “We look for each other, and I think it’s a good complement.”
Two more freshmen acquitted themselves well on the perimeter for the Tar Heels, as Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson each had 14 points, with Lawson adding six assists. Lawson didn’t start at the point, but played more minutes than Bobby Frasor, showing the options Williams has at that position (with the added note that Quentin Thomas did not play).
The Tar Heels were pretty much in control of this game for most of it, cruising to the win. But you’d never know it if you watched Williams on the bench, who took his jacket off in clear disgust with over 13 minutes left to go and his team up 13. The Tar Heels had just committed two consecutive offensive fouls, which along with turnovers were a point of angst for the coach all night long.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever had a team that ran in and charged people as many times as this team does,” Williams said.
Williams isn’t just looking at one game, a point he mentioned several times. The season has started earlier than ever this year, and with the youth on his team, there’s no question the Tar Heels won’t be as good now as they will be in February and March. The process of competing for a national title, which many expect this team to do with its immense talent, doesn’t just happen at the end of the season. Indeed, the seeds for that success are planted early on, a point not lost on a coach who has done plenty of winning in his career.
Besides the offensive issues mentioned, the Tar Heels didn’t defend the perimeter well in the second half as Tennessee got hot from long range. The Volunteers went 11-22 on three-pointers in the second half and were over 50 percent for the game before missing their final four. They scored 52 points in the second half to make it respectable as the Tar Heels threatened to run away with it.
“In basketball, it’s got to be how you play,” Williams said. “You’ve got to play well on the defensive end and on the offensive end because you’re aiming to get better and better and better, and you have some big-time dreams and hopes at the end of the year. If you improve every day, that’s going to help you. So the way we play is a lot more important than the final score because we’re trying to do something at the end of the year.”
If nothing else, Wright has received that message loud and clear in short order.
“We got the win, but there’s a lot of room for improvement,” Wright reflected. “It shows just how good this team can be.”
Note on Ejection
Tennessee junior guard JaJuan Smith was ejected in the second half after a flagrant intentional foul on Hansbrough when he tried to block his shot from behind. Smith was just coming alive when the play happened, as he was part of the Volunteers’ three-point attack in the second half. He finished with 18 points and was 4-7 from behind the arc.
While there is a point of emphasis with the hard foul, replays showed the call made by the official to be a bit questionable on both fronts. Smith appeared to come close to making a tough block on the play and going for the ball despite not being in good position for it, which wouldn’t be indicative of an intentional foul, and the contact didn’t appear to be excessive although Hansbrough did go down hard. The speed of the play at which it had to be called certainly factors in.
“To then add the flagrant and the ejection, I disagree with that call. I didn’t see it that way,” Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl said after noting the rule.
Williams noted that he was surprised at the ejection as well, though he thought the foul was intentional.
Smith has gradually worked his way into the starting lineup this season after playing just eight minutes a game as a freshman two years ago. There’s never a good time for a play that leads to an ejection from a game, but there are worse times than others and this was among them since he was playing well in the minutes leading up to it.
“I just really felt for him because of his competitiveness and to have no control of the game any more when you’re sent back to the locker room,” said senior Dane Bradshaw.
