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| Final - 3.20.2010 | 1 | 2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
North Carolina Tar Heels
|
36 | 40 | 76 |
|
Mississippi St. Bulldogs
|
33 | 41 | 74 |
And Now, a Moment for the UNC Team That Made the Tournament
by T.H. on Mar 20, 2010 4:49 PM EDT
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I've neglected the women's basketball team this season. In part, this was because they struggled in conference play just like their male counterparts, at one point losing seven of eight. This dropped them from the coaches poll for the first time since 2001. They've also had to play without their senior forward Jessica Breland, who's redshirting the season while she recovers from Hodgkin's lymphoma. (She returned to practice at the end of February, and should be fine for next season.) With Breland out, it's fallen to Cetera DeGraffenreid and Italee Lucas, both guards to take the brunt of the scoring. Carolina has never been more than an average three-point shooting team, and without the balance of a strong inside game, their offense has suffered.
Breland's absence has really been missed on the defensive end though, especially the boards. The Heels put together their poorest rebound effort of the last couple of years – previous stats can be found here and here and here – and gave up a lot more points because of it.
The improved a bit down the stretch, knocking off a top Duke team at home by 10 before an early ACC Tournament exit, and took the week after the tournament to get a warm-up game in against NC Central. I don't know how well they'll do against Gonzaga, however. The Zags went undefeated in a pretty weak conference – they've only lost eight games in the WCC in the last five years – but lost both of their games to ranked teams, including be blown out by 31 by Stanford. UNC on the other hand has played six ranked opponents and lost to five of them, the worst being a 41 point drubbing by eternally top-ranked Connecticut.
The Women's tournament is notoriously chalky in the early rounds, and for UNC to pull off the upset they'll have to step up the defense against a team that led its conference in practically all categories, and do it practically in the Bulldogs' backyard of Seattle. It's a tough road; I'm not sure they can pull it off.
Update: Our Connecticut blog – who else – has a rundown of the entire tournament. He says to watch out for the awesomely named Courtney Vandersloot, the Zags top scorer and the 2007 Washington State HS player of the year. He also says this could be the best first-round game of the regional.
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NCAA Tournament Saturday Game Thread
by T.H. on Mar 20, 2010 2:44 PM EDT
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Something to pass the time between UNC's win over Mississippi State and their impending win over Gonzaga late tonight.
Here's a link to view the CBS feeds online. By the way, the NCAA has strict rules on how I should be presenting that link. To wit:
Please make sure to use the full product name and official NCAA terms. In addition, adhere to the proper usage of trademarks for NCAA marks and logos.
Do Use
NCAA® Championship, NCAA® Division I Men's Basketball Championship, NCAA® March Madness on Demand®Do Not Use
NCAA Tournament, Tournament, NCAA March Madness, March Madness, MMOD, March Madness on DemandNotes
Always use NCAA® Championship when referring to the NCAA® Division I Men's Basketball Championship. Always use the full product name with notation of ® after the registered trademark terms "NCAA" and "March Madness on Demand"
The NCAA®: Always putting the interests® of student-atheletes™ ahead of the crass® concerns of mere© money£¥₡$. Way to go, guys.
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UNC 76, Mississippi State 74
by T.H. on Mar 20, 2010 2:30 PM EDT
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Tar Heels vs Bulldogs boxscore
Where has this team been all season?
At the start, this game looked like it was going to go the way of most of the season. The Heels had three turnovers in the first two minutes, while MSU drained three of the first five threes and had a 16-4 lead after the first five minutes. And then, Carolina began to play like they'd been trying to all season. The tempo sped up, exhausting the Bulldogs and turning their outside shooting ice cold. UNC began driving on almost every possession, and the interior passes kept finding the open man. With Jarvis Varnado exiled to the bench for long stretches, John Henson had a field day, nabbing 10 points, six rebounds, and two blocks in the first half. (He'd finish with 12, 8, and 3.) UNC had a 22-5 scoring run, and went into the locker at halftime up 36-33.
That wouldn't last, of course. State did a much better job controlling the tempo in the second half, keeping their legs fresh so the threes kept falling (MSU would have four players in double figures) and doing a better job on the boards. Despite all that, and the Heels being behind seven at the 10-minute mark with Tyler Zeller lost to a concussion, UNC didn't fold. They pulled back with back-to-back threes from Graves and Drew, and then took the lead with 31 seconds remaining on a high-arcing Graves three late in the shot clock. Mississippi State's chose Varnado to make the nswer, only have his shot expertly blocked by Henson and into the hands of Dexter Strickland. When Strickland's free throw missed the mark and the resulting scrum sent Barry Stewart to the line for MSU, Larry Drew broke the now tied game with a baseline-to-baseline drive. Heading straight towards Varnado, he kept the big guy at bay, drained the layup, and won the game with a ruthless efficiency. Varnado's college career is over, and the Heels advance to play either UAB or N.C. State.
And boy, I hope it's N.C. State. That would send the Heels back to Carmichael, and the chance to see one more Wolfpack game there would outweigh any danger of meeting a team that knows UNC that well in an elimination game. State and UAB play tonight, and the Wolfpack better get things done.
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NIT Thread: Mississippi State
by T.H. on Mar 20, 2010 12:00 PM EDT
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Here's the thing I find most fascinating about today's game. Mississippi State leads the nation in blocks per possession. (UNC, for the record, is 18th.) Now, a lot of that is Jarvis Varnado, 4th in the nation in that category. But the rest of the team also does pretty well, because they have enough tall guys to get out on the perimeter. But UNC rarely shoots from the perimeter, and State's tallest player (Varnado) is only 6'9", pretty small by UNC's standards. The Bulldogs also don't generate much in the way of turnovers, either. And the 3rd best shot-blocker in the country is Rutgers' Hamady Ndiaye; Carolina held him to only two blocks in limited play.
Mississippi States three-point shooting will be the other big thing. They'll attempt almost as many as William & Mary; a quick start from behind the arc and UNC will find themselves in a familiar hole, one they've had trouble digging out of. But mainly, I want to see Thompson and Zeller step up and contain Varnado. It's time they stepped up defensively.
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NCAA Tournament Friday Game Thread
by T.H. on Mar 19, 2010 11:30 AM EDT
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Kudos to Wake for doing the ACC prouder than I expected. I'm not hurting that badly in the pools, thanks to some bizarre choices; where I'll collapse is next weekend, when chalk holds out. Internet TV-watching can be had here just like yesterday. And here's proof , I'm not a complete moron:
I'll explain my philosophy on Duke in greater detail later, but my basic logic is that I want them to lose, I expect them to lose, so if they make the FInal Four I deserve some sort of financial recompense.
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NCAA Tournament Thursday Game Thread
by T.H. on Mar 18, 2010 11:30 AM EDT
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Just because UNC isn't in this thing, doesn't mean I won't be slipping away and trying to see as much as possible. (I've even got a nice little pop-up viewer here because I'm all fancy and stuff.) Tonight I'll talk about how my bracket – Syracuse to win it all! – has already been blown to hell.
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I've been fairly tough on this youngster (pointing at Thompson) -- I've been tough on a lot of people, but I've been fairly tough to this youngster -- and he played his tail off tonight. He went brain dead for the first play of the second half and came running over and said "Don't kill me" and I said "I'm going to think about it."
Roy Williams, after last night's William & Mary game.
3 days ago
T.H.
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UNC 80, William & Mary 72
by T.H. on Mar 17, 2010 12:41 AM EDT
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It's safe to say Carmichael Auditorium hasn't seen a lot of three-pointers. The NCAA didn't adopt it until after the Heels had moved to the Smith Center, and although the ACC had adopted it for conference games a few years earlier, it wasn't as if Dean Smith teams were going to start shooting wildly. So it's safe to say Carmichael had never seen anything like William & Mary.
The Tribe's first seven shots were all threes. 21 of the 28 shots they took in the first half were from behind the arc. In the end, 43 of William & Mary's 62 shot were threes, and all but two of the rest were dunks or layups. They only made 16 of those threes, but that was enough to hold a lead as late as 2:34 remaining, and almost good enough to end Carolina's season.
Happily, UNC rediscovered their shot in the shooter-friendly gym as well, making the most shots since the first N.C. State game, led by seniors Thompson and Ginyard, who finished with 20 and 12 points. But what really made the difference was the way Carolina preyed on the Tribe's passing lanes. Six Tar Heel players combined for eleven steals, and although they only resulted in twelve points, that was more than enough to disrupt William & Mary's offense. (It was also good for the spectacle of seeing big men Tyler Zeller and Thompson swipe the ball from the top of the key and lumber down the court for baskets.)
Carolina also baited William & Mary into pushing the tempo along side the Heels, which not only saved UNC on a couple of rushed Tribe shots, but left them pretty beat and missing shots by the end of the game. Fouling out their leading rebounder Marcus Kitts helped there as well. UNC also made their free throws down the stretch – 11 of the last 15 points the Heels scored came from the charity stripe – and took care of the ball. In doing so, they upheld the Carmichael tradition (UNC only has 4 nonconference losses there) and kept their season alive. They travel to Starksville to meet Mississippi State on Saturday for a noon game.
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