Lessons

Watching the Miami game while listening to Doris Burke’s analysis was a bad combo for a Tar Heel fan this weekend. We weren’t playing well and Ms. Burke was singing Miami’s praises. The discussion of Miami as a #1 seed didn’t seem too farfetched after watching them RAIN threes on us in the first half…and the second half… but I’m not sold on the “U” representing the ACC well in the NCAA tourney. One cold night for Miami when they aren’t shooting 54% from the floor and 58% from three could be problematic for them in the big dance.

Our team desperately needs is a vocal leader/motivator on the court. When the game isn’t going our way or we simply need a boost of energy, no one (that I have seen) has stepped up to rally the troops and get us back on track. We need a person that we can consistently go to in order to get a field goal or a trip to the line. We need someone who can “stop the bleeding.”

I hear a lot of criticism of Coach Williams for not calling time-outs when the opposition is making a big run. To be quite honest, I can’t say I disagree with his strategy. After watching the Michigan-Michigan State game on Tuesday night, it was pretty obvious that a timeout isn’t going to solve your problems. When Michigan came out of the tunnel in the second half they were down by 14 points. By the 16:00 minute mark the lead had extended to 19 points. After a timeout from Coach Beilein to “stop the bleeding,” Michigan didn’t come out and respond. The lead continued to creep up to 21, then 26 and then as high as 30 points. People have argued that Michigan has one of the best teams in the country but they were obviously overmatched on Tuesday. We haven’t been regarded as the top team in the land, but it was painfully obvious that we were overmatched this weekend.

Now most of you will be bright enough to see that I’ve got a deadline on Wednesdays so I can’t breakdown our Duke performance, but I’m hoping that we show up on Wednesday and bring these few things to the table:

Aggressive Fouls: I don’t want our guys flagrantly fouling the Dukies and injuring anyone, but if someone takes the ball to the basket, we need to make sure they don’t score and they think twice about driving the ball again!
Solid Screens: this sounds simple, and it is. If we execute our offense like I know we have practiced, we should be getting open looks inside and out.
Attacking the rim: we need to go right at Mason Plumlee on every possession until he is in foul trouble then focus our efforts on guarding the perimeter. If Plumlee is out and we are locking down the 3-point line, Duke quickly loses their effectiveness.

image by Todd Melet

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