Well at least it wasn't a first round game against William & Mary in Carmichael in the NIT. That's about the best thing I can take from this game. Well, that and the Heels showed that Ol' Roy still knows how to hang 100 on somebody.
It is a little bit of a cliche but it is important to remember that whatever happens in the Dance this year at least UNC is back competing on the biggest stage in college basketball after the nightmare that was last season. While that may not help to ease the frustration of what seemed like 25 intercepted pitch-ahead passes, it should help to explain. As well as this team has played at times during the season I think we have all let ourselves believe that maybe they are something that they are not. This team may still make a run in the Tournament but even if they do so I would not expect them to do it without several frustrating moments. This is a young team that has never dealth with the nervousness and competition of the NCAA Tournament. At this level every single team is very good and has won something in order to get to this point. For that reason they're not going to back down like teams often do in the regular season. Tyler Zeller referenced this in the postgame press conference, saying "so it's one of those things that you get up by 10 or 15 in a regular season game, they might just go away. It's their last game and they're going to keep coming back and you've got to be aware of that." That's a good point and one that you probably don't find out without playing a game, which these Heels now have done.
Also I think there were several positives to take from this game. I thought at the beginning of both halves UNC came out focused and really took it to LIU, playing great defense, creating turnovers, and converting them at the other end. I thought when we were up 21 we just relaxed on defense and gave up several easy transition baskets. To me that lack of focus is a little bit frustrating but again it goes back to what I said above. Getting a young team to play defense when they're up 20 is almost impossible, even in the NCAA's. Also Kendally Marshall looked much more comfortable and looks like he has put the ACC Tournament behind him. John Henson and Tyler Zeller were playing an outmanned front line, so their gaudy numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, but they still did a great job of getting in good position and demanding the ball in good scoring position. Give them credit for that as they have not always done so this season. Also, except for the two LIU runs (one in each half) I actually think UNC's defense was probably better than the final score indicates. One of my biggest pet peeves is the analyst who judges a team defense only by looking at the final score. Both Kenny Smith and Charles Barkely did this after the game, criticizing UNC's defense for giving up 87 to the Blackbirds. However if you look at the box score LIU shot only 36% from the floor and as Ken Pomeroy tweeted after the game it was their 2nd lowest points per possession of the season. Was Carolina's defense lazy at times? Of course. But I think overall it was better than you think.
Now it is up to this team to move forward and take the appropriate amount of confidence from the positives and motivation from the things they can do better. Washington is a very good team as Doug Gottlieb will tell us and we will need to step up and play a little bit better. See you Sunday.
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