The Road Ends Here

Alright, it’s time for yours truly to weigh in on the sights, sounds and feel of being here in San Antonio. Let’s not waste any time:

-I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: big-time basketball games in football arenas are not coo. There’s a whole half of the Alamodome that is just empty because of the game. Acoustically it’s not as loud, and the feel of basketball just isn’t there as much as it would be otherwise. The Spurs have a very young basketball arena here and they’re not in town. Let’s use that one

-Here’s the updated list of “big names” we’ve seen out and about down here: Tom Izzo (Michigan State), Michael Beasley (Kansas State), Oliver Purnell (Clemson), James Gist (Maryland), DeMarcus Nelson (Duke), Leonard Hamilton (Florida State), Deron Washington (Virginia Tech), John Thompson III (Georgetown), Wes Miller (Loves to still hang around with UNC), Gary Williams (Maryland), Mark Few (Gonzaga)

-The Riverwalk is one of the coolest downtown attractions a city could have. I love it. It still feels kinda like Disney World to me, except bigger. And real. Kinda surprised no one falls in the river more often, what with all the bars, cramped passageways and fan spirit floating around. Let’s hope I’m not the first to fall in.

-UNC put on an impromptu dunk contest at the end of its “open practice” yesterday, which is really just a showcase for the fans to watch a bunch of light shooting drills. Danny Green almost pulled off a sweet between-the-legs dunk (DTH photographer Lauren Cowart got a great shot of it) but my two awards go to the underrated dunkers on the team who proved themselves yesterday: Quentin Thomas and Patrick Moody. They can throw it down. Tyler Hansbrough, not surprisingly, didn’t participate. Not a bad idea after a Kansas player fractured his kneecap dunking during practice earlier in the day.

-Last but not least, if you have a chance to go to a Final Four, you gotta go. Especially if it’s in San Antonio or New Orleans, which I’ve heard are the best two spots for the Dance. Regardless of the games, it’s just a blast walking around town and seeing how a city pulls everything together for one weekend.

-With that said, my recommendations for a couple of sneaky good cities that should host future Final Fours (in the NBA arena, of course): Phoenix and Orlando.

-Gregg Found

From the Alamo

Time for an overdue blog post from San Antonio. It would’ve been up earlier in the day, but we’re cheap and don’t want to pay for wireless down at the Alamodome.

Not that we’re on a StarWatch or anything, but it’s hard to miss some of the people who come walking right by you. Here’s our “We’ve seen them” list so far.

1) Virginia Tech’s Deron Washington, spotted while out to dinner on the Riverwalk Wednesday night. He’s in town for the college slam dunk contest that was held yesterday.

2) Kansas State’s phenomenal freshman Michael Beasley, seen at the Marriott hotel last night while we were walking through on our way to dinner. Now, why he’s there on a Thursday night when his team isn’t in the Final Four and he’s not playing in the college All-Star game is anyone’s guess. We’ve heard of things called school and class that normally take place during the week…….

3) FSU coach Leonard Hamilton, Clemson coach Oliver Purnell, Maryland’s James Gist

4) We’re pretty sure Georgetown coach John Thompson walked by yesterday, although he was a lot shorter than I thought. He has a pretty distinctive face though.

5) This morning, Oscar Robertson was in the lounge of a different Marriott.

6) Michigan State coach Tom Izzo taking a riverboat ride down the Riverwalk with his family yesterday while we were eating lunch.

-We hit up the Alamo yesterday, and I was pretty impressed. I guess I wasn’t expecting much, so that helped. But the buildings were fun to walk around in, and there were plenty of plaques with famous speeches, letters and such that were interesting to read. Plus, there are plenty of snowcone stands nearby.

-I just witnessed Kevin Love make a full court shot to wow the crowd on hand. I’ve never seen anything like that – he was JUST off on several other attempts. He barely takes a running start and basically just throws a chest pass to the other end of the court. Then he sat down at half-court and threw up a shot that was just short – incredible strength. Ben Howland had plenty of nice things to say about the Oregon native during his interview session outside the locker room, including that he calls Love “The Big Fundamental.” We’ll see if that one sticks at the next level. It’s not The Big Aristotle, but it’s something.

*Also, in case anyone was wondering, K-Love rocks the classic black/white Adidas low Superstars for the casual look during interviews. He left them in the locker room later, and I was standing next to them trying to compare sizes – I’m about a 12, he’s a …. 20 maybe?

-The Alamodome is MONSTROUS. The media area is literally a sea of white tables sitting right on the football field. 2/3 of the arena is cut off, leaving the last third for the court and stands. On all sides of the dome are huge conference rooms for interviews and such. I feel sorry for some of these players – they must feel like boxes being shipped around. Here we go to the solo interview room, then to the locker room, then to the CBS photo shoot, then to the players-only press conference….. I’m sure they’ll get over it though.

-Memphis’ Pierre Niles had writing on his shoe for #15 Andre Allen, who was suspended for the Final Four.

-Jesse Baumgartner

A couple of stories I found interesting

Some recent college hoops headlines that caught my eye:

-Ford Field, Reliant raise NCAA tourney to new level (link: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney08/news/story?id=3316264)

So in Houston and Detroit, the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games are being played at NFL stadiums. Why? More seats, more tickets, more money.

Not cool. Both cities have perfectly fine NBA arenas that should be used, and this latest round of news makes it dangerous for players to play here. If a player isn’t going to chase certain loose balls because of the way the court is set up, you’re changing the game, NCAA. And you shouldn’t change the game just to drudge up more cash.

-Sweet trip: Davidson sends students to NCAA free (link: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney08/news/story?id=3314342)

Much better. Students at Davidson get a free bus ride, hotels and game tickets to make the long trek from North Carolina to Detroit to see their team play Wisconsin.

Great move; I’d be all over this if I went to Davidson. I have a little doubt that the only thing preventing them from taking more students is lack of buses, as the article says. More like lack of money to put college kids up in hotels and send them to the game and get them a seat on the bus.

But still, great call. This is making the most of a one-time opportunity.

-Gregg Found

So this was weird

There are a few things you notice after covering Roy Williams for a season.

1) He doesn’t really like the media (though he handles the media and press conferences)

2) He’ll often start a press conference on a tangent, before getting down to business.

After Thursday’s defeat of Washington State, he did both.

Evidently, Tyler Hansbrough was one of the Tar Heels chosen to be drug tested after the game. I don’t know how regularly players are drug tested nor how they are chosen, but Hansbrough was tonight.

Problem was, Hansbrough had to do something before going to the bathroom: talk to the media.

“It’s unbelievable, and now we have more evidence of how powerful you guys are,” Williams said at the start of his post-game press conference. “Tyler was one of our players to be drug tested, and they said, ‘He has to talk to the media before he can use the bathroom.’ You guys are powerful.”

Yep, that just happened.

-Gregg Found

Update

And to finish it off, SD’s De’jon Jackson hits the ballsy stepback jumper over a UConn defender with less than two seconds to play to give SD a 70-69 win. Wow. Between that and the Western Kentucky shot, this is turning into quite a day. 30 minutes until tipoff. We’re heading out to the court. Enjoy the game.

Scouting The Mount

Jesse Baumgartner and I are here in Raleigh, catching all four of the first-round games. We saw a great Davidson-Gonzaga showdown and it’s halftime of the UMBC-Georgetown game.

Before each UNC game in this tournament, I want to do a little statistical segment breaking down the opponent. It should be a handy guide for what to expect from a team most Tar Heel fans don’t know much about (unless UNC faces Clemson in the Final Four).

Let’s start with The Mount – officially known as Mount St. Mary’s:

-No. 16 seed Mount St. Mary’s: 18-14 overall record, 11-7 in the Northeast Conference

-Won the Northeast Conference tournament

-Topped Coppin State in play-in game on Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio

Best wins:

Beat Winthrop 64-59 on Dec. 18

Beat Robert Morris 83-65 on Mar. 9

Beat Sacred Heart 68-55 on Mar. 12

Key losses:

Lost to American 66-45 on Nov. 26

Lost to Oregon 81-73 on Dec. 28

Lost to Oklahoma 81-57 on Jan. 7

Top Scorers

#1 Jeremy Goode – 14.5 ppg

#2 Chris Vann – 14.3 ppg

#11 Will Holland – 8.7 ppg

Who to foul

#4 Kelly Biedler – 57.6 free throw percentage

#45 Markus Mitchell – 57.8%

#10 Shawn Atupem – 58.3%

Who not to foul

#2 Chris Vann – 83.1%

#00 Jean Cajou – 80.5%

#40 Sam Atupem – 75.9%

Any three-point shooters?

#2 Chriss Vann – 39 three-point percentage, has shot most threes on team

#11 Will Holland – 33%, has shot second most threes on team

Any shotblockers?

#40 Sam Atupem – 49 blocks on the season, a little more than one per game

Anything else?

Mount St. Mary’s averages 69.1 points per game

They’re getting outrebounded, on average, by 1.1 rebounds per game

-Gregg Found

Wish the Tar Heels luck before NCAA action

Join the General Alumni Association, The Rams Club and the Department of Athletics as we send our teams off for NCAA tournament action.

Men’s
Join us as we send off the men from the Smith Center (Entrance D) at 2:30 p.m. today — Thursday, March 19.

Women’s
We’ll send off the women from Carmichael Auditorium (side entrance on South Road) on Friday, March 20, at 11:30 a.m.

–David Ely

One more thought on yesterday…

With about 16 minutes left in the UNC-Virginia Tech game yesterday, I couldn’t help myself from harkening back to the 2005 ACC Tournament.

At the time that year, the Tar Heels were one of the two best teams in the country along with Illinois, and their focus was certainly more on advancing deep in the NCAA Tournament.  In the quarterfinal game of the ACCs against Clemson, the Tar Heels eked out an 88-81 victory on the back of Raymond Felton.  In the semifinals, Georgia Tech controlled the game, and UNC did just enough to stay in it all game — Rashad McCants had a chance to send the game to overtime on a 3-pointer with time winding down — before losing by three.

I couldn’t help but see the similarities to this year’s tourney.  UNC only tied the rebounding battle against Florida State — the Tar Heels ALWAYS win the rebounding battle (it was only the third time all season they didn’t outrebound their opponent) — and were tied on the boards with Virginia Tech after the first half.  The Hokies were continuing to hit their shots, and it seemed like the Tar Heels were destined for a close game, but a loss.

I was wrong, and UNC proved its mettle down the stretch, just as it has all season long.  Hansbrough’s shot was huge — he was hesitant to call it his best shot ever, but it was the first true game-winner I can think of that he’s had at UNC. 

Now the Tar Heels are in position to win back-to-back ACC Championships for the first time since 1997 and 1998, and pull ahead of Duke in the records with 17 tournament titles.

Oh, and by the way, I saw the sick Terrence Oglesby A.I. step-back move yesterday because I finished my story and posted it online while Baumgartner was slacking off and writing slowly. Alright, the game starts in 15 minutes — should be a good one.

-Gray Caldwell

Quick Update

Wayne Ellington hurt his left ankle during Saturday’s game and was on the bench at one point hopping around. Williams said he sprained it, and after the game Ellington fielded questions with his left shoe off and ice around his ankle.  Ellington was out shooting with the team in the pre-game shootaround, and is going through the lay-up line right now. The ankle doesn’t appear to have a brace or too much extra tape on it.

-Jesse Baumgartner

Post-Saturday, Pre-Sunday musings

Here we are on ACC Championship Sunday … and here I am with a queasy stomach after making the disastrous mistake of electing to try the media dining room’s Caesar salad. Two words for you – DEAD. ANCHOVIES. Disgusting, I may never eat Caesar again. OK, on to some observations from yesterday and a little bit on today, Selection Sunday, one of my favorite days of the year (followed by next weekend’s opening round, then Elite Eight weekend and then the Final Four … I’m a simple guy.)

-In yesterday’s 78-74 victory against Duke, Clemson harrassed the normally disciplined Tigers into 16 turnovers with that crazy-athletic press defense. Clemson has the players to make that system work, and it obviously paid dividends in the semifinals. That said, the Tigers turned the ball over 16 times themselves, but did manage to shoot 50.9 percent for the game, including 59.3 percent in the second half. Back to the defense, Clemson’s pressure clearly rattled UNC during the last meeting in Chapel Hill when the Tar Heels turned the ball over 20 times, including a stretch at the beginning of the game when they could barely get the ball upcourt without giving it away. But again, the Tigers turned the ball over 22 times themselves. On the season, Clemson forces 17.8 turnovers a game while giving up 14.8 themeselves. UNC didn’t have Ty Lawson in the last meeting, so we’ll see if that makes a difference today when Oliver Purnell’s squad clamps down after made baskets.

-Trevor Booker led Clemson with 18 points and 7 rebounds yesterday, including a ferocious dunk coming down the lane. If he and James Mays can stay out of foul trouble (a problem in the first meeting between the two teams at Clemson), the Tigers could be in good shape.

-I have on record from Gray that Terrence Oglesby did his AI stepback impression during yesterday’s win (I didn’t see it since I was writing a story from the UNC game), faking to the baseline before hopping back into the corner and drilling the 3-ball. Oglesby is shooting .416 from downtown this season, and 197 of his 264 field goals this season are from 3-point territory ….that would be 74.6 percent of his shots.

-Here’s a little humor from yesterday’s press conference with Roy Williams about Wayne Ellington’s technical foul, with Williams, Hansbrough, Ellington and Ginyard sitting up on the podium together:

During the opening statement: “The technical (foul) on Wayne, Wayne will be in better condition after the running that he gets to do with everybody clapping for him later in the week … I have no problem with what the official did … I was disappointed in it, so you don’t have to ask Wayne anything about it, because that’s exactly the way it happened, is that correct Wayne? (looking over at Wayne)

Wayne: (nodding with a sheepish grin) Yes sir.

Williams: I sorta knew he would agree because I haven’t decided how much conditioning he’s going to do yet.

Enjoy the game, and check dailytarheel.com for stories.

-Jesse Baumgartner