Elite Eight… Take Two

Tomorrow’s matchup between No. 1 North Carolina and No. 3 Louisville brings the Tar Heels back to where they saw their season end last year. The winner of this game, slated for a 9:05 p.m. tipoff, will pack their bags for San Antonio and continue their run at a national championship.

But today, players and coaches on both sides are gearing up for presumably one of the toughest games of the entire tournament, but they are also taking the time to relax and enjoy the success their programs have seen to get them where they are right now.

Give Roy Williams a stage, and he will without a doubt have plenty to say about the “kids” he has coached that have found their way back to the Regional Final.

“We’ve got great kids who enjoy playing the game with a goal of getting better,” he said. “And the best way to get better is to work hard everyday.”

Which could explain why the Tar Heels are now 35-2 on the season. Last night’s victory set a school record for most wins in a season, and every win from now on will only distance the previous record. But Louisville will by far be UNC’s most formidable opponent thus far in the tournament. Coached by Rick Pitino, the Cardinals have had to overcome more than a fair share of setbacks this season. They have had to endure injuries galore and a less than impressive start, to name a couple.

So Pitino and Co. are more than excited to still be alive in the tournament, and Coach P. even said the team was going to “relax by the pool all day” after handling
No. 2 seed Tennessee late Thursday night.

But come tomorrow night, it’s all business.

Both teams like to play at a quick tempo, which is what led Williams to say he likes winning when scoring in the 80s, 90s and 100s. And Louisville is going to run with them, so transition baskets are going to play a big part in seeing success on the court. Also important will be second-chance opportunities, and with a plethora of big men on both sides of the ball, there looks to be plenty of action inside.

“It’s going to be a war on the defensive and offensive boards,” said Deon Thompson. “So that’s where the game will be determined.”

The game will not be determined today, however, so UNC has one more day to prepare. And relax. Because Saturday night will determine whether or not the Tar Heels will be able to get over the Elite Eight obstacle that they stumbled over last year.

-Nicole Lukosius

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

Scouting the Cardinals

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Let’s examine the statistics to see if we can reveal anything about UNC’s Elite Eight opponent:

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-No. 3 seed Louisville: 27-8 overall record, 14-4 in the Big East

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-Lost to eventual champion Pittsburgh in overtime in the Big East Tournament

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-Topped Tennessee 79-60 in round three of the NCAA Tournament

Best wins:

Beat Marquette 71-57 on Feb. 4

Beat Georgetown 59-51 on Feb. 9

Beat Pittsburgh 75-73 on Feb. 24

Key losses:

Lost to Purdue 67-59 on Dec.15

Lost to Cincinnati 58-57 on Jan. 1

Lost to Seton Hall 92-82 on Jan. 19

Top Scorers

#4 David Padgett – 11.4 ppg

#5 Earl Clark – 11.1 ppg

#1 Terrence Williams – 11.1 ppg

Who to foul

#1 Terrence Williams – 56.7%

#32 Derrick Caracter – 64.2%

#4 David Padgett – 64.6%

Who not to foul

#34 Jerry Smith- 78.0%

#33 Andre McGee – 72.3%

#3 Juan Palacios – 70.5%

Any three-point shooters?

#34 Jerry Smith – 38.2%, has shot most threes on team (and more than half his shots are threes)

#1 Terrence Williams – 34%, has shot second most threes on team

#33 Andre McGee – 39.5%, has shot third most threes on team (and more than half his shots are threes)

#10 Edgar Sosa – 37.4%, has shot fourth most threes on team (and more than half his shots are threes)

Any shotblockers?

#5 Earl Clark – 58 blocks on the season, about 1.6 per gam

Anything else?

Freakishly balanced scoring: four guys in between 10.5 and 11.5 points per game

Not a good free-throw shooting team at all – just 65 percent combined.

But a really good three-point shooting team – 35 percent from deep as a team.

They go eight deep, with all eight getting good minutes (at least 17 min per game), but have the potential to go 11 deep

-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

NHL gears up for postseason

In less than three weeks, the NHL regular season will come to a close.

But there’s a lot that could go down before that time.

In the Eastern Conference, it’s a fight to the finish as seven points separate 4th place Ottawa and 9th place Washington. Realistically, the Capitals are the only team currently out of the postseason picture with a realistic shot of grabbing the 8th and final playoff spot. But there will be plenty of jockeying for position during the last five or six games of the season. Washington trails Boston by two points, and Boston’s mediocre play couldn’t come at a worse time. The Capitals could conceivably still steal the Southeast division from the Carolina Hurricanes, but making up four points in five games against a Carolina team that is arguably the hottest squad in the entire league at the moment will be a daunting task. But with Alex Ovechkin leading the league with 61 goals (the first player to reach the 60 mark since Lemieux and Jagr for the 1996-97 Penguins) and 106 points, and newly acquired goaltender Cristobal Huet playing solidly in rotation with Olaf Kolzig, the Caps can’t be counted out at all.

Montreal and Pittsburgh are duking it out at the top of the standings in the East, meanwhile, and Carolina sits in third due to their lead in the Southeast (the top three seeds are granted to the division leaders, even if those teams have fewer points than other teams in the playoffs. That’s a system that needs to change.) The Penguins, even without the aid of phenom Sidney Crosby, whose ankle injury has kept him out of over 20 games in the past 8 weeks, have managed to go on a rampage, thanks to the offensive prowess of Evgeni Malkin. If you don’t know the name Malkin now, you will in five years. Pittsburgh’s only questionable characteristic is a lack of playoff experience and a disturbing inconsistency in net.

In the West, Detroit and San Jose make the rest of the league pretty much look like a joke. The Red Wings haven’t played a meaningful game in weeks, and with 108 points have a nearly double-digit lead on the second place Sharks, who still look phenomenal. Goalie Evgeni Nabokov could win the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goalie, and the Sharks are indeed a sexy pick for Western Conference Champs.

The bottom half of the playoff seeding in the West is even more wide open than the East. Not even the once-mighty Dallas Stars can rest on their laurels quite yet, as Edmonton, Nashville, Vancouver and Colorado also all need points to lock up a spot in the postseason. The Oilers have been an interesting team to watch lately, and a timely 7-3-0 run has catapulted the once listless Edmonton team to within 3 points of a playoff spot. But the team has only four games remaining, least out of any team in the league other than Colorado and Minnesota, which will make the trek all the more difficult.

But if everything plays out like I think it will, you’ll see Montreal, Pittsburgh, Carolina, and Ottawa in the second round of the playoffs in the East, eventually resulting in an all-Canadian Montreal/Ottawa Eastern Finals matchup, with Montreal coming out on top. Meanwhile, in the West, it’s hard to pick against San Jose, who should beat out a feisty Calgary team for the Western crown. With so little time left to go, though, so much can happen.

Blowin’ the whistle on the zebras

If there’s been one constant this year in the women’s basketball season and NCAA tournament, it’s the quality of officiating — atrocious.

From Tennesse’s controversial win over Rutgers where somehow the clock ACTUALLY STOPPED for almost four seconds, allowing Nikki Anosiki to get fouled with less than one — actually -3 — seconds left on the clock to the Lady, women’s basketball officiating is among the most frustrating things to watch in the nation.

The second-round games played in Norfolk were yet another firm example that officials need to get their act together. The officiating crew put on an exercise in incompetence, almost as painful as watching David Carr play quarterback.

At one point during North Carolina’s game against Georgia, the officials called an out-of bounds to North Carolina, then changed it to Georgia, then changed it back to North Carolina.

“Who touched it last” is the least technical call that officials could make during a game. And while by no means is it always easy, it’s a crucial part of the game that shouldn’t require consultation with the rest of the officiating crew.

Even more frustrating was that whichever official was underneath the basket seemed to take the play off. Time and time again the official closest to the actual play came out with their hands up looking pleadingly towards the sideline officials.

It’s feasible that officials could (and certainly do) miss some calls during a game. It’s even feasible that one or two of those calls could have a large impact on the game. But when such a large number of calls go unnoticed or blatantly wrong that the officiating brings down the level of the game, then that’s insulting to the players, fans, and coaches.

— Powell Latimer

Women’s hoops kicks back on off-day

For some North Carolina women’s basketball players, tomorrow’s second-round matchup against Georgia in the NCAA Tournament might be the most important basketball game they’ve played in their life. After all, it’s March Madness, and the tension mounts with every win.

So surely, while select Tar Heels were in press conferences today, the rest of the team was spending their time studying game film, right? Wrong.

Going over notes on Georgia? Nope.

Installing new plays? Not even close, although with Rashanda McCants drawing diagrams up on the whiteboard, it might look that way.

No, instead, the Tar Heels instead had divided into two teams (White and Blue) for a competitive game of Pictionary. Unfortunately, while McCants has been effective slicing through opponents’ defense lately, she didn’t have so much success at the drawing board.

A shout of “Little House on the Prairie” was the final unsuccessful guess by her Blue team as time expired and McCants returned disappointedly to her seat. Her “hidden driveway” drawing wasn’t good enough to help dig her team out of its 4-1 deficit.

So why does a friendly game of Pictionary matter in the grand scheme of the tournament?

It demonstrates that the Tar Heels are loose, and that they are enjoying the ride. And when playing basketball is more fun and less business, it might get just a little easier to win. As coach Sylvia Hatchell said, that’s what this is all about.

“A big part of it is enjoying the experience, having fun,” she said. “The last two years we’ve been to the Final Four, as we go through the NCAAs, this is something we do if we have downtime and we have to sit around the locker room. So we always play these board games. They love them, and they’re good at them.”

Some other highlights from the game, which the white team still led when the locker room closed to media personnel:

• Laura Barry’s three-part drawing of a halogen lamp and her team’s unsuccessful guesses as she motioned excitedly while the clock ran down.
• Rebecca Gray’s successful drawing of “fantasy football league,” her celebration when McCants guessed correctly, and the ensuing team-huddle to discuss strategy.
• Heather Claytor returning from the press conference and jumping in on the Blue team to try to “boost up the losing team.”

-Mike Ehrlich

What is it about Michigan State?

So I’ve been looking through some old brackets today, trying to refresh my mind on UNC’s recent history in the NCAA Tournament. And there’s one team that keeps popping up: the Michigan State Spartans.

Consider this:

2005: UNC beats Michigan State in the Final Four to advance to the national championship

2006: UNC would have played Michigan State in the second round…if George Mason had not upset the Spartans in the first round

2007: UNC beats Michigan State in the second round, as UNC is the 1 seed and Michigan State is the 9 seed

This year? Well, the Tar Heels would have to meet the Spartans in the championship. It’s probably time for a break from MSU anyways.

But I also find it odd, that in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, UNC has NOT played Michigan State since Roy Williams has been here.

2003: vs Illinois in Greensboro, N.C.

2004: at Indiana

2005: vs Illinois

2006: vs Ohio State

2007: at Ohio State

You’d think, as UNC is one of the top programs in the ACC and Michigan State is one of the top programs in the Big 10, that the powerhouses would meet once in five years. (Pop quiz: which Big 10 team has the best record overall in the ACC-Big 10 Challenge? Answer: Michigan State, at 5-3. No other Big 10 team even has a winning record).

Further research reveals that UNC played Michigan State twice, in the first two years of the Challenge’s existence. And while UNC was under the helm of Matt Doherty. That, combined with UNC’s recent games against MSU in the tourney, probably leads the schedulers not to match the teams up.

Still, my prediction for this upcoming ACC-Big 10 Challenge: UNC gets to play either Michigan State or Wisconsin. Mark it down.

-Gregg Found

Curry, Curry, Curry….

RALEIGH- In light of the last hour, allow me to disagree with my esteemed colleague on the importance of Davidson point guard Jason Richards. He’s a huge piece, no doubt – 20 points and 5 assists today, but more importantly, one turnover (Davidson only had five as a team).

Stephen Curry put up 30 points, 25 in the second half, and simply carried his team to victory…..again….except this time against the No. 2 seed Georgetown Bulldogs. Richards is impressive, but I can find you some point guards on small teams that could cut it at this level and even play well. But you can’t locate many shooting guards who put up 30 points when an extremely talented and athletic defense focuses on them the ENTIRE game. Curry is still the most important piece, because Davidson isn’t going to shut anyone down on D just because of their smaller team, so they need to score.

- I can’t decide if Curry’s fadeway-two-guys-in-his-face netsnapper 3 was the most impressive, or the shake-and-bake underhand kiss off the glass. What a performance during these two games. And while I didn’t man up and predict them to win in my bracket because I already had too many (wrong) upsets, I did point out my hunch about the Gonzaga copycat act from 1999. Man, why didn’t I pick them. Story of my bracket as Final Four team No. 1 goes down.

-Jesse Baumgartner

Some of the coolest things I’ve seen

So, admittedly, sitting courtside on press row for the NCAA Tournament is pretty freakin cool. But in addition to just being here, there are some other awesome things I’ve seen this weekend. And one just happened.

1. With Davidson making a comeback from being down double-digits to Georgetown, the Davidson fan section started chanting “Sweet Car-o-line, Sweet Car-o-line” during a timeout, imploring the Davidson band to play the song. Now, according to the Davidsonian writer next to me, Davidson doesn’t have a regular pep band. And the band they brought to the tournament is not all students: a couple guys in the back row are pushing 40 years old, easy. Nevertheless, the band granted the crowd’s wish and started an awesome rendition of “Sweet Caroline.” On top of that, the band director grabbed his trombone and started playing along while directing. Awesome. The crowd loved it.

Other cool things from the tournament:

2. Stephen Curry’s mom. She has shed more body fluid in tears this weekend than most players have in sweat.

3. Georgetown coach John Thompson III. He loves arguing calls with both hands in his pockets, so that his body just ends up jolting up and down.

4. Davidson point guard Jason Richards. Call me crazy, but I think he’s more important to their team than Stephen Curry. He leads the nation in assists too, with 8 per game.

5. The Arkansas band leader: a pretty swell guy himself. He dances around, hopping on his feet, and bringing a ton of energy to each of his band’s songs.

6. UNC fans cheering LOUDLY for Davidson against Georgetown. I don’t know whether they’re cheering against Georgetown or for the in-state school, but they’re giving the Wildcats a huge boost. One Davidson cheerleader just said, “Thank you Tar Heels.”

7.   Roy Hibbert. This guy is good, and has a  great soft touch around the basket.  His problems: really small, spindly legs, a little passive, and in foul trouble a lot. But when he’s in the game and gets the ball, he’s darn good.

Of course there’s more cool things to see at the Tournament, but we’ll limit it to lucky seven right now.

-Gregg Found