It's been a while! It's been a while since the Easycovers Staff have checked in, but even a longer while since last night's Tar Heel Meltdown! It has to be said...I have to get it off my chest. I can't sleep........I'm back chugging copious amounts of Goodhost Iced Tea! It's sickening how depressed myself and the whole Easycovers Staff is!
So let's break this instant ESPN Classic replay down first. Then after, we'll see how UNC and Duke will fair down the road come Madness time.
THE GAME!
It's simple. Complete Carolina meltdown!
The 1st half ended up a 43-40 lead for Carolina. It was all about Duke raining 3's like Ron Pettigrew's David "I make it Rain" Schmidt and the Tyler Zeller Show for Carolina. Zeller was as hot as a Jim Day heater at the craps table hitting post-up shots and running the floor like Terri McCarrell running after K-Smack's coach when he subbed off Kev from a game.
2nd half (pre-meltdown) was the Harrison Barnes Show. Barnes highlighted how Carolina can completely out-talent an opponent (despite some glaring weaknesses), and how Duke has no talent in relation to their Tobacco Road counterparts. (In relation, that is....eaaaasy Duke honks)
2nd half (meltdown) was how Duke has a Tebow-like intangible instilled from Coach K that find a way to win, demonstrated by the Austin Rivers 85-84 winning buzzer beater shot.
How? Here's the sit-ee-ation:
There's 3:30 left in second half. UNC is up 79-70. Barnes is at the line and goes 1-2 to go up 80-70. We're looking at a 4 possession lead for Carolina with friggin' 3 and a half minutes left.......IF ONLY CAROLINA COULD CONTROL THE EFFING CLOCK!
Disclaimer: This was a classic game. You can't script this shi..err schtuff. After Barnes' free throws, Seth Curry gets away with a stroll down Tobacco Road with a 4-5 step 3 pointer. Tyler Zeller tips in a Ryan Kelly 3 pointer, and Austin Rivers drops a buzzer-beater trey to silence the ruckus crowd in the Dean Dome!
Did Duke get lucky? Yes! Not by getting away with Curry's travel or Rivers' beater, but by UNC's horrible clock management!
Coming outta a timeout with 1:59 left, up by 7 points, UNC Point Guard, Kendall Marshall drops a horrible turnover 5 seconds into their possession with an entry pass softer then a John Henson post-move. Rather than eating the clock down to 1:30, Curry hits his 4-5 step 3 pointer with 1:44 on the clock. Come on Kendall!
Alright, so it's a 4 point lead for UNC and a 2 possession game with 1:30 to play. UNC can still eat clock.
Uhmmm no! This is followed by a Harrison Barnes charge with 17 frickin' seconds left on the shot clock!
Again the Tar Heels didn't eat the clock down! Tyler Zeller could have bailed Carolina by hitting his free throws down the stretch to keep a 2 possession cushion, but he goes 2-4 from the line. He shouldn't have had to bail out UNC. If Marshall's turnover and Barnes' charge are replaced by 30 second possessions, then there would be about 35-40 seconds left with UNC up 4-5 points. But instead, there's an extra 45 seconds left on the clock with plenty of time for what ensued.
so yadda yadda yadda, Austin Rivers hits a buzzer beater 3 pointer to give Duke an 85-84 win.
They should have ate up the clock! That's it! Eat clock...take care of the bloody ball and we're alone in first place in the ACC with a Florida State loss that same night!
F#@& !!!!!!! Carolina, you did a shit tonnes of great things tonight. You dominated the paint as usual with high percentage shots and 10 rebound advantage. You had 6 more assists then Duke and a better Turnover to Assist Ratio! You just melted the fudge down with a brain fart stinkier then Austin Rivers' post-game speech.
Rivers told Sideline Reporter and consummate pro, Erin Andrews that "God made the ball go in". Newsflash!.... Yo, Austin 3:16!....God does not give a flying Tyler Hansborough-elbow who wins the game!!!!!! You made a shot chalk full of stones, so give yourself some credit, cuz there is no version of "Angels in the Backcourt" and Kadeem Hardison's not going to come back from the dead to guide the ball in!
Anyways, what about the outlook for Duke?
They have no consistent play in the post from the Plumlee brothers or Ryan Kelly. Miles Plumlee can take over small parts of the game, but is rarely visible come clutch time. Mason Plumlee is still a major disappointment after showing promise in his first 2 years at Duke. And Ryan Kelly can shoot the pill, but offers little in the much needed physical play that the Plumlee brothers can't offer without getting into foul trouble.
In the backcourt, there is no true point guard, and overall, you know there's problems when Coach Crazy-face-after-River's-buzzer-beater-zewski is still shuffling the starting line-up this late in the season. Will this victory over UNC help turn things around? Does it give Duke it's stable line-up. We'll see.
The one glaring weakness that UNC exploited was Duke's horrible perimeter defence. They give up too many drives which leads to the Plumlee's/Kelly stepping out on the help-side giving up easy drive-n-dish lay-ups. Last night, the bigs didn't step out too much, leading to easy Kendall Marshall lay-ups. There looks to be no solution for Duke with this problem. Add this with Duke's huge reliance on the 3-pt shot, and it seems like it'll be tough to win many consecutive games come the Madness.
Coach K can sneak out a Sweet 16 performance, but their bad perimeter defence will do 'em in, as well as the liklihood that they'll be cold from downtown at least once out of a possible 6 tourney games.
UNC? They're outlook for March?
Pure and utter talent ala Kentucky, but with Madness experience. Zeller is so consistent on both ends of the court. Harrison Barnes has talent coming outta his ears and takes over games like he did in the 2nd half last night. But his streaky-ness goes both ways as he can be as quiet as a first-year HKIN Dave Adolph at the back of the class for big chunks of games, if not for entire games. Forget his hobbled ankle, because he looked pretty good during his 20-some-odd point 2nd half last night.
John Henson alters every opponents' game plans with his albatross arms with easy blocked shots and shot altering close-outs. He had a consistent 15 foot jumper vs. Duke, but it remains to be seen if he can pull that J off game in and game out. He needs that jumper to fall because, as a Junior, and 20 extra pounds added to his Olive Oil freshman frame, he is still pillowy soft with his post moves.
And Kendall Marshall has better vision in the open court then anyone in the nation, but he passes up more open jump shots then he makes. Those passed-up shots ruin many half-court possessions. Those half-court possessions, at this point of the season, are much needed, due to every opponent dropping 3-4 players back quickly to limit the feared UNC fast break.
With the decreased fast break opportunities for UNC comes more half-court defensive possessions. This exposes their horrible perimeter defence particularly with guarding the 3-pt shot. They lost to UNLV in November due to UNLV's barrage of 3's and did so last night with Duke's 36 friggin 3-pt attempts.
UNC! Here's an idea! You have John Henson, Tyler Zeller, and Harrison Barnes taking over space in the blocks, so why don't you get your friggin' feet outside the muther-effing 3-pt line to put more pressure on the 3-pt shooters!!!?!?!?!?!?! Every 3-pt shot last night was defended with both feet of the UNC defender inside the arc.
Again, with the 3 forwards in the blocks, step out and force the drive into John Henson's shot-blocking prowess or Tyler Zeller's knack for drawing charges.
Roy!!! Can you hear me!?!?!?!
These are fixable problems. UNC can still get hot. They have the talent and ability to make theses simple adjustments to make a deep run in March. But their lack of intangibles displayed in last nights meltdown or in their beatdown to Florida State 2 weeks back, could suggest they don't get out of the first weekend of the Madness.
Trust in Roy, he'll make the adjustments. And Coach K will get the Dukies to overachieve.....unfortunately!
I feel better now. Good night now!!!!!
Yours in MAdNeSs,
Crazy Davo
