Impressions of the UNC loss

Well, the game isn't over yet, but the outcome seems certain. Thought I would go ahead and give my observations.

1. Paul Hewitt said in his Thursday radio show that the key to the game would be GT getting "out of the blocks" well. For the 2nd game in a row, we didn't. Hewitt described our play the first 8-10 minutes against UGAy as "shell-shocked". We looked very similar tonight. Shell-shocked sounds like a decent description to me.

2. Turnovers. I think we had in the neighborhood of 16 to's in the first half. There it is, game, set, match. I think UNC turned it over once in the 1st half.

3. Transition offense. We didn't have it. UNC did. Raymond Felton absolutely broke down our defense virtually at will. We didn't have an answer.

4. Defense. It was bad. As bad as we have played all year. UNC shoots over 50%. As I type UNC is about to pass the 100 mark. Unthinkable if someone had told me that before the game. Most of it was terrible transition defense. In the halfcourt set we had to keep the ball out of May's hands. We didn't. He played well. What I didn't really see until about an 8 minutes stretch in the 2nd half was our high-octane intesity on D. Just wasn't there most of the game.

What are the bright spots? (there are some)

1. The 2nd half wasn't the same disaster as the 1st. The team played with more heart, fought and battled back but just couldn't get inside of 9 points. The team has heart, pride and didn't give up.

2. Tarver imo played a very strong game. I thought he would be out of step, missing assignments, slow. But he exceeded my expectations. Seemed quick to the ball, played in control, even hit a jump shot. If he plays this well and actually progresses further through the ACC season then he can really make a difference for us. On a side note, Brooks didn't get in the game until the last minute. Guess we know where most of Tarver's minutes will come from.

3. Bynum continues to improve. He seems to get better each game and boy is he explosive. A couple of those 2nd half dunks were impressive.

4. Hopefully we can learn something from this game. Our chances of winning it were low anyhow. We needed to increase the level of competition and now we have it. Like I said when we were 12-0, if we end up at .500 or better in the ACC it should be considered a successful year. We just got our dose of reality. I wish it was more competitive but it is only one game.