I thought we had that game

When we were down 4 with 11 minutes left, then when we were down 5 with 6 minutes left, I thought we had it.  Another great comeback by the Heels to add to an incredibly long list of great come from behind wins.  

But Green missed an open 3 with 8 minutes left, which was big, and down the stretch the Heels couldn't buy a basket.

Kansas won this game down the stretch when Collins and Rush made big big shots.  With a little less than 6 minutes left, with Carolina trailing by 5, Collins hit a huge three.   Ellington answered with a circus shot on a drive, but Carolina failed to rotate on a simple drive by Rush that made it 69-61 with 4:45 left.  Why Thompson failed to rotate I don't know, but I think the main reason is he's 19 years old.  Or maybe he stayed with Kaun, and was leery of another alley-oop dunk by the Russian reserve.

Ellington tried to answer but missed an open look.  To add insult to injury Ginyard was in position to get the offensive rebound and put back, but fumbled the ball out of bounds after being bumped by a Jayhawk.  The play was eerily similar to Green's miss with 8 minutes on the clock.  Roy had gone to a odd line up right before the 8 minute TV timeout, trying to get some extra rest for his starters; the Heels had Thomas, Green, Graves, Stephenson and Ginyard on the floor.  The Heels were patient, and Green got a great look.  The ball went in and out - it almost went all the way around the rim before popping out.  Again, making things worse was the offensive rebound.  Both Stephenson and Graves were there, with Graves snatching the ball away from his teammate. Graves lost the ball out of bounds, so instead of making the score 56-58 on the three or at least 55-58 with 8 minutes to go, the Heels get a costly empty trip.  On the ensuing possession Kansas got the ball inside, got fouled, and made to free throws to push the lead up to seven for a 4 or 5 point swing against the Heels.

Very tantalizing, very frustrating. 

Give Kansas credit - they made plays and Collins, Rush and Kaun kept their wits about them while those around them were losing theirs.  And so they won the game.

After those plays Carolina went ice cold.  Ellington, Green and Hansbrough - the guys who led the great comeback - all missed open shots.  Hard to complain when your best players get but miss makeable shots.

Ellington and Green were especially great during the comeback. Ellington was only 1 for 9 from behind the arch, but had some big steals and big blocks in the second half.   Man, it stinks to lose like this.

The only good news out of this loss may be that Hansbrough, Lawson, et. al. could come back for another year. The Georgetown loss motivated him to lead the Heels to the Final Four, so perhaps this Final Four loss will fuel another Hansbrough-led run in 2008-2009.

Frankly, I think it's tougher to lose a game like this, when you fight back and valiantly make a great comeback only to come up short. I would rather have the Heels get blown out than to lose a game like that, a game that was right there for the Heels to win it in a historic fashion.

I don't know; the comeback showed some spark and fight, so maybe it's better to lose this way.  

Man, tough to lose this way.

But it's hard to quibble with this season.  ACC regular season, ACC tournament champs, third year in a row the Heels go into Cameron and win, the development and redemption of Quentin Thomas, Hansbrough winning multiple player of the year awards, the fact that players like Ellington, Hansbrough, Green and Lawson all got better during the season, capped by a Final Four - all of those accomplishments are significant and better then all but two teams.  Not bad.  

Go Heels!

• I wonder if Lawson was hurt.  After the under 4 timeout Thomas was on the floor, not Lawson.  He had a pretty bad game all the way around, especially early in the game.
• As I posted during the game, I could not believe how badly Carolina played to start the game.  This team played badly against Maryland, had a couple of bad stretches (early against Clemson in Chapel Hill, bad first half at Georgia Tech) but that's it.  They had been fantastic all season, playing legit teams in conference, prior to conference play, and in the NCAA tournament. Just hard to understand how they could come out so flat and trail 12-40.  I simply can't figure that one out; how did that start happen to a team like Carolina?
• As incredible as the start was, the comeback was almost it's equal.  Kansas looked tentative, but down the stretch kept their composure and make shots.  The Heels also failed to make stops at key times, so in the end their defense killed them.
• When you look at the numbers, Carolina took way too many threes.  Part of that was that the Heels were down early, but they were only 5 for 24 from behind the arch.  
• I'm starting to hate San Antonio.  In 1998, the Heels came out flat against Utah and got behind early, made a great comeback, but lost.  This game was waaaaaay too similar to that game.
• I was impressed by Memphis.  The chip on their shoulder may get them their first national championship.