Don't know who first that (don't think it was my favorite philosopher, Mike Tyson), but I second that emotion this weekend.
Carolina played a little better today in losing to another middling team from a power conference. Today they lost to Vanderbilt, by a similar margin to last night's loss to Minnesota, by six.
But losing is losing, thus the misery.
On the plus side, Zeller and Knox had good games, Barnes had his moments, and the Heels responded to whatever ol' Roy said at half time. They started the final 20 by pressing and forcing turnovers. The increased defensive energy resulted in Carolina erasing a 10-point half time deficit and even taking the lead twice (may three times, in fact).
But with about 6 minutes left the Heels started making bone headed plays. Strickland had a few turnovers and bad passes, there were some missed free throws, and McDonald and Drew looked clueless in the half court. It was so hapless that with 4 minutes left the Heels had Zeller, McDonald, Barnes, Marshall and Bullock on the floor - 3 freshmen at crunch time. Bullock made a three to keep the Heels' hopes alive - and was the only guy to make shots late on his way to 10 points - but that one of the few plays we made down the stretch.
So we're 2-2 and the stench of last season is starting to drift back in. It's only 4 games, but early on it looks like Larry Drew has not become Bobby Fraser (to suggest he should be compared to Raymond Felton or Ty Lawson is heresy) or even senior year Quinton Thomas. He is stuck in the 'Adam Boone zone' which will soon be renamed the 'Drew II Zone' if he does not do a better job of running a half court offense.
In addition to Drew II, I am starting to naggingly wonder if guys like Strickland, McDonald and even Henson - who only played 16 minutes and had 6 turnovers to go with 8 boards and 2 points and 1 air ball on a free throw - are that good. They keep making mistakes, mistakes that second and third years players should not be making. Perhaps Roy will straighten these guys out, but one wonders if the talent is not there to work with. The one exception is Henson, who is talented but needs to work on free throw shooting and decision making.
Anyway, a depressing weekend. We didn't even have field hockey, as the defending national champs lost to Maryland today to complete the quinella: football, basketball, soccer and field hockey all lost this weekend.
The Heels men do get a chance to right things in Chapel Hill on Tuesday versus UNC-Asheville. However, after that game things get tougher with a revenge game - at home - versus College of Charleston followed by a road game at Illinois and a home game versus Kentucky on December 4th. It was a similar stretch a - tough losses at Texas (who comes to Greensboro this year on Dec. 18th) and Kentucky, a neutral floor loss to Syracuse - that pierced the bubble and shattered the confidence of last year's squad. Let's hope this team is tougher and more resilient, and that ol' Roy can figure out how to get this more talented team to get better and not worse.
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