Pretty impressive win

Poor Tom Izzo.  His least favorite color has got to be Carolina blue.


I don't have time to blog about tonight's impressive win over Michigan State but want to quickly point out:

• Larry Drew II has arrived.  He was excellent tonight, hitting a variety of shots and playing with loads of confidence.
• Ditto Ed Davis, who benefitted mightily from Drew's excellent game. Whatever shell he was in early in the season is empty now as Ed and his talent have finally emerged.  He was a force on offense, where like Drew he looked very confident, and a terror on the boards.
• Dexter Strickland was electric in the first half.  Wow.
• How about the big plays by Will Graves in the last 5 minutes?  A nice take to help quell Michigan State's run, two big back-taps off missed free throws that led directly to 4 points, and a nice defensive rebound, too. He could have sulked during his long stretches on the bench but didn't - and made four big plays to help his team win.  Way to keep your head up, Will.
• Deon Thompson was great for most of the game, again looking confident with his stroke.  Speaking of stroke, I and Roy almost had two - when Deon took and badly missed a three, and dropped a pass, late to keep the Spartans' hopes alive.
• In addition to Strickland, John Henson had his best game as a Heel and the Wear twins produced, with Travis playing especially good defense in the second half when the Heels went with a Drew-Ginyard-Wear-Thompson-Davis lineup for an extended period.

A pretty good win over a serious and talented opponent, one who must be tired of playing the Heels.

Next Year's Heels II

Get it?  The title is an homage to Larry Drew II,  the starting point guard for your defending national champs.

Going pro is a slam dunk for Lawson, who depending on the order of the draft, should go in the top 10.  He's improved his game and is ready for the next level.  That's the good news.   The bad news - news tempered by being paid to play basketball - is that the teams most in need of point guard help include backwaters like Golden State and Milwaukee.

At the Thursday press conference Roy Williams said he had spoken with 13 teams and was assured that Ellington would go in the first round thus a guaranteed, three-year contract.  I hope that's true.  Besides a guaranteed contract the great news for Ellington is that is projected to go late in the first round so will likely end up with a playoff team.  Interesting to note how many good teams don't have world-beaters at the 2.  Dallas and San Antonio, for instance, bring their best 2 guards off the bench (Terry and Ginobili, respectively).  Same for New Orleans, Houston and Denver who starts Duke scrub Dahntay Jones at 2.

The other significant draft news is that Gerald Henderson will enter the draft but not hire and agent.  Henderson will likely be drafted in Lawson territory so has probably played his last game as a Blue Devil (a game where he went 1 for 9 from the field in a loss to hometown team Villanova).  Duke will be good, but without Henderson they won't be THAT good. I'm not sure why folks like Caulton Tudor are so optimistic about Duke's chances next year.  Lance Thomas and Brian Zoubek have proven that they are NOT ACC-caliber talent, and the jury is still out on guys like Nolan Smith. Though Singler and Scheyer are great players Duke is still weak at point and on the boards (again).  Nationally they aren't as talented as Kansas or Michigan State, and even with their losses I don't think Duke measures up to Carolina either.

I was hoping Henderson would stick around one more year for another loss to Carolina in Cameron.  That guy deserves nothing but Tar Heel-induced misery.  Instead he joins luminaries like Greg Paulus in the list of players who will leave Durham having never won in Cameron against the Heels.

I'm a fan of the NBA, but can not get into the playoffs yet.  These first-round series always seem tedious and rarely produce an upset, though Dallas taking down San Antonio does qualify as one even with Ginobili on the bench for the Spurs.  The NBA should restore some legitimacy for the regular season - which is long enough - and reduce the number of teams that make the playoffs.

I'll blog more on the NBA playoffs in a could of more rounds.

NATS UPDATE

Well, the Mets have put an end the Nats' 6-game, 8-inning winning streak.  Going into the weekend series Washington had been hitting the ball well, but that has ended in cavernous Taxpayer Stadium.  The Nats' anemic hitting in New York joins their bad pitching and shoddy defense for an 'in the toilet' trifecta!