I Love Beating State in Raleigh

I grew up with State as Carolina's most heated rival.  The State teams of the 70s were giants, and unlike with Duke I grew up surrounded by Wolfpack fans.   The talent in Raleigh and the 50-50 split of in-state fans helped make that THE rivalry growing up.

So as it is now with Duke, I love it when the Heels bury the Pack, especially at home.  Though their fans are different (geographically, sociologically) to me they represent the modern Republican party; Dukies are the capitalist pig-dog low taxes uber alles Republicans, and State fans are the narrow minded nativists who care way too much about social issues for their own good.   Of course I'm way over-generalizing, but that's what each school represents to me.

Today the good-hearted liberals took it to the Wolfpack in a methodical and democratic win.  All five starters scored in double figures lead by Tyler Hansbrough's 31 points.   For the game the Heels shot over 57 percent.   State's defense was terrible, and the Heels pretty much got any shot they wanted.  The best part was that Hansbrough got to take 17 of them (making 12).

Tyler also had a nice block and played a nice overall game.  I liked one sequence where he altered one drive, and exploded back up for the rebound.  Hansbrough's explosiveness, or lack thereof, is supposedly one of his weakness but in the last two games he's shown he is a better athlete than people give him credit.

Danny Green had another typical game.  He hit two three-pointers early to match State's early success, and finished with 14 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal.  That guy is fantasy league stat-sheet stuffer.

Ellington was good. He only took 2 threes, but drove quite a bit and made some nice passes.  Deon finished with 10, including 2 baskets to answer State runs and ran the floor nicely, too.

But for me the player of the game was Ty Lawson.  He dominated State's weak back court.  Though he finished with four turnovers - I think I counted 3 -  and only 6 assists he did whatever he wanted to throughout the game.  

Finally, once again Bobby Frasor was the unsung hero of a Tar Heel win. Courtney Fells was threatening to shoot NC State back into the game in the second half.  Largely thanks to his shooting State cut the lead to 10 with six minutes left.  At that point Roy reinserted Frasor, and he shut Fells down. Not only did Fells fail to make any more threes, he shot an air ball down the stretch. Frasor ended up playing 22 minutes. I only wish he would put the ball on the floor more instead of only taking three pointers. 

A nice win over a heated (and right-wing) rival.

A Few Random Notes

• Another strong game by Ed Davis, who finished with 6 points, 7 boards, and 2 blocks.  This guy is the defensive version of Marvin Williams.
• I wonder why Will Graves did not play? Is it because he broke a rule, was hurt/sick, or too turnover prone of late?
• Mike Copeland should not have gone after McCauley after that hard foul, and you know Roy will make a big deal about that.  But I hope McCauley does not escape scrutiny either. That was a bush league intentional foul.  Copeland overreacted, but remember what he was reacting to. Great work by the official to get Copeland out of there, even more impressive when you consider the referee was pushing back a young athlete who is 6'6".  
• Three days after hanging on to defeat Duke, how does Wake go on the road and lose to a dreadful Georgia Tech?  For some context Tech lost at home to Virginia. Wake lost despite a good game by Jeff Teague.  But that's college basketball, especially in the ACC. 
• The Tech fans stormed the court after the win. I imagine during the Chris Paul and Tim Duncan-Randolph Childress eras that may have happened but it still seemed kind of weird to me.