Heels are back

Outside of my family nothing makes me quite as happy - most of the time - as watching (and of course blogging about) the Tar Heels. They could have been playing inside a phone booth, let alone on the deck of an aircraft carrier, and I would have watched - and enjoyed watching.

To say today's game was different than most openers is an understatement.  The president sitting court side, the court being outside on an aircraft carrier, playing on a national holiday - a holiday we usually ignore as much as we currently ignore the wars being fought in Afghanistan and Iraq - were all unique experiences, even for a team as used to the spotlight and hype as Carolina.

Those factors, especially being outside with a weird backdrop, plus the first game of the season, make it hard to really evaluate how the Heels and the Spartans (putting the Hellenic in Carolina Hellenic Blue blog) played tonight.  It was a disjointed game, without much flow. 

The good news is the Heels played very well in the last 5 minutes of the first half both on offense and defense, and especially in the first 10 minutes of the second.  The Heels got and made easy baskets, some created by their work on the board but many from their defensive pressure, some because Michigan State was sloppy.  But the Heels looked like the Heels for those 15 minutes - running and scoring and forcing the action.

The other 25 weren't that bad. There was a 10-minute stretch in the first half where the Spartans killed us on the boards, and a 5-minute one where we lost focus and allowed Michigan State to cut our 20-point lead in half.  

But the main reason it was disjointed is the Heels missed many makeable shots, including free throws, early.  The silver lining to both is that one, Carolina was getting good shots, and two, the Heels were being aggressive on offense and getting fouled.

So we can quibble with the execution, execution that may have been impacted by the weather, an outdoor court, nerves, playing in front of the president AND on the deck of a massive war machine, etc.  But Carolina generally did what Carolina wanted to do, which bodes well for when the Heels move inside, you know into a building to play basketball.  

In terms of the players, John Henson was probably our player of the game.  He finished with a near triple double - 12 points, 9 blocks, and 7 boards.  The blocks are part, a HUGE part, of his game, but tonight Henson showed off a more polished offensive game.  He was impressive. Henson also had a great post-game quote: "It was fun. My excuse was sometimes I felt like the boat moved a little bit when I shot. That's why I missed."

Harrison Barnes lead the team with 17 points, and looked calm and confident for most of the night.  His 3 late, that ended a Spartans run that cut the lead to 10, effectively ended the game.  Barnes was also active defensively versus Michigan State.

Kendall Marshall and Dexter Strickland looked good in the back court, with Marshall looking in mid-season form on a number of impressive passes to start fast breaks.  Strickland benefited from 2 of those passes on his way to 10 points.  I was disappointed to see that Strickland still occasionally shoots fading away off his back foot, but he did hit his first 3-point attempt of the season.

Tyler Zeller's inability to hit shots or grab a board early lit up the twittersphere, but he had a nice second half and picked up 3 charging calls.

Carolina's bench looked solid with nice moments from Reggie Bullock and freshmen P.J. Hairston and a very active John Michael McAdoo, who finished with 4 points, 3 boards and 1 blocked shot in 17 minutes.

Not a perfect game from the Heels in terms of execution, at least when it came to shooting early, but defensively Carolina looked good, they did not turn it over much (14 for the game, 5 believe it or not from Marshall, a stat you assume will come down), they beat a good team while facing a once-in-a-lifetime scenario, but best of all did what Carolina wanted to do - at least for 25 of the 40 minutes.


Next up for the Heels is a visit to ol' Roy's hometown to inaugurate UNC Asheville's new gym.


GO HEELS!


A few more sports notes:

• Great to hear that Wilson Ramos has been rescued.  The Venezuelan police report that an aerial raid freed Ramos.  Can't imagine what that is like, but I assume Ramos will report early, VERY early, to spring training this year.
• Somehow, a halftime contest that featured Brooklyn Decker, James Worthy AND Tyler Hansbrough was incredibly lame.  How on earth could that happen?
• I have nothing to add to the sad and disgusting Penn State situation. I initially thought it was harsh to not allow Joe Paterno to coach one final game in State College.  But the more you think about it, how could Paterno tell his higher ups what he heard about a child being raped in the shower, then drop it?  Never tell the police or worst of all, never confront Sandusky? How could anyone ignore those kinds of crimes against children?  Time to clean house completely in Happy Valley.