Five Great Halves in a Row

The Heels continued to prove they were back today against Georgia Tech, extending their winning streak to 31 straight at home, but more importantly playing their fourth and fifth straight great halves of basketball in routing the Yellow Jackets.

Lot's of other numbers to talk about: Carolina shot 54 for the game; made 8 three-point shots in the 1st half; the Tar Heels blocked 10 shots and had 8 steals versus only 10 turnovers for the game; ended a 4 game losing streak to Georgia Tech (the oddest number in this list).

Those numbers do tell the story.  Two numbers, two stories, two stats it particular should make every Tar Heels fan on the planet happy.

One, and the gaudiest one to look at, is the 10 threes for the game. Carolina started the season shooting 3s very well but had cooled of late.  This afternoon the Heels were getting and making open looks from beyond the arch. That, of course, opened thing up inside for another great game from Zeller, and effective and emphatic drives from Barnes.

If today's performance is proof that the Heels, in particular Bullock and Hairston, have regained their outside touch this team is practically unbeatable.  Who does the other team guard when all five Heels can shoot and score? 

Two, the defense was generally outstanding today, as evidenced by the 30 boards, and an 18 to 10 ratio of take aways - steals and blocks - to give aways - the dreaded turnover.  Boards, blocks and steals lead to fast breaks, and fast breaks lead to points.

In the second half Carolina's perimeter defense lagged at times, but the interior defense was outstanding, and I agree with Hubert Davis' kudos to Barnes for shutting down Glen Rice Jr. this afternoon.

As it is with Carolina's outside shooting, when the Heels defend and rebound like they did today, watch out world. 

The great news is the Heels have now done that for 5 halves in a row, and are starting to regain their swagger.

The iffy news is, can you really measure progress against a team that looked so overmatched like Georgia Tech looked today?  With Wake and Maryland up next, we may not find out that answer  for another week or so.  Either way, it's great to see Carolina looking like Carolina.

GO HEELS!

A few - ok, quite a few - more Heels notes:

• I loved Reggie Bullock's game today.  Not only did he bury some shots, 3 of 6 from three, I loved his activity on defense and without the ball.  His transition defense was key in the decisive first-half run that put this game away early.
• How crazy good is Kendall Marshall?  Ho hum, another 12-1 assist to turnover ratio game, with an excellent mix of long, spectacular, skip passes, mixed in with a three-pointer and a few nifty drives.  Running out of superlatives for his game.
• Fantastic to see John Michael McAdoo play with confidence today.  He had his best game in about a month.  Best of all?  He did not settle for that 10-foot fadeaway jumper he loves.  McAdoo was confident and aggressive today.
• Tyler Zeller continues to be 'the good Tyler Zeller' of last year's stretch run.  He was efficient and smooth on offense, great on the boards, and had another nice defensive game, too.  Front court mate John Henson had a nice if unspectacular game as well, 13 points, 6 boards, 4 blocks and a stop the presses 5 of 8 on free throws!
• Oh yeah, Harrison Barnes put together another dominant half of hoops.  In the first half he was not that aggressive but he made up for in the second stanza with a series of drives, pull ups, dunks, threes, and reverse lay ups.  And he played pretty good defense, too.
• Stillman White had a decent game, hitting one three, making one assist and one steal in 6 minutes of spelling Marshall at the point. Interesting to see Justin Watts play the point for about 2 minutes late in the game.  As a result, Marshall 'only' played 31 minutes tonight, which coincidentally is his season's average this year.