Not Much to Say

Not much to say after a total beat down like the one the Heels took at the hands of the Seminoles yesterday. In Carolina's first road game in 42 days, the Tar Heels were humiliated and buried under a barrage of three pointers, led by Davidis Dulkys' 8 of 10 shooting.

There is a smorgasbord of problems or issues one can talk about (so I lied, there is much to say), but two stand out for me.

One, the play of Kendall Marshall.  Some post mortems from the game have mentioned that FSU put pressure on Marshall.  On one hand, they did pick him up full court.  But on the other, his turnovers all were seemingly unforced.  It was as if he was a pitcher with tired legs; so many of his passes sailed out of bounds over the heads of their intended target.

This team goes as Kendall Marshall goes, and when he struggles that bad the Heels will look and play bad, too.  There certainly were other terrible performances by Carolina players yesterday; Barnes had his second straight terrible shooting day, Henson left his head and concentration skills in Chapel Hill (0-8 free throws, an embarrassing technical), and perhaps Strickland's ankle bothered him more than it looked and thus he could not effectively cover Dulkys or Loucks or anyone on the perimeter.  And our bench - P.J. Hairston in particular - was horrible.  

But Marshall is the keystone for this team; without him we collapse.

So players - and sometime teams - can have one bad game.  But for me the other disturbing thing, issue 2, was our play to start the second half.  

How many Carolina fans thought at half "Ok, the Heels played badly but we're only down 8.  Barnes will get on a roll, Marshall will feed Zeller and Henson, and we'll win this game.  And FSU can't keep shooting this well"'?  I'd bet 90 percent of Tar Heel Nation saw that scenario ready to unfold.

Unfortunately, things got worse in the final 20 minutes. The Heels thought they could turn it 'on' the second half, but other than Zeller did not. Or worse, Carolina expected the Seminoles to wilt - and they did not. The Heels failed to raise their level of play, turning it over and failing to guard to start the half, and were buried.

Very disappointing to say the least.  Carolina was in a position to win this game at half time - we had seemingly taken FSU's best shot - but did not. That's VERY un-Carolina.  And that's the worst part of this loss - we did not look like Tar Heels.

Few More Heels Notes:

• I wonder if ol' Roy will schedule any more extended home stands in the future?  Hard to measure how much impact the schedule had on this flop, but Roy is superstitious enough to avoid another stretch like that.
• Props to Tyler Zeller, who many fans have questioned this year but who was the only Tar Heels player to show some effort for 40 minutes.  He kept us in the game the first half.
• Within an hour of the loss the Dex Factor tweeted "embarrassing but a learning process; we'll bounce back!' Ah, youth. I like following Strickland (@DStrick01), who generally tweets in proper English, which I appreciate. 
• Wayne Ellington (@WayneElli22), who had 13 points last night for the Timberwolves, also tweeted "I'd hate to be at the next practice!"
• Virginia Tech looms next, though looms is a strong word.  They lost yesterday to Boston College.  I feel sorry for Hokies fan: I expect the Heels to be very focused and fired up for that one; and Seth Greenberg is still their coach.
• No time to panic yet; it WAS only one game.  But if the Heels come out flat in Blacksburg that will be a very troubling indicator about the leadership and fortitude - the talent this there, obviously - of this year's team.

GO HEELS!