Dec. 18, 2008
By Lauren Brownlow
The Basics
Carolina (9-0) will host Evansville (7-1) in the last home game before the Christmas holiday. Carolina is coming off of a 100-84 win over Oral Roberts on Sunday. Evansville is coming off of a 72-40 drubbing of Western Kentucky, a team that knocked off Louisville recently. The margin of victory was the biggest in any game for Evansville since 1999-00. The Purple Aces are off to their best start since the 1981-82 season. Their only loss came in their only road game, a 75-59 loss at Butler.
This is the first meeting between Carolina and Evansville. Roy Williams' Kansas squad beat the No. 16 seed Evansville 95-74 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in New Orleans. Carolina will come to Evansville in the 2010-11 season and Evansville will come back to Chapel Hill in 2011-12. Evansville head coach Marty Simmons was a freshman on the Indiana team that knocked Carolina out of the NCAA Tournament in 1984; he transferred to Evansville two seasons later. The Purple Aces have faced the No. 1 team two other times and lost to Ohio State in 1961 and to DePaul in 1980.
Game Time: Evansville at North Carolina, 7:00 PM.
Last Time: This is the first meeting between the two teams.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage will begin at 6:00 PM.
Injury Report: Tyler Zeller broke his wrist against Kentucky. He had surgery and will likely miss the rest of the season. Marcus Ginyard returned to his first live action in practice last week as he is recovering from surgery to repair a stress fracture in his left foot. He still will likely not play. Michael Copeland has seen some live practice time and is closer to playing in a game than Ginyard. He is still recovering from his torn ACL.
Storylines
Holiday and other distractions: The Tar Heels that played against Oral Roberts were not the same Tar Heels the fans have seen all year. There are a variety of reasons for that kind of play - exams, Christmas coming up, and the like - but those are just excuses. "A lot of it is guys are done with finals and they have a different mindset," Bobby Frasor said. "They're relaxed and kind of looking forward to going home for Christmas. This is why you see a lot of upsets on TV right now. But we need to be sharper.
"That's not acceptable the way we played defensively, for them to shoot that well and score that many points in the second half. Against big-time teams, we're going to get punished for that."
Although Evansville is not one of the first teams one would think of as a "big-time" team, it is still a team that has lost just one game and beat a team in Western Kentucky that hammered another "big-time" team - Louisville. The Purple Aces did not just beat Western Kentucky, but crushed them, 72-40. Williams pointed that out to his team at a recent practice but with all the distractions swirling around this game - particularly Tyler Hansbrough almost certainly breaking the school scoring record - the Tar Heels will have to play much better basketball than they did on Saturday to beat Evansville.
"It's probably the least efficient that we've been out there," Williams said. "We were just more gifted, that's the bottom line. We were more gifted and playing at home and we won the game because we should have won it because of those reasons. We get it to 20 at halftime and they outscore us in the second half. It's not good news to me when we give up to somebody 50 points in the second half."
In fact, it was the first time all year that any team had outscored the Tar Heels in a half. In fact, Oral Roberts turned in the second-highest total of any Tar Heel opponent this season with 84 points. Notre Dame has the highest total with 87 points. One thing that both games have in common is that both teams managed 50 points in the second half, the only times all season a Carolina opponent has cracked that mark in a half.
Another thing both games have in common was a combination of tough shots falling and Carolina defensive errors. The two teams have the highest and second-highest totals in both made field goals in a half (18 by Notre Dame, 19 by Oral Roberts) and field goals attempted in a half (39 by Notre Dame, 41 by Oral Roberts). Both teams combined to shoot 17-of-33 (51.5%) from beyond the arc in the second half of both games; in the 16 other halves Carolina has played this season, opponents have shot 53-of-179 from the three-point line (29.6%).
But the defensive effort wasn't all that was lacking. Carolina has struggled at times shooting the ball this season, particularly early on, but it wasn't because of bad shot selection - it was because the shots just weren't falling. The Tar Heels have moved the ball all year and almost always taken good shots. The Tar Heels did not take care of the ball well against Oral Roberts, either by taking bad shots or making silly turnovers.
"I got really mad tonight because in four possessions we had three turnovers and a terrible shot so I took four of those guys out," Williams said. "Those are the kinds of stretches that we have not had this year. We've stayed away from putting the basketball in jeopardy. We've stayed away from bad shots. We've kept attacking and being aggressive under control."
Distractions and/or overlooking opponents are the types of things that lead to those mental lapses. If Carolina wants to be the team that it can almost certainly be, it must avoid all the potential distractions and return to being the same team is has been all year long.
Rebounding: Roy Williams wasn't pleased with a lot of what his team did - or failed to do - against Oral Roberts on Saturday. But one thing that is inexcusable to him is getting out-rebounded, which Carolina did. Carolina managed to get out-rebounded by an Oral Roberts team that had only two players in its rotation taller than 6-7. "I think it is the first time this year we have been out rebounded," Williams said. "I know it's the first time we've been outrebounded by more than one or two. They out-rebound us 43-36. I wasn't pleased at all with what we did on the backboards."
Carolina has allowed an average of 12.2 offensive rebounds by opponents all season. In the two halves of basketball that Carolina has allowed the most points, Carolina allowed nine offensive rebounds in one of those halves (to Notre Dame) and 11 against Oral Roberts. Carolina allowed 9.0 offensive rebounds in its first five games and has allowed 16.3 per game in the last four games. Two of Carolina's highest offensive rebounding totals by opponents have come against teams that are significantly shorter than the Tar heels - UNC-Asheville and Oral Roberts both had 18 offensive boards. Carolina has also allowed 14.8 second-chance points per game in the last four games after holding its first five opponents to 5.4 per game.
Carolina has gone the other way as well - after having at least 12 offensive rebounds in every game this season, it has failed to do so for each of the last two games, getting just 11 in each. Carolina has also gone from averaging 18.4 second-chance points per game in its first five games to averaging 15.0 in the last four and 13.5 in the last two. Carolina cracked 20 second-chance points three times in its first four games and has not done so in the last four games.
At The Game
Listening to the Tar Heel Sports Network at the game: The in-stadium frequency in the Smith Center will be FM 92.7. That station will have a non-delayed feed of WCHL 1360, the local affiliate.
Watching At Home
Turn down the sound: If you're watching at home while listening to the radio or over the computer via Carolina All-Access, there will inevitably be some delay. For the reason - and a possible solution - click here.
A full list of THSN affiliates can be found here.
ESPN coverage: The game will be available on ESPN. Terry Gannon and Len Elmore will have the call.
Names To Know
Tyler Hansbrough: As one of the more special players in Carolina history, Tyler Hansbrough is going to have a lot of big nights left in the Smith Center. Senior Day against Duke in March certainly comes to mind. But this is the first and only time this season when he will have a moment that's all about him and one that's certainly well-deserved - he will likely score the nine points necessary to break Phil Ford's all-time scoring record at Carolina.
During a press conference Wednesday, he expressed apprehension at the thought of making a speech and even joked about wanting to make a three-pointer for his record-breaking score. But the soft-spoken Hansbrough who has grown immensely in his dealings with the media also waxed poetic about Carolina, a place he has come to love so much that he gave up instant gratification to come back and have one more year here. "I like being able to walk into the gym at 12 at night and get some shots up or come here whenever," Hansbrough said. "And also I feel like once you graduate I feel you can do the same thing and you're a part of something where you feel accepted, kind of like a family. No matter where you go you'll always have the connection with the people you played with or the people that played at Carolina."
He's been so consistent and raised the bar so high for himself that a "bad" game for Hansbrough is the one he played against Oral Roberts; that "bad" game involved him getting 26 points and nine rebounds. He has yet to get a double-double this season and he's shooting a "measly" 51.6% this season (it would be the worst percentage for his career but most players would love that number). "I think that's part of it, the consistency of being able to come and play every night," Williams said. "Like tonight, he had 26 points and nine rebounds and I didn't think he played very well. I think he's set such a high standard."
He could likely leave Carolina being one of its more underappreciated great players - not by outsiders necessarily, but by the Tar Heel faithful themselves. Everyone loves him but it's likely that even the most Hansbrough-obsessed fan is not really taking the time to actually savor each game and sit back and, to borrow from Roy Williams, enjoy the final year of this journey. If people don't realize how special he is and how much he loves Carolina, Thursday night will be the perfect time to soak that in. Even though he doesn't want a moment to himself, he will get it and he deserves it.
Wayne Ellington: Ellington still has not shot the ball as well as he can shoot it. Yet when the shots leave his hand, they look great. They just aren't going in. "He penetrated in there about 12 feet right beside the elbow and I loved it and I said, `Good,' and about that time he shot an airball. So that shows my knowledge," Williams said. "He took one shot tonight I didn't want him to take. He was 2-for-3 from the three-point line, 3-for-9, so he's just got to make some more of them. But if that's the biggest worry I've got, I'm in pretty good shape."
Even though it feels like Ellington hasn't shot especially well, he has made 39.1% of his three-pointers (he made 40 percent last season) and 50.9% of his two-point attempts. He is averaging 13.4 points per game compared to 16.6 points last season. But for Ellington, he is not letting his mentality slip when the shots aren't going in. "I just talked to Coach and he said he's happy with me on the defensive end of the floor," Ellington said. "He's not really concerned about my shot and neither am I because I know it's going to start falling for me. That's not something that I'm too worried about. I'm just going to continue to take the good ones."
Ellington has really picked up his stats in all areas. Through nine games, he is averaging 2.4 assists, 1.8 steals, just one turnover and 4.2 rebounds. All season, he has at least one steal in every game (two or more in six of nine games) and at least one assist in every game. He has at least two rebounds in every game, three or more rebounds in eight games, and four or more in seven games. Dating back to last season, he has now hit at least one three-pointer in 18 straight games. He bounced back well from hitting just 2-of-11 against UNC-Asheville and Michigan State to hit a season-best 2-of-3 (66.7%) from beyond the arc against Oral Roberts.
Shy Ely: The 6-4 senior swing man leads the Purple Aces in scoring with 16.1 points per game and is second in rebounding with 5.8 per game. He fell shy by just two points of his career high in the win over Western Kentucky with 26 points. He shot 10-of-14 from the floor (1-of-2 from beyond the arc) and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line. He had 15 points in the win over Eastern Illinois last week as well; his play earned him Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week honors. He has reached double figures in every game this season. He also has two double-doubles this season. He is shooting 45% from the floor and 74% from the foul line. His 35 free throws made are as many as the next-closest team member has attempted. In eight games, he also has ten steals and 13 assists.
Jason Holsinger: The senior serves as the Purple Aces' primary ball-handler and deadliest three-point shooter. He is the active career leader in the MVC in scoring, three-pointers made, assists and free-throw percentage. The 5-11 guard has reached double figures in six of eight games this season and leads the team in assists (3.4 per game) and is second in scoring (13.6 points per game). He also has made 19-of-54 three's (35%) and 26-of-35 free throws (74%). He is first on the team in three-pointers made and attempted by a wide margin and second in free throws made and attempted. Last Wednesday, he notched a career-high 31 points against Eastern Illinois on 9-of-21 shooting (6-of-12 from beyond the arc) in 31 minutes. In the win over Western Kentucky, he had just seven points but added four assists and a steal.
Quotables
"For the most part, he'll make himself a protein shake and go to bed." -Bobby Frasor on what Tyler Hansbrough will do to celebrate breaking the Carolina scoring record
"I won't, but I'll probably know when it happens. That's the right answer." -Tyler Hansbrough (in response to being asked if he would be keeping track of the record)
-"I'm starting when I get back, man." -Marcus Ginyard to Danny Green just as he sat down to do his postgame interviews, causing a room full of reporters and a surprised Danny Green to start laughing
-"We'll see about all that." -Danny Green said later, also laughing
"I started to have him (Marcus Ginyard) report in tonight and let him get an ovation and take him out before the ball came back in play, but he said something smart to me on the bench, so I didn't do that." -Roy Williams
"You still concentrate a little bit on Santa Claus, making sure you do the nice things and not get the switches in your stockings." -Roy Williams on his teams' approach in the holiday season
"Three or four years ago, we were down 20 at half against Georgia Tech in our building. That was one of the dumbest nights I ever had. I picked up a trash can, threw it against the wall and broke the dadgum thing and I never realized how heavy those suckers were." -Roy Williams
"He (Deon Thompson) was standing in the weight room talking about his six-pack and I said, `Yeah, you used to have a keg.'" -Roy Williams on Deon Thompson's altered physique
"When I die, I hope I just walked off the green and made a birdie, beating some of my sorry friends out of some money." -Roy Williams
Lauren Brownlow is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
