High Heels

I was wrong. I admit it. I said last week that I thought Michigan State would beat UNC in the Final Four. I don’t mind eating crow on this one because A) I wanted UNC to win and B) I’ve watched sports for way too long to think I can accurately pick games.
To be fair to myself, if I had written another preview at the end of week, say on Friday or Saturday, I wouldn’t have been so sure that the Spartans would win. I don’t know why I softened on them, but I think that I just thought more about Carolina’s play the previous weekend. They played poorly – tight and without enough passion. Given a week to reflect on that, I figured they’d rebound (no pun intended) the next weekend.
And that’s what happened.


Many national champions have a close call or two on their run through the tournament. It often happens in one of the first two rounds; they find themselves losing and facing an ignoble end to a great season. They survive though and vow to never get caught napping again. I think that may have happened to the Tar Heels after their struggles with Villanova and Wisconsin.
So, how to explain the first half, when they were outhustled and found themselves down by five? I chalk that up to two things – first, Michigan State is pretty damn good and their specialty is playing hard and outscrapping their opponents. Being outworked by the Spartans is no shame. Second, Ole Roy overcoached the team. He was shuttling players in and out like a YBA coach making sure each kid gets the same number of minutes. It looked like he was trying to match MSU’s depth and avoid getting tired late in the game. The thing is, this is the Final Four. Kids shouldn’t be getting tired, especially with the outrageous number and length of the timeouts (I mean seriously. During the season a 30-second timeout usually means no commercials and regular timeout gets you 2 or 3. Last week, a 30-second break meant three commercials and a full timeout got you one Geico, one Taste Loss, two Krzyzewskis and a CBS promo to be named later. Drove me nuts).
In Roy’s attempt to be prudent and save his team for the second half, he nearly blew the game. Sure, Carolina has a lot of talent (God am I tired of hearing that though), and reasonable depth, but they aren’t that deep. A lineup of Melvin Scott, Jawad Williams, Marvin Williams, David Noel and Quentin Thomas would have done pretty well in the NIT, but they had no business playing together in the Final Four. Frankly, I don’t know why Melvin Scott plays at all. What positive contributions does he make? He can’t bring the ball up against any sort of pressure. He can’t penetrate. His defense is some of the worst I’ve ever seen (I couldn’t even keep track of how many times his man got open looks while Scott jogged along behind him after getting stuck on a screen or maybe watching people in the crowd.). All he does is shoot three-pointers, and he needs to be wide open for those. The ones he did end up taking were horrendous – several feet behind the line and without even squaring up.
Whew. Sorry about that rant, but watching McCants, May and Felton jog back to the bench while Scott played drove me (and my wife, a huge Carolina fan) nuts. Fortunately, the damage was reversible and Roy kept his Junior class guns on the floor in the second half. With their best players on the floor and with a renewed sense of urgency, the Heels rolled. Consider that they won by 18 after being down 5 at the half. That’s a 23-point swing over a good defensive squad in just one half. The Heels had it going on.
As for tonight’s game, I’m not going to make any predictions. It’s not that I’m afraid of being wrong, it’s just that I don’t have a feel for who’s gonna win. I picked Illinois in my brackets and I still think that’s the smart choice, but it may not be the right choice. At least not tonight.
With three great guards, you can count on the Illini putting a lot of pressure on Felton. They are going to want to force him into turnovers (which doesn’t appear to be that hard to do), get him tired and maybe get him in foul trouble. Considering that Villanova was able to do just that, I’d hope the Heels are worried about this. Illinois’ guards are clearly better than Nova’s.
The Illini are also very patient and efficient on offense. Carolina will need to pay attention on defense, which is not their strong suit. The Heels would rather force chaos and feed on the turnovers, but the Illini have so many good, experienced ballhandlers that it could be hard to disrupt them.
Carolina’s advantage obviously is inside where Sean May and Marvin Williams should be able to dominate. Illinois’ big men are underrated, but they are still no match for May. The Heels will need to dominate the rebounding like they did in the second half on Saturday.
I think the X-factor for the Heels will be the same as it was on Saturday – Jawad Williams. The big three will probably produce and Marvin Williams will probably have a solid game. If Jawad adds offensive production to that, the Heels can (and likely will) win. If he reverts back to his four-point scoring ways, it’s going to be very tough.
Whatever happens, I think it’ll be a hell of a game. I expect it’ll be uptempo and exciting. Illini plays at a fairly slow pace, but they are capable of running with Carolina. It’s hard not to get sucked into a fast pace against UNC, and with those guards, I bet Illinois will comply. The winner is gonna score 85 or more points.
Random notes:
The Horror
One thing I won’t miss about this tournament will be the constant promos for CBS’s horror shows. First we had the ridiculous Shark Attack: Spring Break. Then, we got Locusts. And all along, the scariest of them all – The Thing On Greg Gumbel’s Head. I mean, have you seen that thing? It cracks me up every time I see him. It’s so dark it bends light.
Woof Woof, Uh Oh
Remember all that yapping last week from the Big Ten folks? They were so excited that they knocked out two ACC teams on that Friday night and that they landed three teams in the Elite Eight. Then, they put two into the Final Four and the smack continued, pointing out how they had a better record than the ACC and that they won the “challenge that matters.” Well, that should be lesson #1 of why you shouldn’t brag too much before the tourney is over. UNC has beaten two Big Ten teams in a row and might just make it a third tonight. The Big Ten stands at 12-4 and the ACC 11-4. That means that whoever wins the game tonight earns their conference bragging rights, both in the fact that they won the title over the other and that they’ll have the best winning percentage (straight up and head-to-head). In effect, it’s a tie right now.
Don’t Hurt Yourself
Rashad McCants is one frustrating player. He played a great game against Michigan State, hitting big shots on one end and getting a couple of nice blocks on the other. But then there were those two plays where he watched Spartans snag loose balls right in his face. There was one in each half. All he had to do on the first was drop down and pick it up. On the second, a half step forward would have done the trick. But no, in each case, he just waved his hand at the ball like a toddler waiting on a beach ball.
He must drive Roy Williams insane.
Nice Hustle
That play in the Illinois-Louisville game where Roger Powell, Jr. (every time I see his name, it reminds me of Roger Mason, Jr.) missed a three and dunked in his own rebound, was maybe the nicest individual play I’ve seen all year. That one play summed up everything about the right way to play hoops. Coaches always yell to follow your shot, but it’s so hard for players to do it. They just want to see the swish. But not Powell. He knew he missed it and ran in with enough speed to meet the ball as it came off the rim. Very, very impressive.


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