WRAL Article on the game

I wrote an article last night for WRAL in Durham. You can read it by clicking here. I will say that I need to improve on that whole "don't use the exact same phrase in consecutive sentences thing." But I'm still getting used to writing on a deadline. And covering teams that I don't like.

Wildcats fall to top-ranked Tar Heels 72-68

Photo by Tim Cowie

Once upon a time, Charlotte was the home away from home for the North Carolina Tar Heels. But if tonight's local news coverage was any indication, Charlotte now belongs to the hometown heroes who live right up I-77. Judging from the news segments from CBS, ABC and NBC, this was Davidson's game to win, to lose and to show the country how good they really are. And by the way, they happened to have been playing a really good team from another county. But we don't care about them.

The Wildcats were within one or two shots of beating the top-ranked Tar Heels. But once again, Davidson couldn't break through to the other side and beat one of the giants.

The Wildcats led North Carolina for most of the second half despite shooting 4-22 from three point land. Curry finished with 24 points on 8-22 shooting. The sophomore had two or three drives that will be making Davidson highlight videos for decades to come.

After the game, Coach McKillop presented a different face than the one at the NCAA Tournament last March.

"When you have exciting games like this in November, it's great for college athletics," McKillop said. "I was proud that our team played 40 minutes of basketball tonight."

The Wildats' losses against Ohio State and Maryland in their last three NCAA tournament appearances all came after various runs from their opponents to stretch their leads. On this night, North Carolina had to play catch up as they tried to weather Davidson's storm.

Tyler Hansbrough finished with only 14 points on 3-5 shooting (his lowest shot attempt mark since last year's contest against Gonzaga). His play was limited in the second half due to foul trouble. After drawing an off-the-ball foul, Andrew Lovedale did not back down in a confrontation with Hansbrough and Psycho T was called for a technical.

Ellington proved to be the hero for North Carolina, however. He finished with 20 points including the clinching field goal with under a minute remaining.

Although this game might leave many Wildcats' fans with deep wells of emptiness in their stomachs, Coach McKillop wasn't so quick to denote this game as another failure to break through.

"We fulfilled all of our three goals for each game," McKillop said. "We want to get better, have fun, and play to win. We did all three things tonight."

Davidson certainly made a statement with its fan attendance tonight. The official number was recorded as 19,299, only 701 short of capacity.

"It was definitely a pro-Davidson crowd tonight," Hansbrough said afterward. "They made it pretty intense."

In other notes, Davidson fans should know that Boris Meno was playing with an injured shoulder. He received a cortizone shot before the game.

"When he missed that dunk, I knew it was because of his injury," McKillop said. "I'm not making excuses but we'll look back at that and realize how close we would've been."

Davidson 68 North Carolina 72

This will be the 71st time that North Carolina and Davidson have faced each other with the Tar Heels leading the all-time series 60-11. North Carolina has won 72 of its last 77 season openers, while Davidson has only won two openers since 1996-1997. Many of those losses have come against a team from the ACC.

I am sitting in an elevated press row since Bobcats Arena has a premium of courtside seats. The Charlotte Observer has sent both Cary and Carolina Panther specialist Scott Fowler.

The Wildcats leave the court and Stephen Curry hits his last three-pointer. Hansbrough is down there now doing dunks with a medicine ball. He doesn't seem to be favoring his thumb much at all. The Wildcats will be without the services of freshman walk-on Ben Allison today. The 6-9 product from England has been in street clothes for the last two games.

Bobcats Arena really is quite impressive. I have never been to any other NBA arena recently, but I would think that this place ranks among the best in terms sight angles, club suites and overall appeal.

North Carolina might have the advantage in terms of numbers of fans tonight, but Davidson definitely has the home-court advantage. All of the pre-game announcements, ribbon board ads and jumbotron graphics are Davidson ads. The Davidson students have filled the entire right side of the lower bowl and everyone is wearing red and standing up. There doesn't look to be concentrations of Carolina students in the arena. I wouldn't be surprised if a few Tar Heel fans aren't a little upset that the uppity Wildcats are the home team in a neutral sight game. OK, maybe that was a tad premature, the Tar Heel fans in the upper deck just rocked this place as the Tar Heels entered.
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17:37 D 2 UNC 4
Things started well for Davidson inside as Sander scored a layup on Hansbrough. Both teams' defense have buckled down and forced poor shots. Curry picks up his first foul off the ball. And Hansbrough gets on the scoreboard after taking Boris back door. I'm surprised the Wildcats have attacked the paint so much in the early going. Curry hasn't shot yet.
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17:00 D 5 UNC 4
And there's two quick fouls on Lawson. J-Rich with an old fashioned three point play. This game is being played in the half court right now, which would have most of us surprised since both teams like to run so much.
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14:29 D 7 UNC 6
These refs are calling a lot of fouls early. That's four already on Carolina. Hansbrough is doing his thing on the defensive boards but hasn't gotten too many opportunities on offense yet. Sander is taking him one-on-one. Now it's speeding up a lot. Davidson is missing shots but they are getting so many off of Carolina turnovers. There's the second interior foul on the Wildcats. With the Wildcats' transition game, they definitely are wary about taking it all the way to the basket. They are going to have to hit the pull-up jumpers. Overall, however, UNC's offense seems a bit sluggish despite its size advantage.
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11:46 D 11 UNC 8
The Wildcat double team has messed with Stepheson and Thompson. UNC with another turnover. Unlike with Maryland, they aren't finding the open man. Hansbrough gets to the line for the first time and barely touches rim. He misses both. And both teams are off the mark with the jump shooting. If you told me that we hadn't hit a three and Curry was scoreless with 11:46 remaining, I would not bet that Davidson would be leading at this point in the first half. Carolina has cement in their shooting shoes. We'll see how long that lasts.
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11:19 D 11 UNC 10
UNC is shooting just over 36% from the field and 0-4 from the foul line. But the Wildcats aren't much better.
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9:11 D 19 UNC 13
Oooh, somebody has gotten into the refs ears about how mid-majors make great ratings...even in November. Several questionable calls against Carolina. And Curry with his first three of the game. Wow, the Tar Heels now have seven fouls. Davidson will need to take advantage of the free throws. Davidson is forcing the turnovers left and right. They won't pull away in this game, but they are outplaying Carolina. And that's the third foul Hansbrough has drawn...Carolina in the bonus.
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7:33 D 21 UNC 20
Davidson's nerves have gotten to them a little bit on the offensive end. They have missed several wide open shots badly. Hansbrough has eight points and is getting worked into the offense much more. I would like to see a little more of that wide open play again. UNC's last run froze us a little bit before Curry saved a possession with a bank shot. The Wildcats are substituting very liberally and the eight team fouls are pretty well distributed.
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5:50 D 21 UNC 24
And UNC is looking good. Their defense has the Wildcats really flustered on offense. Every player is half a second away from a closely guarded call. And the Wildcats can't hit runners or threes. Richards out of the game after going 2-7 and then Max badly misses a three. McKillop with a TO. But overall, Roy Williams is probably not pleased with his players' output so far. UNC has only gotten to run in recent minutes and they only hold a three point lead over a team that's shooting 38% from the field.
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3:49 D 28 UNC 28
Davidson needs strong play from Richards to be successful and they really aren't getting it right now. Richards gets called for a walk in the open court and he is visibly frustrated, grabbing his ankles. The Wildcat frontcourt, however, has held their own with Boris and Steve-O. And here comes Curry to take back the lead. They are calling ticky tack fouls on both teams and then getting a little scared when things get too physical. I wouldn't say that it's unfair in anyone's favor so far...but I think both groups of fans probably find it arbitrary.
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1:00 D 31 UNC 38
Oooh, Wildcat zone with Lovedale at the top. But Frasor beats it with a three-pointer. Richards answers on the other end and the zone is still on. Green hits a three this time pushing the Wildcats back to a man to man. Frasor with another big shot. The Heels are finding their touch from mid-range.
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Halftime D 31 UNC 38
The Tar Heels go into the half with plenty of momentum after scoring on 4 of their last 5 possessions. The Wildcats will need to find that interior scoring like they started with...and look for the backdoors which have been successful. For the last few minutes of the half it looked the second half of the Maryland game where everyone was just looking for Curry.

Davidson sign of the day: "I hope this doesn't go to double OT....I have a molecular bio test tomorrow!"

The Wildcats are probably pretty lucky to be only down by seven at this point. They ended the half pretty poorly and are only shooting 13-34, including 2-12 from three. The Tar Heels own a 22-11 advantage in rebounds as Davidson has not attacked the offensive glass at all (only 1 Orebound). Curry has 9 points while Richards has 10. Davidson has forced 11 turnovers including 5 total from Stepheson and Thompson. Most of those came in the first 10 minutes however and the Tar Heels have settled down. Ultimately this has really been a game of the stars. Curry and Hansbrough have been leading their teams' runs, even if they aren't the ones doing the scoring. Curry only sat for 1 minute in the first half while Hansbrough sat for 3. Davidson will need Sander to return strongly as he only played 7 minutes due to two fouls.
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17:04 D 39 UNC 38
Boris Meno with a huge block on Thompson but then Richards called for a charge. Both teams are running a little more now by using defensive rebounds. And guess what, Andrew Lovedale picks a fight with Tyler Hansbrough. And LOVEDALE WINS!!!! Technical on Hansbrough plus the personal gives him two quick ones. And that fires up the Davidson fans as Hansbrough takes a seat.
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13:41 D 43 UNC 40
Curry with a SportsCenter highlight play through the lane. And this is looking like the beginning of the first half. Five fouls on Carolina.
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12:37 D 45 UNC 44
Perhaps a makeup call right there as Curry gets bowled over and then called for a blocking foul. And these missed dunks are killing us. Curry now with three fouls as all the Davidson players surrounded Hansbrough in the paint. This thing is emotional for everyone in the building right now. And I keep hearing Kevin Cary in my ear saying, "and Davidson isn't even playing that well."
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10:46 D 47 UNC 46
Davidson might not win this one in the end, but they've played three-quarters of a game against the #1 team in the country and lead by 1. They won't be written off for lack of performance no matter what happens in the next ten minutes. That's really encouraging. But as McKillop said after last year's NCAA tournament game, we can't just stop with 10 minutes left and declare ourselves the winner, we have to finish it. Carolina is only shooting 2-12 from the floor in the second half but they only trail by 1.

Hansbrough has 14 points so far, but only two in the second half. This foul situation will be really interesting in this final stretch. Neither team has too many fouls on any one player, a testament to both teams' depth. As the season progresses, both Carolina and Davidson will be very successful in their respective leagues because they go so deep.
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8:00 D 52 UNC 54
Danny Green comes up big with a three and an o rebound with a two and follow. That got the Carolina crowd loud. But Hansbrough's third foul quieted them again. Wildcats in the bonus.

And the cameras are capturing that good Sweet Caroline stuff.
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6:26 D 59 UNC 56
Lovedale picks up his fourth after Ginyard sky'd high for an O rebound. Carolina can really jump out of the building. I was just about to write that Curry's been quiet...so much for that. And four fouls on Hansbrough. OMG, is this really going to happen? Six more minutes. If the Wildcats can keep getting to the line with Hansbrough on the bench...we'll see. Carolina can still shoot the ball, though, and they are challenging every rebound.
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5:29 D 61 UNC 61
Curry picks up his fourth on a reach-in and Archambault replaces him. No matter what, Davidson gets respect from this one. Hands down. I am sitting next to Scott Fowler and Harry Pickett from the Charlotte Observer. I love overhearing them working on tomorrow's front page..."If Davidson wins..."
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3:44 D 61 UNC 61
Both teams are struggling on offense without their bigguns (Curry, Hansbrough). This one might just go down to the wire, if Davidson can stay within one or two possessions.

And the announced attendance is 19,299. There isn't an empty seat in this place.
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1:40 D 63 UNC 66
The Wildcats need a big play now. Those missed free throws by Lovedale really hurt. Davidson won't get too many more possessions before they have to foul and UNC has been shooting well from the line.
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30 seconds D 65 UNC 68
This hurt. Lovedale brought Davidson within 1 and then Ellington countered with a big two. The Wildcats had a chance to tie with the three, but the ball ended up in Lovedale's hands who missed a two pointer.
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12 seconds D 67 UNC 70
Curry missed two chances at a three...and he was fouled on one without a call. Sander gets the easy two and Davidson will need a steal on the inbounds.
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Final D 68 UNC 72

Davidson vs. #1 North Carolina, 7 p.m., ESPN

I will be live-blogging tonight's game at Bobcats Arena here on Will's World. So if you can't get to a TV, or even if you can, be sure to stop by for some in-game thoughts and analysis. I will be sitting next to John Kilgo in press row so I'll be sure to throw in a few comments about the radio broadcast. Here are a couple of pre-game notes to get you through the afternoon.

-All eyes will be on the thumb and wrist of Hansbrough and Curry tonight. Psycho T injured his thumb against Lenoir-Rhyne on Friday and missed a day of practice with it iced up. Coach Williams has said that everything is fine. Meanwhile, this will be Stephen Curry's third game with a bandage wrist which he sprained while lifting weights not too long ago.

-The Wildcats were tabbed at #27 this week in the ESPN/USA Today poll. If they win tonight, they will probably crack the Top 25 for the first time since 1970 when they were ranked 15th in the AP poll.

-Davidson sold between 1,000 and 1,100 student tickets to tonight's game. That is a remarkable number considering that the school of 1,700 students has nearly 200 studying abroad right now.

-Tonight's game will be counted in the RPI as a neutral-site game. However, the atmosphere will resemble a home game. North Carolina will not have a band or cheerleaders and Davidson staff will be handling all of the PA, Jumbotron graphics and stereo music.

-ESPN the Magazine will be sending AK Clemmons, a staff writer who is also a Davidson graduate. Lots of other regional media will also be in attendance.

-Davidson Basketball media guides are now in and are available to the public for $10. This year's version is a special issue commemorating Davidson's 100th anniversary of men's basketball. With full-length features on every current Davidson player by John Kilgo, this media guide is one of the best ever produced. Contact Marc Gignac (magignac@davidson.edu) to purchase a copy.

UNC-Duke not all that important

Every once in a blue moon, I wish that I didn’t attend college in the state of NC. It is usually a boon for me to look around and see all of the great things that North Carolina offers a resident: an incredibly expanding job market in several of the state’s burgeoning urban centers, one of the nation’s leading gatherings of intellectual and cultural growth, a vast diversity of landscapes and populations, and finally, excellent sports traditions, especially in college basketball.

However, in the past few weeks, I have gazed upon these basketball giants and wondered where their perspective has gone. Where is the humility?

In last week’s regular season finale between Duke and UNC, Duke’s Gerald Henderson delivered the elbow shot heard around the world to UNC’s Tyler Hansbrough. As soon as replays of the infamous play were scrolling across the screen, TV analysts like Billy Packer were making declarative statements while North Carolina fans shouted death threats at the Duke coaching staff from several feet away.

Throughout the next week, North Carolina papers ran arguments and counter-arguments about the intent, harshness and punishment of Henderson’s foul. For many followers of North Carolina-Duke basketball, this issue was the most important thing on their minds when they woke up. Everything was black vs. white, or in this case, sky blue versus royal blue.

Fans of North Carolina and Duke, however, have failed to recognize that the rest of the country really does not care about their petty little arguments. The rest of the country does not see college basketball revolving around these built-up institutions of all things that are supposedly great about sports, rivalry, and success.

When the rest of the country looks at North Carolina and Duke, they don’t see greatness, they pomposity.

Hold short before mincing my words, however. I am not saying the North Carolina and Duke have not set the bar for success and intensity of support for college basketball. The two schools have combined for fourteen Final Four appearances since 1990. Duke’s Cameron Crazies have been copied and emulated at numerous schools around the country.

What I am saying is this: the rest of the basketball world is realizing that they can do things just as well as these two schools, and they don’t like being told that Carolina-Duke is all that matters.

As a matter of fact, states like Florida matter. That’s why the ACC elected to give Tampa Bay a chance to host the ACC tournament, much to the chagrin of North Carolinians who protest that the tournament is not in their back yard for once.

Some of the best basketball is being played in the Midwest this year where schools like Ohio State, Kansas, Wisconsin and Southern Illinois are putting together strong bids for late runs in the tournament.

The rivalry games of Virginia/Virginia Tech, Texas/Texas A&M, and Tennessee/Florida have arguably had even more impact on the landscape of college basketball, and their respective groups of fans have certainly brought their collective intensity and love of college basketball to bear.

Despite their talented young players, legendary coaches, and stubbornly die-hard fans, neither North Carolina nor Duke is the best team in the country this season. Nor are their programs so important that the rest of us should kneel in wonder. So let’s bring home a little more humility and less self-importance to the Tar Heel state. The rest of the country is waiting.