Are those yall's brownies? Mmmm. They are delicious.
When I watch games at home, I am texting with several of my buddies around the country like a 12 year old girl who likes a boy. I know. It is kind of embarrassing, but I get engrossed in the game and it allows me to redirect my attention on my terms. This really, and I mean really, pisses off my girlfriend. Ha! So last night right after Kitchen steps out of bounds after Barnes' demonstration of greatness, I fire off a text about how awesome Barnes is and my buddy replies:
Text 1: Bro I'm so mad! My dvr was set to record 2 other shows and it changed to one of the other channels.
Text 2: And I missed the fucking end!!!!Dude missed the end of the game because of Modern Family. MODERN "F'ing" FAMILY! Modern Family is funny but you can watch it online, so . . .
EPIC FAIL!
Roy heard about it and was incredulous.
"Dadgum! That is worse than a live ball turnover."
There is a lesson to be learned here. DVR the game with an additional 30 mins of time added to the end to make sure your wife/girlfriend/drama club roommate doesn't srew you out of the last seconds of a close game . . . ever! Really, this shouldn't be a lesson, but a reminder. Like I told my boy, real fans DVR the game.
Best Tweet of the Day
@Lezz_McDonald2 Mr. illmactic
I Used To Be Able To Dunk . . .
But Not Like This
It Is Official. Tokoto Is a Tar Heel!
It Is Official. Tokoto Is a Tar Heel!
His name is J.P. Tokoto. Not only is he a first ballot All-Time Name Team, All-American (J.P. is short for Jean Pierre and that is CLASSY), but he is one of the top wing forwards in the country and one of Roy's top recruiting targets for 2012. So like I said before, I used to be able to dunk, but not like Tokoto. It is so smooth it looks like he is floating. My favorite 8 seconds of that video are from the 36 sec mark through the 44 sec mark. He goes up and gets a tip block but is like, "Hey, I'm still elevating, Holmes (Scott Van Pelt impersonation). Might as well take another swipe at it with my opposite hand and knock it to my teammate over there." Then in the next frame, it is kind of the same thing. He snatches the rebound and pins it against the board because he doesn't want to float away, like he is on the moon in zero gravity. Too much? Haha. Not to get to ahead of myself, but it reminds me of Vince Carter's high school highlight video.
It is important to remember that Tokoto is only a junior so he will get stronger, but I hope you see what I see.
Word on the street is that (1) Tokoto is announcing his team of choice today and (2) that the Tar Heels will be adding a 2012 commit today. I'm not saying, but just saying. You can connect the dots.
Situational Basketball & Free Throw Shooting
Today, we are going to bypass individual grades and talk about situational basketball and free throw shooting. I want to end on a positive, so lets take situational basketball first:
Situational Basketball.
- Situation 1 - The last play of the first half left me scratching my head. Harrison Barnes in bounds the ball to John Henson at the top of the key with 2.1 seconds remaining in the half. In this situation, whose hands do you want the ball in? The indisputably correct answer for the primary option is Harrison Barnes. My personal second and third options would be Zeller and McDonald (with 2.1 seconds). The issue here is that Barnes is inbounding the ball. On most set plays, the inbounder is, typically, the most dangerous player. Not with 2.1 seconds. There is not enough time for a hand-off or pass, so he needs to be coming off a screen for a shot that draws either McDonald or Zeller's defender away so either can get a clean look on a Barnes' double team. Roy Williams is a basketball genius, Hall of Famer and this is not meant to be second guessing, so I guess . . . I . . . umm . . . I am a hypocrite. I heart you, Roy. Wink. Haha. Seriously and this is pure speculation, I have to imagine that you can only run so many set plays considering the practice restrictions and this is why Barnes is always the inbounder.
- Situation 2 - The last 3 minutes and 40 seconds of the game. We are up 7. This is where we need lay the ground work to put FSU in a position to foul to stop the clock, i.e. take our time and execute. Instead, we had two bad breakdowns on the interior for easy points in the paint and three turnovers (one of which was a live ball turnover out of the corner that resulted in an immediate score). I am not going to dissect the entire 3:40, but we were really lucky to win that game with the way we executed down the stretch and need to utilize timeouts better to maintain possessions and settle when necessary. We must be able to recognize game situation and execute accordingly.
Free Throw Shooting. First of all, we won that game because of free throw shooting. As clutch as Barnes' game winning three was, it was because of our performance from the charity stripe that we were in a position to win in the last possession. In close games, you must be able to knock down free throws, especially in close games (for emphasis) and on the road. If you can't take advantage of the charity strip, you will not be consistently successful. Lets look at free throw shooting from a couple of sample games.
Minnesota - 15-25 (60%)
Illinios - 8-17 (47.1%)
dook - 13-22 (59.1%)
We lost all three of those games by 5, 12, and 6 respectively. By shooting a better percentage from the line in those games, we are able to keep the pressure on the opposing team and pressure busts pipes. I am not suggesting there would be a different outcome. What I am suggesting is that by keeping the pressure on the other team to execute, you increase your chances of winning. When the pressure is on, players can tighten up (obviously not the Black Falcon). By hitting free throws, you can mitigate the pressure on your team and share that with the opposing team. After all, sharing is caring.
On the season, the Heels are shooting 66.4% from the free throw line. Last night, we shot 77.8% from the line. Since the dook game, we are 92-126 from the line for 73.0%. This is crucial because our Effective Offensive FG% for the season is 49.1% or 179th in the country according to Ken Pom. In plain english, sometimes we struggle to score. When you struggle to score, it is important to capitalize from the free throw line and we are trending up. In this past game, Dex stepped up and hit two huge free throws at the end of the game when FSU was surging. Those were pressure free throws and he knocked them down. How important were they? How much did we win by?
What's that? I hear you all thinking the same thing. John Henson. Mr. Fantastic is shooting a great percentage over the last three games, 92.9%. Suck it Reddick! (91.8% career) It is my blog so I will use whatever sample size best suits my point to demonstrate UNC > dook.
Henson stroke is true, so his struggles from the line were all mental. Guess that mental road block is long gone. Henson is, now, no longer a liability for end of games situations, so we are able to keep him on the court to defend the basket and clean the glass.
The importance of free throw shooting cannot be understated.
Len Elmore Calling It Like He Sees It.
Putting the Refs on Blast
You know what's a shame? Len Elmore hates Carolina. This is only a shame because he does a great job calling games, only not Carolina games. He hates the Heels so much, he cannot maintain objectivity. Last night, he was calling the dook/Clemson game and taking the Refs to task. In the second half, the Officials made there inevitable sequence of bad calls in favor of dook that turned out to be the turning point of the game. Elmore was all over it. Between the inconsistent pushing calls for dook or against Clemson and the blatant 10 second back court violation, Elmore was on blast, while Mike Patrick is just mumbling, "well, I guess your right." Well done, Elmore! Well done, but I bet you don't do another dook basketball game. Just saying.
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