austinklee

It was a big weekend for the Tar Heels on the recruiting front. The Heels signed Harrison Barnes from Ames, Iowa. Barnes is the number one High School senior in the country and we should all feel proud that he chose Carolina over Duke. Yes, you heard that right, Duke loses another big time player to the Tar Heels.

Today’s game tips at 4:00 pm from the Smith Center against Valparaiso. This is the Heels third game of the season and third in a row at home. They will be traveling to New York to complete the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament at Madison Square Garden later this week with back to back games.

Valparaiso is 0-1 after falling to Ball State in their season opener. Rewind to last year for the previous meeting between the Tar Heels and Valparaiso. It was an ugly game of turnovers and poor shooting that started out with the Tar Heels down 9. (It pretty much scared the pants off of me.) But the Heels were ultimately victorious in the House that Michael built (The United Center).

Look for the Tar Heels to continue to develop on the offensive end of the floor. The guys are still getting used to playing big time ball. Some are coming from High School, where they may have been the best guy in their conference and now aren’t even the best person on their team.

Rebounding has been a big point of emphasis with Coach Williams and for good reason: We are so big that we should get EVERY offensive board and put it back. There is no reason we can just go up and get the ball every time. The Heels will be playing over a lot of zone defenses this season as the majority of teams will be outsized and will rely on zone to help stop Tar Heel penetration.

Defensively the Heels look strong. Size helps with that, and of course Marcus Ginyard is a MACHINE in the backcourt defensive set. He really sets the tone on defense and has (as expected) risen to be the leader of the team this season.

Valparaiso had 6 players see their first action as Crusaders against Ball State. So, they haven’t had much time to gel in real game action. Look for the Crusaders to come out with something to prove, but give up the ghost quickly as they are overmatched in size and talent. The Crusaders are picked to finish 8^th in the Horizon conference, which does not bode well against a thoroughbred ACC team like the Tar Heels.

Game time is 4:00pm! GO HEELS!!

I went through all the major points about the Heels yesterday, so I will spare you all of those details.

Tonight the Heels welcome the NCCU Eagles, recently of the MEAC, to the Dean Dome.  Tip is at 9:00pm, a little late to have a watch party this early in the season.

Look for the Eagles to try and spread out the Heels and try and beat us with mismatches.  We are a very tall team.  (We have a 6’10″ small forward if that says anything.)  As with the FIU Panthers from Monday night, the Eagles will trot out their new coach, LeVelle Moton, in his debut game.  Coach Moton has been an assistant with the Eagles for the past 2 seasons.

This should be another easy win for the Tar Heels.  Let’s look to see less turnovers and a much improved assist to turnover ratio from Dexter Strickland tonight.  (He had 5 turnovers and 1 assist in 11 minutes against the Panthers, giving him a .2 assist to turnover ratio.)

As of now, there are no major injuries to report.

The Eagles return 1 senior and 4 juniors from a squad that lost their first 18 games last season.  I am sure they are hungry to get off to a better start this season, but that will not start tonight.  (Or the next game either.  The Eagles head to Miami to take on the Hurricanes on Saturday.)

GO HEELS!

This season kind of snuck up on me a little bit.  My apologies for not getting a preview sent out!

The first game of the season was last night again Florida International University.  FIU brought with them a new coach, Isaiah Thomas.  (Yes; the very same Isaiah Thomas that beat us in the 1981 National Championship Game.)

Some interesting things have happened in Isaiah’s life in the mean time: He won a couple of NBA titles with the Pistons and then tried coaching and being GM of some NBA teams.  Somehow he also found enough time to sexually harass at least one employee and, according to Magic Johnson, develop a severe case of homophobia.

As a side note to this game, Isaiah is pretty much a baby.  Earlier this year he pitched a fit because the 2K Coaches vs. Cancer planners made FIU play Carolina instead of Ohio State.  (Note to Isaiah: Get yourself a string of 20 win seasons and several NCAA Final Four appearances and then you can pick who you play in the early tournaments.  Until then, SHUT UP!)

Carolina wiped the floor with FIU last night 88-72.  Deon Thompson poured in 20 points and snagged 10 rebounds to lead all Tar Heels.  Ed Davis and Marcus Ginyard added 13 and 12 respectively.

Overall the Heels shot 56% from the floor while holding FIU to 37%.  This is a testament to the size of the Tar Heels.  As I watched last night I noticed that we were contesting EVERY SHOT.  This is a much welcomed departure from last year’s tendency to just try and out-score everybody.

There are a few things to remember about this year’s team.  We are young and we are tall.  We will make mistakes.  Last night we had 26 turnovers, which allowed FIU to put up some points they wouldn’t have probably scored on our defense.  We will get creamed in conference play if we continue to turn the ball over.

Tomorrow night the Heels take on NCCU in Chapel Hill.  Look for that preview tomorrow!  I hope you all are as excited about this edition of Carolina Basketball as I am!

Let’s get some game watch parties going ON!!  Feel free to send this to anyone and everyone and point them to my website!

I am a huge fan of the North Carolina Tar Heels and for the past couple of seasons I have provided my friends and family with game previews.  These previews are part reporting and part opinion and can help the casual fan get up to speed with the happenings in and around Carolina Basketball.

I will use some of my real-estate here on my website to provide those updates to all.

Welcome to College Basketball season!  GO HEELS!