Back To The Drawing Board? Looking Ahead To Wisconsin
By Matt Hamm
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As I’ve said before (rather dedicated an entire post to) I’m trying not to overreact to the Tar Heels loss to the UNLV Running Rebels. But the Heels need to buckle down. Bottom line, you can say oh UNLV lit it up from three and that game wasn’t really the Tar Heels fault. Yes, yes it is UNCs fault, you see they are vastly superior in terms of talent and it’s not like the Badgers got us in the coaching department either. Don’t cry to me about UNLV playing in Las Vegas because none of cry for Maryland or Miami when they have to travel to Greensboro NC for the ACC Tournament.
The Heels looked flat, uninspired, and unorganized against UNLV and they deserved to lose the game. Coming into the season the Heels were heralded as the #1 team in the nation with huge expectations, drawing comparisons to great Tar Heel teams of the past, especially the 2005 and 2009 national champions. I’ve heard this team called, 09 with defense.
So does UNCs loss to the Rebels change all that? Is this team as good as we thought? Is it back to square one completely for Roy Williams’ team? Answers after the Jump
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It’s easy to listen to all the haters, all the Duke Homers and fans of other teams bask in the Tar Heels loss as if it were their team that beat our Heels. It’s easy to overreact and declare that we need to start the whole darn thing over again and figure out how to play basketball.
Don’t do that, UNC will be fine, they lost a game, and we all need to get over it. But the Heels do have some improving to do and some weaknesses to patch up before they can walk around like they own college basketball. I think the main thing we learned watching the Heels fall to the Running Rebels was that this team isn’t 09, they don’t own college basketball…yet.
This team is just as if not more talented than any of Carolinas championship teams (look for an upcoming series by keeping it heel’s staff comparing each time side by side soon). They just aren’t a TEAM yet, rather a collection of talent. Roy Williams is one of if not the best coach in college sports today. His job this year is to get this team to play better defense and play together.
That’s what this team is missing.
It’s not missing talent, talent doesn’t move without the ball to get open, talent doesn’t refuse to settle for the first half way decent 1 on 1 shot you get, talent doesn’t get out hustled. Talent may be the biggest difference in a good team versus a great team; a national championship team absolutely must have a lot of talent. But talent isn’t everything; it’s only one piece of the pie.
This team needed to lose, they needed to get knocked off their #1 pedestal everyone set for them, they needed a wakeup call and in the long run they will thank UNLV for giving it to them.
I’m not going to spend a bunch of time talking about the X’s and O’s and what strategy Roy Williams’ and the team should implement to “turn this thing around”. Because it doesn’t need turning around, the strategy doesn’t need changed or even tinkered with, Roy Williams knows what he’s doing. All this team needed was a swift kick in the butt, a dose of reality and they got it.
It’s not back to the drawing board, its back to the practice floor boys. Get ready the 11th ranked Wisconsin Badgers are looming….after that it’s off to Lexington for a date with Kentucky.
Keep It Heel!
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