Breaking Down UNC vs Duke

Before entering into what I will call my most objective analysis of the game I'm capable of as a UNC fan, I'd like to give credit to Austin Rivers and his teammates for making big shots in the final minutes of the best rivalry in sports matchup last night to give Duke a stunning, come-from-behind, upset victory.

Now, with that being said...

Last night's matchup of the North Carolina Tar Heels and Duke Blue Devils will certainly go down as one of the more memorable in the storied history. The image of Austin Rivers draining a three at the buzzer while being semi-guarded by the arms-at-his-sides 7-footer, Tyler Zeller, will be etched in the minds of all fans for the foreseeable future and beyond. And who would have thought that Duke would even be in position to win the game at the last moment after what your eyes and scoreboard verified throughout the 2nd half of the contest - that the Tar Heels were dominating the game and were threatening to break the game open into a bonified blow out.

But that blow out never came. The lead continued to stagnate between 10-12 points for the Heels. And, in the end, they were overtaken by missed opportunities, a few bonehead plays, and some clutch shooting by their opponent in the waning minutes. This game was a beautiful illustration of A) UNC's Vulnerabilities, B) Duke's Vulnerabilities, and C) Why the majority of the country hates Coach K and Duke Basketball.

Let's examine point "A". It's pretty simple what Carolina's issues are...and, no, the lack of a backup PG is not one of them. I think we all saw that Marshall can carry that load all by himself with the way he destroyed the Blue Devils' last night. Carolina has poor perimeter defense (especially against the three ball), and they lack a killer instinct....plain and simple. They get torched by teams who are shooting the 3 well and they do not put teams away. These glaring weaknesses have been prevalent throughout the season, but are typically able to be overcome by pure talent, outstanding rebounding (especially offensively), and depth. However, that depth has been cut significantly with the loss of Strickland and McDonald. The defensive woes can be fixed with coaching and effort...but I'm not sure you can teach killer instinct. We'll see. 

Now onto point "B".  Duke can shoot...that's their strength and weakness all in one. They're so good at shooting, that they will ultimately die by the three come tourney time. The Plumlees should be much better at rebounding and scoring than they are - so it remains, this is a perimeter team with one guy that can really penetrate in Rivers. When they encounter good defensive teams with size/rebounding ability, they will struggle.

And finally, my favorite point...the one about why we all hate Coach K and Duke sooooo much. Anyone who watched last night's game witnessed one of the most lopsided officiated games in college basketball...which is pretty typical of any Duke game. Let's focus on the 2nd half, because that is what matters here. As I know many Duke fans will say UNC got all the calls in the first half - I will quickly dismiss that by explaining that UNC went inside on almost every play in the 1st half while Duke shot almost 20 3-pointers. You don't get fouled when you shoot 3's (unless you're on Duke and you flop after the release), so you will naturally have more fouls than your opponent who is taking the ball to the hole. Yet, when all was said and done, Duke only had 4 less FT attempts than UNC...even though Duke shot threes on 26 possessions, while UNC only shot 6.

So back to the question...why do we all hate Coach K and Duke? Well, it's right there in the 2nd half of last night's game. Let's review:

1. Coach K complains to the refs at half-time that a shot clock violation on his team should have negated UNCs steal and fast-break in the closing moments of the first half. Really coach? Not only did UNC gain possession with 1 second still on the shot clock, but that rule is not meant to give your team an advantage after not hitting the rim within 35 seconds. Why should UNC be punished for a great defensive effort? He kills me.
2. The flopping (this could have been #1, as always). For a guy that prides himself on integrity and sportsmanship and competitive drive, you would think he wouldn't teach cheating. Yes, flopping is cheating. It is deliberately trying to deceive a governing body for your benefit. In soccer, when you take a dive, you can get a yellow or red card. Players who flop are not only cheating, but putting other players in danger unnecessarily - it should be penalized with a technical foul.
3. The biased and ridiculous officiating in favor of Duke and their infamous intimidator, K. Eight minutes into the second half, Duke was in the bonus....8 minutes in!!! Funny how UNC goes on a run, gets the lead to 10 or 12 and then the highly questionable foul calls start accumulating. Case in point, the two consecutive blocking calls called on the baseline on Henson and McAdoo. The first one on Henson, Plumlee was shoulder down and falling into him. The second one, McAdoo was positioned for at least 2 seconds before he was run into on a baseline drive and pass from under the basket. And how about the phantom call on McAdoo when the handsome Ryan Kelly came across the lane and awkwardly tried to put up a shot but the ball slipped out of his hands and went into the seats? And they called at least 2 chippies on Bullock for hand contact when the Dookies had their hands on Harrison Barnes, Marshall, and Zeller all night.
4. The Walk - yes "the walk" - the one where Curry took 3-4 steps before launching a ridiculously long and beautiful 3-ball that cut the game to 4 points. I mean, that missed call pretty much shifted the entire paradigm. 
5. The incessant bitching and complaining and berading of the refs by K and his two little vile henchmen, Wojo and Collins. For God's sake, shut up! The politics and intimidation tactics have to stop...let these kids play without trying to control the outcome. But I guess that's what it's come to in college sports...it's a business of win at any cost in any way.

To be fair, the refs did not physically put the ball in the basket for Duke - the players still hit some really big shots in the comeback effort. But the officiating certainly did its part to keep Duke within striking distance by getting Duke to the free-thrown line and forcing Carolina to be less aggressive defensively with the ridiculous foul accumulation. Again, if you call the blatant walk on Curry, Duke does not win that game.

To also be fair, UNC still should have been able to win the game despite the assistance from the officials. Missed free-throws, a terrible offensive foul by Barnes, and that mind-numbing goaltending-slash-fluke rebound put-back by Zeller for Duke...and of course the awful defensive awareness on the final play of the game were all in UNC's control and could have changed the outcome.

Or maybe I'm crazy and the real culprit behind the UNC collapse and Duke's win was the text sent from my buddy Tim right before Curry's walk-and-three that read "First the Giants, now the Tarheels...great week for you". That was shortly followed up by a text of his that read "spoke to soon".

Coach K complains to the refs at half-time that a shot clock violation on his team should have negated UNCs steal and fast-break in the closing moments of the first half. Really coach? Not only did UNC gain possession with 1 second still on the shot clock, but that rule is not meant to give your team an advantage after not hitting the rim within 35 seconds. Why should UNC be punished for a great defensive effort? He kills me

I could no longer take this article seriously after seeing this. It was CLEARLY a shot clock violation. I wasn't favoring any team in this game, but it was clearly a shot clock violation. Coach K was right on that one.
   

ndogg - First of all, great Avi.  I use that stretch before I golf too, but it doesn't produce the same visual effect.

As far as the OP's post...well, being a Carolina grad and fan since my youth, I can't say that I enjoy losing to Dook, especially Coach K, however, my take on this game is totally different. 

First of all, if you have to put any blame on the officiating, then you are failing to admit to your own fallacies.  Second, you have to admit that Williams got out coached in this game.  Not sure why anyone would open the game with putting a forward with a sprained ankle on a quick guard.  All that accomplished was to give Rivers confidence in his shot and put Barnes on the bench with foul trouble in the first half.  In addition, the team was collapsing in the last 2.38 seconds and Williams did nothing to try to reverse the mojo, even though he had three time-outs in his pocket.  Ole Roy hasn't defended the three since he was playing JV ball at Carolina, why should he start now?  The current Carolina philosphy only wins games when you outscore your opponents.  It does not entail defending the three point shot effectively.

As much as I hate to say this, all of the credit goes to Duke and the coaching staff.  They had those kids believing in themselves that a win was possible and the players made clutch plays down the stretch.  We didn't and deserved the loss. 

Carolina's biggest problem is heart.  Until they grow one as a team, their season is destined to end in the Sweet Sixteen.   

I could no longer take this article seriously after seeing this. It was CLEARLY a shot clock violation. I wasn't favoring any team in this game, but it was clearly a shot clock violation. Coach K was right on that one.

I could no longer take your rebuttal of the original poster seriously after reading "it was clearly a shot clock violation" twice!  You have nothing to back it up, yet you typed your same thought twice!  

Then I realized you're a fan of NC State and I put 2 and 2 together...btw, I came up with 4...and last two points: 1.) let me know when State beats Carolina or Duke this century,and B.) try to have some support for your 'thought' the next time you venture onto these boards.

Really? Really?  A novel for one silly regular season game?  You know what great about your rivalry (it actually takes away from it)? You get to play again this year...  awesome, how electrifying to split the season series, yawn......


Also, UNC benefitted from about 20 phantom calls against FSU, but did that stop them from pounding you by 33? NO!  

Officiating had nothing to do with the outcome of this game. That's ridiculous. There is a philosophy of different means at each school. Roy recruits Power Forwards and Centers as the focal point of his team. ie: Barnes, Henson, Zeller, etc. He has a history of this fact. Coach K on the other hand recruits guards and shooters. ie: Curry, Dawkins, Rivers, etc. The days of four corners and phone booths are over. Coach K has figured that out. Roy hasn't yet. The philosophy of shooting threes which Duke out scored Ewenc 42-3 is all the evidence needed to conclude any analytical thought as to why Duke won the game. Sure sometimes Duke loses when their shot isn't going. However that was all that was needed beating a much heavier stacked front line at Chump Hill. And that is usually all that is necessary to win National Titles other than playing great defensively as all Duke teams usually do. So overall, Duke will always be in the mix as long as Coach K and his philosophy play it out. Roy's philosophy also has merit. But as it was with the dinosaurs, that measure is slowly fading. Besides, how many Wilt Chamberlains exist each and every year? Compare that to how many three point assasins play college ball and you'll see my point.

EVERY team has issues. Ours boils down to 1 simple problem - lack of killer instinct. The 2009 team suffered from it early in the season, but by mid season they had figured it out. Once you are up on a team - put them away. Duke shot great in the game. (Come on man -Rivers hits 6 out of 10 from 3 point land - give him 10 chances again and he hits maybe 4 if he is lucky). But we also went on auto pilot the last 5 minutes of the game. After Curry walked and then hit the 3 pointer we should have called timeout, regrouped and then put the game away instead of making a boneheaded play. A misplay by Marshall, a fluke tip in by Zeller, missed free throw by Zeller, Barnes stopped attacking, and then the defensive missed assignment on the last play of the game. All of those things had to happen to even give Duke a shot of winning the game. But it did and give Duke credit for not quitting. HOPEFULLY UNC can learn from this and the next time they are up for 15 minutes by double digits they continue to attack and not let the foot off the gas. As much as the W shows up in the column for Duke this was far more about the L that shows up for UNC. They gave this game away and this should be something that is a learnign lesson. We will see tomorrow with Virginia coming to town.

No, this Ewenc team has never reached the hype you most certainly want to crown them. Henson was the #1 ranked Power Forward coming outta high school. Has he lived up to that hype? Nope. He's not even close to the #5 power forward in the country. Barnes was Pre-Season National POY LAST Season. Has he even lived up to that billing his Sophomore year? Nope. He didn't last season and certainly hasn't so far this season. He's not even the best player on Ewenc's team. Zeller is. This Ewenc team was Pre-Season National Champions on paper by all the so-called experts. Their BEST attained goal has been a Runner Up NIT and a Runner Up ACC Championship, and a non-round robin regular season finish on top the ACC last season which is a #1 seeding in the ACC tourney. That's it. What other accomplished title have they earned?

Roy recruits Power Forwards and Centers as the focal point of his team. ie: Barnes, Henson, Zeller, etc. He has a history of this fact. Coach K on the other hand recruits guards and shooters. ie: Curry, Dawkins, Rivers, etc. 

Roy and K recruit talent...period. Your statements abover are easily refutable. Are you forgetting Raymond Felton, Ty Lawson, Rashard McCants, Wayne Ellington, and Kendall Marshall? They're all guards of all-american caliber.

I'm not forgetting anyone. The fact is Roy does not recruit guards and shooting guards year in and year out like Coach K does. That is a fact. Ty Lawson? Marshall is no Ty Lawson. And Stilman White definitely is no Ty Lawson. McCants was no three point shooter with assasin quality. He was a slasher as was Ellington. However Ellington was a good all around player and I'm not disputing any of these guys talent. But Roy looks to recruit big guys at Power Forward and Center first and foremost and develops the other players around that core. Sure he recruits talent. Are you telling me he simply takes whoever the best basketball players are rather than by position? I will tell you something else. I believe that Coach K could take those same players at Ewenc and let roy take the Duke players and Coach K would still beat him.

Felton and McCants were recruited by Matt Doherty. 

Thanks KYBLUEWRITER. It's good to see you back! I haven't seen much of your posts lately. Anyways, thanks for the clarification. I forgot about Doherty and his recruits.

Hey Dougie. I'm like the old song. I don't get around much anymore.  But yeah, it seems as if everyone has forgotten about Doherty.  He's the UNC version of Billy Clyde... but at least he was sober.

That's funny. I actually think Doherty was a decent fellow. He was a Northerner(Yankee) which turned off a lot of the whiner faithful. But when he goes to the NIT he is absolutely blasted. When Roy goes they justify it by saying they cannot find that Runner Up banner. It may be in Carmichael but I definitely didn't see it in the Dean Dome. Maybe my eye sight is getting bad. I know most of the banners had white background with smurf blue trim and letters which at a distance is hard to read. There are so many of the darn things hanging in there like Final AP Rankings and 1924 National Champions and stupid stuff like that.

SuperGnat,
I can't disagree with anything you wrote. If you look at my post/blog history, I've often criticized Roy's coaching...or lack thereof. I will admit I've seen improvent in his half-court offense in recent years, but other than that, his defensive woes continue to loom. I think you and I are speaking of the same thing when we mention "heart" and "killer instinct". Talent can not compensate for those things when you come against a team with both.

And I would never blame a loss on officiating - I realize that may have not come across clearly in my rambling. But referees can certainly INFLUENCE the outcome of a game. As a UNC fan, I am able to objectively admit that UNC certainly gets more calls than your average college team more often than not. However, anyone who does not acknowledge the severe bias in officiating that is extended to Duke is either a Duke fan or is blind...

In the history of college basketball, there are only two incidents I know of in which entire referee crews were suspended for unnecessary bad calls or non-calls made that unfairly and blatantly favored one of the teams...and guess which college basketball team was on the receiving end of NOT ONE but BOTH of those incidents? That's right, Duke.

The first was in 1997 against Virginia where the Cavs took a 1 point lead with 5 tics left on the clock with a free throw. Sitting at the scorer's table was a UVA player waiting to be buzzed in after the make. But the refs did not stop play for the substitution and let Duke inbound the ball and drive the court while UVA was caught off-guard without a chance for their defense to be set up. They then awarded that loathable little WoJo a foul on his layup. After discussion, the refs awarded Wojo free throws with .7 seconds left on the clock. He hit both shots and that was the game.  Two free throws with no time left is a lot easier than going the length of the floor in 5 seconds against a set up defense, wouldn't you say?

The other situation came in 2006 against Florida State. Even though the ACC said the suspension was for one technical foul call the refs made, that game was riddled with questionable calls favoring Duke. The particular technical foul aforementioned fouled out FSUs Alexander Johnson (one of their best players and best big man) in the 2nd half of a game that went into overtime that Duke won by 1. Also of note in that game is that Duke shot 44 free throws to FSU's 11.....11! I realize that when a team is generally more talented and in the lead, it results in more fouls called for them because their players are harder to stop, and/or the other team is fouling in the final minutes trying to trade threes for free throws...but we all know it's way more than those two factors when it comes to Duke...because it's the NON-calls that are also a big factor in the favoritism.

The other night, when Curry takes 3 or 4 steps before shooting his three-pointer, the refs don't call the travel and the NC lead is cut to 4 points. Did that play win or lose the game? No. But did it influence it? Did it serve to cement or change momentum for a particular team? Sure. 

Shall we also examine the cake walk paths they get in the NCAA tournament? Or how about that Elite 8 game against Baylor in 2010 where Quincy Acy gets called for a charge with 4 minutes to go when that Frankenstein Zoubek undercut him after Acy was well in the air? That was a huge momentum shift in the waning minutes of a game to go to the Final 4. Then a few minutes later, Quincy Acy gets a technical foul for bumping into Scheyer after Scheyer threw an elbow. Plays like that where blatantly awful calls are made can INFLUENCE momentum and the outcome of a game. 

The favoritism that Duke enjoys is not good for college basketball as a whole...but as far as TV goes, Duke is ratings gold, so nothing will change.  A lot of people love them...even more hate them...and all watch them. And while many will simply write this rant off as a conspiracy theory of an admitted Tar Heels fan, I know that where there's smoke there's fire. And over the years, there's been a lot of smoke hovering over Duke basketball regarding favorable officiating. 

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I was very impressed with the beginning of this article, but then the Duke favoritism thing came out. 

A couple of notes.


Williams is a recruiter not a good coach....

Zeller's tip should have been a three pointer on the tip but it was goaltending on a three point shot. 

Why did UNC play such great d around the three point line to force Duke to use a timeout and then at the end, Zeller decides to put his hands in his pocket. 

UNC only keeps these guys around for a few years, like Kentucky does.  How can a team become a team when you have a revolving door.  Yes I know Duke has occasionally had some too but not all the time.


Lastly,  Thank you Duke, I am a Pats fan and that really helped..

Come to think of it.... Duke and the Pats are very similar and I like it...

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bad officiating, ahhh........the battle cry of the loser!  the refs couldn't put a dent in unc giving up a 10 pt lead in 2:00, they accomplished that all by themselves.  ask maryland how it goes.

Whiteshadow24,                   North Carolina should know something about favortism. They happen to be the very reason South Carolina Gamecocks left the Acc in 1971. The Gamecocks could not get a fair shake against the Tarheels, and it was so bad they left the conference. Also, it seems to me the only "SMOKE" I see just happens to be coming from the ones who hate Duke. Your perspective is not the only one out there. Everyone has a perspective. Alot of times you see what you want to see.  Just curious?   Did you happen to see any calls go in unc's favor, or were all the "BAD CALLS" against them?