THE UGLY
*Well, the final score. Carolina loses for the 13th time in the last 16 against Duke.
*The Heels turned the ball over waaaaay too much. Sure, this is a young team and a fast paced team, so there is going to be more than average amounts of turnovers. But Carolina turned it over on their first 6 possessions of the 2nd half
*Redick. Hey, I knock him for (a) not performing well in this game and (b) not being clutch. He disproved both of those tonight....hitting a personal series high 35 pts and hitting those clutch shots when Carolina had all the momentum.
THE BAD
*Defending JJ Redick. In the first half, Carolina did a darn good job keeping a man on Redick. But as the game wore on, the defenders wore out. Heel defenders couldn't stay in Redick's face as they did in the first half. Redick scored 17 of his points in last 1/4 of the game.
*The final look. Down by three, Danny Green got the ball and tried to shoot a baseline runner. Not the shot the Heels were looking for, nor the shot that the Heels needed. Even if he did hit it, UNC would be down by 1 with not much left on the clock.
*Dickie V's fawning over Redick. Good god, man, pick your tongue up from off the floor!! Towards the end of the game, the guy darn near gave a "going away" speech.....saying it was his privilege to watch Redick during his Duke career.
THE GOOD
*North Carolina was down by 17 early in the 2nd half. Roy Williams benched all of his starters....and the reserves came in a stopped the bleeding. It wasn't a fluid run....but next thing you know, Carolina was up by 5.....an amazing 22-pt turnaround.
*The rebounding. Carolina outrebounded Duke by nearly 2-to-1.
*Tyler Hansbrough. Sure, he didn't have the offensive game that many would like, but dude did an awesome job keeping Sheldon Williams from doing anything. This was the battle that I wanted to see Tyler in....and I think he did pretty well. He'll learn from this on how to get himself involved more offensively.
*They played scrappy, hit the boards, hit the floor, got their hands in on passes and did a lot of the little things to try to negate their turnover problem.
THE AFTERMATH
Look, I'd be lying if I said that it doesn't kill me to lose this game. However, I am very pleased on how we played all around. Duke strolls out the best two players in the ACC [Redick and Williams] and some solid complementary players and a #2 ranking. Carolina strolls in with two freshmen [Hansbrough and Bobby Frasor], two role guys from last year [Reyshawn Terry and David Noel] and a nobody transfer from James Madison [Sean Miller] in the starting lineup.....with a bench comprised of 3 freshmen and two "disappointments".
Yet, when faced with a 17-pt deficet in the 2nd half, those guys didn't fold. Despite that great 35-pt Redick game, the Tar Heels stayed with it and had a legit shot to win the game.
Moral victories are another way to call an "emotional loss"....but there is much to be learned here. We learned that despite the relative inexperience of this team, they took a very good punch from the best team in the conference and stood alongside them. It is the biggest game that most of them have every played in [some did play in that National Championship game last year] and now they've been exposed to it and the emotion of it.
You're at Carolina, now....you'll be in a lot of them.
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