Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

Got time for one last quick look back at the season?

Posted on April 23, 2009 by Staff

By Frank Heath
Sports Columnist

When Ed Davis announced last week that he would return to North Carolina for his sophomore year rather than jumping to the NBA, it added the final bold stroke on a season that already looked like a near-masterpiece for any serious follower of UNC basketball.

What made this college basketball season special and these UNC Tar Heels a team that had “destiny” written across its backs? Here is one guy’s version of some moments in time that may have helped keep Carolina turned toward the path of greatness.

NOV. 7: ESPN The Magazine features UConn center Hasheem Thabeet on its cover, issuing a challenge to Tyler Hansbrough and Carolina to live up to their hype. Thabeet issues his own personal challenge too: “Nobody’s better than me,” he says in the article, “only more experienced…. Tyler Hansbrough? I don’t see nothing.”

Thabeet’s comments must have given pause for reflection to UNC, which most likely expected more respect so early in a year when it was a near-unanimous early choice to cut down the nets in April.

JAN. 11: Carolina loses to Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, 92-89, as Wake guard Jeff Teague begins to look like a Player of the Year front runner, scoring 34 points and dominating the game from the point, making 13 of 15 free throws and three of four three pointers.

Carolina’s Ty Lawson has just nine points and five assists and four turnovers, and Hansbrough goes an icky 3-12 from the floor.

Teague’s thrashing of the Heels bears similarity to a 25-point performance by Tyrese Rice of Boston College in the Eagles’ 85-78 win in Chapel Hill one week earlier.

Carolina is 0-2 in the ACC; and many say that the sky is falling. Roy Williams just says, “It’s a long season.”

JAN. 17: With UNC playing at home against Miami, Wayne Ellington’s jump shot shows back up with mustard on top. It had been 15 games since Ellington made more than two threes in a game, but during one torrid stretch of the second half, those struggles became just a memory.

Ellington sank eight straight shots after halftime, including seven threes, to single-handedly blow the Hurricanes out of the Smith Center. Beginning that night, Ellington would average 18.3 points for the Tar Heels’ final 21 games, making 46 percent of his three-point attempts.

Ellington’s return as a big-time scoring threat allowed the UNC offense to attack opponents with authority from four distinct angles — on the inside with Hansbrough and Deon Thompson; from long range with Ellington, Lawson and Green; in transition, where Lawson of course led the way; and from the half-court sets, with Lawson penetrating and creating. As a whole, it was tough stuff to defend.

FEB. 11: On this night, Carolina defeated Duke 101-87 in Durham, completing a month-long resurgence that saw the Tar Heels rise from an 0-2 ACC start to 8-2 in the league, a full game ahead of their closest league competitor, the Blue Devils. Duke held a 56-48 lead early in the second half of this game, but the Devils could find no answer for Lawson – who awoke to score 21 of his 25 points after the break.

Lawson burned the Blue Devils’ on possession after possession in the second half; this turned out to be a huge moment in the season for UNC in terms of restoring the Tar Heels’ confidence in themselves as individuals and their belief in bigger-picture team objectives. Duke had been a No. 1 ranked team already during the season, and the Devils had supposedly gotten into their rhythm in recent games. Lawson proved otherwise, repeatedly leaving the Duke guards tasting his dust once he got cranked up. It was Carolina’s sixth win in seven games against Duke.

Ty single-handedly made the difference for UNC in several games, especially over the second half of the season, by making the lane into his own personal playground, while also consistently hitting open threes and mid-range jumpers. It was as if he took a page from Rice and Teague and turned the same tactics against the Tar Heels’ opposition later in the year – and to similar, if not greater, effect.

Also on the night of Feb. 11, Connecticut lost starting guard Jerome Dyson (13.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, two steals) to a knee injury. At the time, UConn was 23-1 with a 12-game winning streak. After Dyson went down, the Huskies dropped three of their final six games heading into the NCAA Tournament. With Dyson gone, Carolina became a unique presence nationally, with its combination of inside and outside strength to go with depth, experience and balance.

MARCH 21: Ty Lawson returns from three games out with a toe injury to score 23 points – 21 after halftime – in a nervous Round of 32 win over SEC champion LSU. With Lawson’s demonstration that he is able to play effectively – though still in pain – the Heels emerge as a favorite to reach the NCAA finals.

SEASON PROJECT: For Roy Williams, the realization that three of the most aggressive defenders from his 2007-08 team – Alex Stepheson, Quentin Thomas and Marcus Ginyard – would not be available this year must have made his heart flutter a bit. But Williams never pushed the panic button, aware that his team’s unique offensive gifts would be good enough most nights to carry a lot of games. But there’s little doubt that during practice time with his players and assistants, a huge emphasis was placed upon improving defensively as a team.

ED STEPS UP: Lastly (but in no way leastly), the emergence of Ed Davis as a force of nature off the bench was huge. When Carolina was struggling, a lot was made of the anemic point production of the Tar Heel reserves. Big Ed demonstrated that bench production can come in many forms. His disruptive presence on defense and tenacity going after rebounds gave the Tar Heels a new way to terrorize opponents and a momentum changer that didn’t necessarily start with the ball in Lawson’s hands.
It was unfortunate for Thabeet that he and UConn didn’t get an opportunity to back up his words against UNC in the NCAA championship game. But the guess here is that the final outcome would have been the same. Sometimes it’s better just to keep your trap shut and play. That’s what Carolina did.

Now, with Davis’ announcement that he will be back for a second year, we can all start looking forward to the 2009-10 season, when UNC will field one of the more potentially dominant front-court combinations in recent memory!

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme