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WBB: North Carolina 70, Stanford 54 - Printable Version

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WBB: North Carolina 70, Stanford 54 - 81alum - 11-26-2014

I just noticed that Diamond DeShields has left North Carolina and is transferring to Tennessee.  I guess my WBB antennae folded up in the off season.

This is going be a very different game compared with when we played them to advance to the Final Four last spring.  We have lost Chiney and Ruef.  Ruef had a career night in that final win in our season.  What a beautiful night it was.  But with North Carolina losing its star, I have to believe that Friday's game will be vastly different in many ways.

One way it won't be different will be North Carolina's dominant interior play.  Stephanie Mavunga and Xylina McDaniel rather pushed us around inside. 

Guard Allisha Gray actually scored more than DeShields in April--she had 19 points to lead North Carolina and was 3/6 from three point range.  All their other starters are back too.  They were a young team last year.

I worry most about our defense.  Without Chiney and Ruef I am not sure if we have the posts to defend their bruising inside play.  If I were Hatchel I would just feed the bigs until Kaylee and McCall (who only played 3 minutes against them last year) prove they can defend Mavunga and McDaniel.  A lot may depend upon how the game is called.

I also worry about defense on the outside.  We did a poor job on Gray in April--probably because we did everything possible to shut down DeShields.  But North Carolina has several excellent guards.  They are a well balanced team.

Last year Bonnie played 34 minutes against them--she was 3/7 from three point range.  Karlie and Kailee were out injured.  Lili played 38 minutes and had 10 points on a relatively poor shooting night for her--she may have been using up all her energy on defense.

I don't think we match up very well with them right now, but I will be happy to be surprised. 


Re: WBB: North Carolina on Friday - Jskass - 11-26-2014

Make UNC's bigs move a lot and they will be less effective. From what I saw on TV the other day, Mavunga has improved her game more than McDaniel. BTW, looks like Mavunga's brother dates Pohlen?

Re: WBB: North Carolina on Friday - Yellowlab - 11-26-2014

When Wbbfan and I went to Hawaii to watch them take on Baylor, we wondered what the crowd would be like.  To say it was sparse would be generous.  That game was fantastic, and virtually no one got to see it.  We couldn't figure out the economics either. 

Re: WBB: North Carolina on Friday - 81alum - 11-26-2014

If anyone wants to watch a North Carolina game to see what they are like this year, their game vs. Oklahoma State is on replay:

http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/id/2132657/

North Carolina went on the road to play Oregon last.  Oregon led 25-14 ten minutes into the game, but UNC went on a 28-4 run once they got their defense figured out.

Re: WBB: North Carolina on Friday - 81alum - 11-28-2014

As far as I can tell, tonight's game is covered on North Carolina radio only.  KZSU had its budget cut and is not doing many (any?) away games.

Here is a link to all the radio stations on Tar Heels Sports Network.

http://sportsaffiliates.learfieldsports.com/affiliates/north-carolina

I found an obscure statement that the game will be carried on WCHL which is the Chapel Hill radio station.  Internet feed can be found here:

http://chapelboro.com/wchl/

There will also be livestats here:

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=64637




Re: WBB: North Carolina: Preview and Coverage - 81alum - 11-28-2014

Here is the UNC fanboard's preview of us:

http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=78&f=3777&t=13412090

Re: WBB: North Carolina: Preview and Coverage - Leftcoast - 11-28-2014

Pretty decent preview - Well worth a read.  Thanks, 81alum.

Re: WBB: North Carolina: Preview, Coverage Info, Game thread - 81alum - 11-28-2014

Well, the radio station seems to be bringing the North Carolina men's game.  That game is not scheduled to start for another hour.  I'm searching for an alternative radio channel for their women's game.  Post here if you find one.

Re: WBB: North Carolina: Preview, Coverage Info, Game thread - 81alum - 11-28-2014

Meanwhile, we seem to have started poorly and trail 0-5.

Re: WBB: North Carolina: Preview, Coverage Info, Game thread - 81alum - 11-28-2014

Here is the broadcast:

http://www.goheels.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?&id=1233278&catid=0&KEY=&DB_OEM_ID=3350

Re: WBB: North Carolina: Preview, Coverage Info, Game thread - 81alum - 11-28-2014

Halftime

Well, that half is reminiscent of the defensive slugfests we sometimes played a few years ago.  I remember leading UConn 20/12 at the half a few years ago.  Without being able to see the game, it is hard to know what the problem is.

Not many fouls were called--so maybe the refs are letting the big NC posts push people around.  The most glaring stat is Lili shooting 1/12.  Either she is not yet healthy, or else NC has been playing superb defense on her.  I imagine she is the focus of their defense--she should be.  Whatever they are doing is succeeding beyond all reason, though.

Clearly we are outmatched on rebounding.

Karlie's two treys and Kaylee's 2 FGs and a couple of free throws account for 12 of our 18 points.  There is no rhythm, no consistency, no flow to the game on either side, really.

This is a tailor-made opportunity for halftime adjustments.  But what?  Our defense is fine, apparently.  But we need to get something else going on offense if we don't want to lose 48-36!

Their assistant coach said an emphasis was to guard our posts after they set screens--not so much to stop them from scoring but to stop them from rebounding.  Specifically mentioned Kaylee.  In the first half, Kaylee has 6 rebounds.

Re: WBB: North Carolina: Preview, Coverage Info, Game thread - 81alum - 11-28-2014

The good news is that Lili has got her offense back.  The bad news is that we are behind by 12 with 11 minutes to play.  They are making more treys and have 15 O boards compared with 7 for us.  It is not looking very good for us. 

McCall missed two free throws and then we gave up a trey at the other end.  It felt an awful like like the end, even though there are 10 minutes left, with NC 51 and Stanford 36.  Points are just so hard to come by.  Then they hit another 3.

McDaniel, one of their big forwards, is pulling a Ruef on us.  It somehow seems appropriate.  Like Ruef, she has almost never made 3 point shots.  So far today she has made three.  It is the mirror image of what Ruef did to them last spring.

In any case, with NC up 54 to 38 it just does not seem very hopeful with 8 minutes left.  NC is now 9/24 from three point range.  The announcer said that at one point we were playing zone.  It sounds as if we schemed to shut down their bigs with a zone, and then NC began shooting threes successfully, including with one of their bigs, and we never responded.

With NC already up with a big lead, Latifah Coleman just made two consecutive three point shots.  NC is now shooting 42% from three point range.  We obviously need to work on our perimeter defense.  This one is depressingly over--a twenty point deficit with five minutes left.  At least the loss to Texas went to overtime and was a close, hard fought game.  This is turning into an embarrassment.  The further behind we get the more accurate the NC players become and the less accurate we become.    We have gone more than 5 minutes without a point.  Tara sends in Tess, who gets a block!  She is also giving McPhee some time in this lost game.

This seems like the longest game I can remember--just psychologically of course.  The game seemed to be decided with so much time left in the half, it has actually taken some fortitude to listen to a bad loss become worse.

A few bright spots.  Erica Payne got a steal and a layup, Roberson caught some offense in the end, Tess got a block, McPhee sinks some free throws.  Camp and Rooks get some time.  I guess losing by a bundle does open up some opportunities for the non starters.





Re: WBB: North Carolina: Preview, Coverage Info, Game thread - TheFarm07 - 11-28-2014

I know it's still a small sample size, but after 5 games, blowing out Boston College, the brobdingnagian upset over UConn and a closer than expected win over New Mexico and a tough OT loss to Texas and being beaten pretty badly by UNC, where do you think the team stands?

I assume, we should beat Hawaii and Prairie View and finish the pre-Fall Qtr Finals part of our schedule at 5-2

Re: WBB: North Carolina: Preview, Coverage Info, Game thread - 81alum - 11-28-2014

Analysis:

It is not hard to see why we lost statistically:

NC was 12/29 from three, while we were 5/17.  Their big forward McDaniel hit 3 three point shots, avenging Ruef's similar performance in the regional final.
NC outrebounded us 57/32.  That is probably why they had 24 points in the paint to our 12
We shot only 31% for the game.
Lili was 6/18, while NC's Latifah Coleman had a career high 19 points against us, going 4/6 from three point range.

One theory is that we were too worried about their inside presence, and did not take perimeter defense against them seriously enough.  But we held them to 70 points which is not bad considering their caliber of team.  What is completely horrifying is that we scored only 54 points.  We have more of an offense problem than a defense problem, even though our defense was non-existent on the perimeter.

I think we are at that point where other teams can play "scouting report defense" and just sell out to stop Lili, and we can't keep up.  We either need to become much more efficient from three point range (just 29%) or else we need at least one of our posts to start making offensive plays.  Kailee was 0/4, McCall was 1/4, Greenfield was 0/3, Kaylee was 2/3 and was the brightest spot.  But that adds up to 3/14 and will not get it done. 

Looking Ahead

Our team needs immediate improvement.  Hawaii is a much improved team from a year ago and we play them tomorrow.  They played C.al tight and lost by 7 after leading them much of the first half.  If we don't play significantly better than we just did, we will lose to Hawaii on their home court. 

In short, the euphoria of UConn seems like a very long time ago.  We have a lot of learning and improving to do.  We need a post to emerge as a scorer.  We need Amber and Bri to start scoring more to relieve Lili.  We need to increase our three point shooting percent.  We need to defend the perimeter against the three point shot--something we seem not to have done--at all.  That is a lot to work on.

In short, at this point it is getting difficult to see how we win the Pac-12.  Of course, Tara always gets the most out of her players and we will see great improvement.  But I had thought that McCall would be a major offensive force by now, and that Lili would be one of a pair of scorers from the guard position.  And I had not anticipated how much our defense would decline.  These are major issues that need to be worked out, and I'm not sure they all will be.

Re: WBB: North Carolina: Preview, Coverage Info, Game thread - Jskass - 11-28-2014

3/14 inside? Now we know how spoiled we were by Chiney, who by herself might have been 11/14 or 12/14.

I do not get why McCall not scoring more. Not enough opportunities? Plus the opponents know they can foul is to save points? Perhaps an over reliance on guard scoring showing itself to be a tactical approach for certain teams but not all?

Also, seems like we settle for lower percentage shots as a result? And does it sacrifice the development of the posts? Any comments on the coaching expertise with posts?

Re: WBB: North Carolina 70, Stanford 54 - TheFarm07 - 11-28-2014

Off of the ESPN article:

"I was disappointed in our effort," VanDerveer said of her team. "First of all I think that North Carolina has an excellent team. They have a lot of weapons, they have a great inside game and they shot really well from the outside. They were hitting perimeter shots and had a solid inside-outside game going. I think they really exposed us in a lot of ways."

"Our defense in the second half wasn't as good -- our defense in the first half was better," VanDerveer said. "Our offense was very stagnant and we just need more people contributing. We don't have much of an inside game right now, which we have to work on. We weren't moving the ball as well as needed to and we were flat and we can't play that way."

Re: WBB: North Carolina 70, Stanford 54 - 81alum - 11-28-2014

Well, Tara obviously knows exactly what the problems are.  I have confidence that she will do everything possible to fix them--provided we have the personnel required.  As for coaching the bigs, Amy is superb and has coached all of our great posts most effectively.  No reason to think that she will not get the most out of who we have.

Tara points out something quite amazing:  North Carolina shot 25% in the first half and 61% in the second half.  They went 8/12 from three point range in the 2nd half alone. How to explain that?  Did our defense collapse?  We played just about the same players for the same minutes in the second half--except a lot less of Greenfield.  Listening to the game, I got the feeling that North Carolina was playing tentatively and tight and missed a lot of shots in the first half, but when they got a larger lead they gained confidence and bombed away without nerves, dramatically improving their percentage.  We, on the other hand, just seemed tight and out of sorts all game.

Other observations:

Amber did not even attempt a 3 point shot.  Is this by design?  She needs to be scoring more in a guard-oriented offense, to be a equal threat to Lili. 

Alex Green was the only player not to play.  Is she hurt? 

Kailee not only went 0/4, she didn't generate a free throw and she had only 1 rebound in 16 minutes of play.  She did have a block, an assist, and a steal.  Was she just overmatched?

Bonnie did not take a three point shot and had only 8 minutes.  Was she guarded that effectively?

Kaylee had 5 turnovers to go with 2 steals.  Chiney sometimes had numbers like that, but in a low scoring game it hurts.

In 8 minutes, Bri had more points than Amber did in 26.  I think Bri is making a statement that she deserves more playing time.

Erica Payne looked pretty good in garbage time, going 2/3 in 4 minutes with a steal.  I think she ought to get some meaningful game time once in a while to see how it goes.