Tobacco Road Report

By Michael

Marcus Ginyard made two free throws to put Carolina up 75-65 with 7:19 to play. Normally this is when the vaunted Carolina run comes. Instead, Carolina would only make 2 of its next 24 field goal attempts, eventually falling to the Hoyas 96-84 in overtime and ending the chances of the ACC in the field of 64.

Carolina had many aspects of the game today in their favor. The Tar Heels outscored Georgetown 29 to 12 from the free throw line, held a 32 to 7 advantage in bench points, and out rebounded the Hoyas on the offensive glass 20-10. Carolina rebounded 43 percent of its misses and dominated the Hoyas for 35 minutes in second chance points.

Countering this advantage, however, was Georgetown's excellence from the floor. The Hoyas shot 38 of 66 from the floor and 8 of 14 from three to record an eye-popping EFG of 64 percent. The Hoyas were very efficient in their Princeton-style offense, recording 26 assists on those 38 made baskets. Given the 75 possessions in this game (including OT), that's an assist on 35 percent of their possessions.

At times the Hoyas were reminiscent of Villanova circa 1985 when 'Nova put in a nearly-perfect offensive performance against...Patrick Ewing and Georgetown.

The Carolina defense, which keys so many of their transition baskets, only forced 10 turnovers. When the stop needed to be made, the defense wasn't there.

The Hoyas also managed to block 11 shots, including a non-call goal tending on Hibbert that figured very prominently in hindsight. The stalwart broadcasting by CBS (cough) didn't show the replay, of course, so we'll never know. It looked like a goal tend to me. This happens to be the moment when the rim on the Carolina end of the floor grew tighter than Scooter Libby under cross from Patrick Fitzgerald. But this non-call wasn't the real difference-maker.

The Achilles heel of the Tar Heels finally caught up with them...perimeter shooting. Ellington (2 for 11), Lawson (2 for 9), Terry (4 of 13) and Danny Green (0 of 6) couldn't have picked a worse time to all go belly up. Carolina would only manage 25 of 71 from the floor and 5 of 20 from three to record a miserly EFG of 39 percent.

I wouldn't credit Georgetown's defense for much of this, except clogging the lane and preventing Lawson from getting to the rim. The outside jumpers were there, some contested and some not. Carolina simply didn't knock them down when it counted.

The stalwart effort of the Carolina front line is what kept them going. Hansbrough, Wright, and Thompson scored 54 of Carolina's 84 points, including a remarkable 22 of 24 from the line. When Georgetown went into its 2-3 zone late in the second half -- something TRR thought they could have applied much earlier -- Carolina couldn't soften it up from the perimeter.

The season for Carolina is now over and we at TRR will await news on the futures of Wright, Hansbrough, Lawson, and others with eyes on the NBA. I think Wright is the only true-NBA talent at this point and should probably go -- how do you tell a lottery pick to stay with that kind of cash on the table? -- but the rest could use another year. Wright would also benefit from another year and could truly dominate next year if he stays.

As for the rest of the Tar Heels...do your best Jimmy Chitwood for the summer and come back as a capable three-point shooting team.