Last night against Clemson the Tar Heels once again showed that good shooting will take a team a long way. UNC shot 56% from the field and scored 1.14 points per possession. The result was the continuation of one of college athletics’ most impressive streaks. Clemson’s futility in Chapel Hill now is 48 years old. Amazing.

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Congratulations to the team for continuing just one of the streaks. This team has certainly taken a lot of heat and is truly miserable. It is good to see them finishing the season by playing well for longer stretches. The Clemson game was the last for scholarship players Orlando Melendez, Brian Bersticker, Jason Capel, and Kris Lang. Next season a new, impressive crop of freshmen will arrive to Chapel Hill and expectations will rise to absurd levels.

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Honestly I can’t say I’m sorry to see this group leave. One of Herb Sendek’s problems at N.C. State has been that his players either stayed too long or not long enough. Just like Inge, Kelley, Williams and Thornton (who all seemed to have 42 years of eligibility), this UNC foursome, none of which ever reached their potential, will leave Chapel Hill and open up four fresh spots on the bench for players who can touch the rim. Granted, these guys have had several coaching changes pulled on them, however there are still major fundamental mistakes being made by this veteran class.

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My official judgement of Matt Doherty’s job will not come until 2004…That is a promise….

…however:

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• Why didn’t Doherty ever try the Lang/Bersticker combo? This would have made teams concentrate on Lang (and leave Bersticker alone), or leave one man on Lang. This combo would have put Capel in his natural 3 position, and left us only having to fill the 1 and 2 positions in the backcourt. Defensively the Heels would have had tough defensive zone coverage, too.
• Why does this team do such a wimpy job of setting picks?
• Why doesn’t Jawad Williams EVER look to put the ball on the floor and slash to the basket. He needs to recognize when he has a slower man on him on the perimeter.
• Why can’t Jason Capel dunk the ball? His pump faking and “elusive” shot attempts have really cost this team. If Capel would have gone up strong inside of 5 feet from the basket, he would have drawn fouls or intimidated opponents.
• Why hasn’t Brian Morrison’s shot selection improved over the last two years? Is the coach not pushing the “three guys touch the ball before a shot is put up” rule?
• Why is this team so bad defensively? There is plenty of quickness in the backcourt. It is unbelievable that we could never muster much defensive pressure on opposing guards.
• Why didn’t the team know what play to run in the waning moments of the Ohio game? Then, after a proceeding timeout, two UNC players converged on the ball, and caused a turnover. Haven’t they worked on this in practice?
• Why hasn’t this team used Dean Smith’s 4+1 method of bringing the ball up the court? On page 96 of Dean’s Multiple Offense and Defense book, he fully explains how to effectively break a full court press. You send ONE guy long (the worst ballhandler), and have the three without the ball form an umbrella about 10-15 feet upcourt. The breaking pass is to the center resulting in a really difficult situation for the defense. I’ve been through this now for 5 years and it is frustrating. Dean’s 4 man attack works. It is a shame to see 3 or 4 guys downcourt standing and watching all this happen.
• Why did Lang play up in NCSU’s Josh Powell’s face 20 feet from the goal? Josh Powell is one of the best slashers in the league, and can’t shoot right now. Also, with our only big man 20 feet away from the missed shot, little guys were able to take it to the hole and draw fouls from Scott, Manuel, and Boone. There were some REALLY dumb fouls down there. Solution: have Lang play WAY off the non-threat and help on defense. If Powell gets by you, he is the second most aggressive player in the league in going to the rim (second to Wilcox).
• I am concerned about Doherty’s approach to beating a 2-3 zone. While it is important to fill the middle of the zone with a fulcrum man, it is even more important to surprise opponents with this element and stay moving without the ball. For instance, when Adam Boone has the ball on the side, and cannot get the ball to the fulcrum, it is essential for the fulcrum man to run away and allow another teammate to fill the fulcrum spot.
• Where was the weakside help defense this season?

Many questions have been raised here. It will be interesting to see if raising the level of pure athleticism on the team can overcome some of these coaching boo-boos. Matt Doherty still has much to learn as a coach, and won’t learn it all any time soon. Next season will be hard, as well. So, let’s temper our desires for drastic measures until we see what more athletic players will do.

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Next up is Duke, who will be licking their chops after blowing a gimme at Virginia. This was a huge game for Virginia, which now finds itself on the NCAA bubble. UVA may have knocked Wake Forest off.

One thing is for certain, though, GO GEORGIA TECH!!!