Thank goodness college basketball is different than football where an early season loss usually renders the rest of the season meaningless. Instead, a lot of lessons were learned in tonight’s loss to Gonzaga. If the Heels can learn from this, they can use this loss to be a better team in March (the Preseason NIT Champ never wins the national championship anyway).

One of the most important lessons learned is how to beat the Heels. Simply sit back in a 2-3 zone and let your weak side low man help defend Hansbrough. The Heels have played 6 games and have yet to show an effective outside shooting threat. So, let ‘em shoot if you’re an opponent.

What we Tar Heels learned, above all else, is that Roy Williams is trying to carry too many oranges back to his shopping cart. The carousel of substitutions is killing any notion of offensive flow and stifling some players who are marginal talents. In the end tonight, Williams went with Hansbrough, Terry, Green, Miller, and Frasor; a safe combo of veterans who did absolutely nothing to help the cause. Let’s hope we don’t see this slow combo again. In fact, this team really will belong to Hansbrough, Wright, Ellington, Lawson, and another player to be determined. When this foursome was on the court, the Heels were far quicker, rebounded better, created transition opportunities through their defense, and had the Zags scared to death.

Carolina played 12 players tonight. Let’s take a look at some of them:
Hansbrough – UNC’s franchise player stands 6’9” but has a modest reaching height. As evidenced tonight Tyler has problems playing against taller players. He has to develop beyond the type of power game he played last season because he will be easily defended at the next level be bigger, quicker big men. The Zags were unfazed by Musberger’s and Lavin’s mispronouncing “Hansbrough” all night. They just collapsed on King Heel with their 2-3 zone as any reasonably aware opposing coach ought to (funny how the Herb Sendek supporters never noticed this obvious blunder by their now-departed Head Nerd.)

Wright – On his shot Wright is not jumping straight up. His loss of balance coupled with his flat shot led to a lot of shooting woes for the freshman. His FT shooting, which has too much arc, ironically, also must improve because he will get to the FT line a lot this season. Wright’s hands are outstanding and are the best of a Carolina big man since Rasheed Wallace was on the Hill. Wright is a better shot blocker than Wallace, though. His left-handedness gives him a distinct advantage guarding right-handed shooters. With our little league team we’ve always tried to teach young, right handed big men to go up with their left hand, but it is counter-intuitive for righties. Wright will most likely be the ACC’s Rookie of the Year, especially if he can start nailing free throws.

Lawson – Lawson is definitely fast, but is out of control. I love his penetration, however if the defense seals it off, Lawson is too apt to spin his back to the basket and seal himself off from a controlled play. He is far quicker than Ed Cota, but needs to improve his ball handling to the point that he can change direction when help defense comes. He needs to look for what “aura” holes that defender is opening for him (below the right armpit, for instance) and zip the ball to the low post. Cota was outstanding at that aspect. Lawson also needs to develop a stop-and-pop 12 footer ala Kenny Smith. At this point all defenses need to do is stay in front of him and wait for Lawson to make the mistake.

Ellington – I haven’t gotten to watch him closely much, but it appears that Ellington is an effective defender. When Ellington created the defensive trap tonight the team went on a roll. Ellington has a good looking shot that will surely fall as soon as he gets more regular playing time.

Frasor – Frasor works hard, but is not quick enough to be the Heels primary point guard down the stretch. He is an excellent backup for a mature Lawson, however, and plays sound defense. His outside shot will be where he separates himself from the pack.

Reyshawn Terry – Thus far this season Terry has shown that he has no idea what a smart shot is. His penetration is forced, his jumpshot is forced (and thus offbalance), and his ball handling is poor. Defensively he is a total liability against smaller players because he is too slow to keep up with players of average quickness. Coach Williams surely feels an obligation to this senior player, but end the end Terry will not be a strong factor unless he develops a solid perimeter shot.

Miller – Wes Miller is essentially only as valuable as his 25’ jump shot. It is a killer when it is falling, but when it is not, Miller’s size and short arms make him a defensive liability. Offensively he doesn’t do enough without the ball to create scoring chances, either.

This leaves us with a few players who haven’t played a whole lot of minutes this season. Ginyard and Green are not getting much playing time, but seem to be used more for their defensive abilities. If either can develop into a reliable 3-point shooter, they will own the 3-spot on our important lineup. If not, their value will be centered on a defensive assignment. Between Thompson and Stepheson one player will become the 3rd big man in the rotation. The other will play about 2 minutes per game in the end. Quentin Thomas’ ball handing has improved much and he has a great, gazelle step to the basket. However when he is in the game, opposing guards appear excited and seem to excel while the Carolina offensive timing falls completely apart.

Among the 1, 2, and 3 players, someone on this team has to step forward as a serious outside threat. At this point opponents have absolutely no reason to worry about scoring threats from the Carolina guards. As players start to surface and sink, Roy Williams has to be willing to dump some of his oranges and focus on a maximum of nine players to rotate this bus to a championship.

Today’s game against Gardner-Webb was a yawner. The Heels dispensed of their opponent in the first 3 minutes of the game as it appeared that the fans as well as G-W had fallen asleep. The event is precisely the reason that random student ticket distributions that happen well before the event date hurt our homecourt advantage. The euphoria of “winning” your ticket is long gone, and now that exam tomorrow looms large compared to seeing us crush a bad basketball team.

They should reserve a number of seats for student section, and don’t fill them until the day of the game. This distribute-early-so that-UNC-can-sell-the-leftovers system is a joke. Instead, at the end of the season, if students did not claim seats, reserve fewer next season. Should students take all of their seats in season two, they will have earned their current allotment back for season three. In the short run the University might have some unsold tickets, but in the long run, they will train their students to be better fans.

Tickets should be earned. I’m strongly against students camping out for days before a game, however the university should do something that only puts the hungriest students in the game first. Have people make free throws in the practice gym or something. Another option is to have a registration process and draw the winning 4-digit number at midnight before the game. If the student allotment is , for instance, 6,000 tickets, the next (as determined by student ID #) 6,000 students registered get an email or text message invitation to haul it immediately to the Dean Dome to line up for general admission seating in the student areas 2 hours prior to the game. So what if people on south campus get an advantage! They pay for it Monday through Friday by walking the extra distance to and from class.

If students know that they have to work for their opportunity to get into basketball games, they will be more thankful to be there.