Notes from the UNC-Duke game

By: Byron Parker

First and foremost, FGS would like to extend our deepest thoughts for the family of Eve Carson, a member of the student body at North Carolina who was murdered this past week. Keep your heads up and we will continue to pray and support you through your difficult times...

No it's not #1 vs. #2, but it still was a decent game to watch between the #1 North Carolina team and the fifth ranked Blue Devils on Duke's floor, surrounded by the "Cameron Crazies". Duke's last home game of the season ended on a bad note on Saturday night. In a losing effort to the North Carolina Tar Heels, Duke didn't perform at the same playing level as they did when they beat UNC in their last meeting. When three's were needed, Duke couldn't buy one as they went 10-29 from behind the arch. A rugged 32% shooting percentage from the floor wasn't going to get the job done either. And the outside threat for Duke in Greg Paulus put up a solid performance; just not the same as the last meeting. Tyler Hansborough is doing nothing but continuing to prove his dominance in the NCAA by playing a decent game and putting up 16 points and 15 boards and at the same time, becoming apart of UNC history by reaching 2000 points in his college career.

It may have not been an exciting game when it came to crunch time, but a game with as much significance as this one didn't need excitement for Roy Williams' team. The Tar Heels held Duke scoreless in the last 5 minutes of the game, which is something that Duke excels in; playing big in the final minutes. It's always great to see two rivals such as these to go at it for a prize. The prize for these two teams was the ACC title and UNC was able to take it home.

Sure, it may have not been a game that went to the final play like many of the other games on Saturday. But this right here is giving us a taste of March Madness; something that we are all hungry for. We've seen from Saturday's game that UNC plays better with Ty Lawson in the lineup because even if he doesn't contribute a lot offensively, he has the ability to hold down other players who are capable of going off, like Paulus. In the previous meeting between these two teams, Paulus and the rest of the team nailed 13 three pointers. But with Lawson in the lineup being one of the best perimeter defenders that UNC has, he was able to help hold them down a little bit more.

So we see the impact that Lawson has on this team. With Tyler Hansborough down and around the basket, he is Lawson best resort to get a quick and easy two. These two are dominant together and they will be a force to be reckoned with come tournament time. If you stop Lawson's playmaking...plays, then you have a chance to stop North Carolina. The reason this is true because in the last Duke-UNC meeting, Hansborough put up 28 points and 18 rebounds and the Tar Heels still lost. The offense wasn't balanced out as Hansborough seemed to be relied on the most, and the other threats in Danny Green and Wayne Ellington struggled and went a combined 4-24 from the floor. They lacked open looks in that game, and Lawson is the guy who can create those open looks.

Duke is a balanced team and they don't operate well unless they have a balanced attack. There are no stars on this team which is sort of a bonus for them. If your the opposing team trying to prepare to play Duke, who do you know who to control? Paulus isn't the leading scorer on this team, so he's not really the guy you have to pay attention to. But the leading scorer is DeMarcus Nelson, who is a very underrated guard and controls the tempo of most games. The freshman Kyle Singler is a guy who needs to be watched because he is the teams leading rebounder and people take him for granted sometimes. There really isn't one person to focus your attention an a lot because Duke has an array of threats on their team. It requires smart coaching, such as the coaching that we saw from Roy Williams to beat the Blue Devils. If I knew what it took to knock Duke off like UNC did, then I'd probably find myself coaching somewhere in the NCAA. That's why I'm just a writer.