The Confidential

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Archive for the tag “John Henson”

26 Mar 2012

North Carolina’s Great Season Comes to An End

The 2011-2012 edition of the North Carolina Tar Heels was a “National Championship or Bust” edition.  With that much future NBA talent, there was simply no result other than a championship that would have been enough.  Along the way, Dexter Strickland was lost to injury.  Then John Henson went down.  And just as Henson returned, Kendall Marshall suffered an injury and never returned.  Without a key component of the offense, it is not surprising that Kansas defeated North Carolina on Sunday, 80-67.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the game was that Kansas out-rebounded North Carolina 39-30.  With a frontcourt of Harrison Barnes, Tyler Zeller, and John Henson, the Tar Heels were used to putting up gaudy rebound totals.  The trio combined for only 14 against Kansas.  The Jayhawks had the size up front to hold their own and it helped take away a North Carolina strength.

James Michael McAdoo came off the bench to lead the Tar Heels with 15 points. Barnes added 13, while Zeller scored 12.  Henson only scored 10 points.  Ultimately, the big trip produced a disappointing total of 35 points and 14 rebounds–well off their season average of 48 and 25.

Notwithstanding the preseason hype, North Carolina still finished a respectable 32-6.  While the fans and team hoped for more, it is hard to lose a key player in March.  That North Carolina could not overcome that is not surprising.  Disappointing, but not surprising.

With Syracuse and North Carolina losing, the Final Four of Kentucky, Louisville, Ohio State, and Kansas will not feature any ACC teams.  For diehard ACC fans, Pittsburgh will play Washington State today in the CBI tournament.

 

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball, Game Review, March Madness and tagged , , , , , , ,
04 Mar 2012

North Carolina Wraps Up ACC Regular Season Title

The game of the day in the ACC on March 3, 2012, was the matchup between #4 Duke and #6 North Carolina.  Both teams were tied for #1 overall in the ACC with their identical 13-2 conference records and 26-4 overall records.  But North Carolina dominated Duke on Saturday, winning 88-70.

Not only was it an 18-point victory, but North Carolina led by 24 at the half.  The Tar Heels out-rebounded Due–normally a good rebounding team–42 to 22.  North Carolina shot 54.5% from the field and limited Duke to a mere 41.3%.  As is the case whenever Duke is at home, the Blue Devils had more free throw attempts than the visitor.  But Duke only made 57.1% of their attempts, compared to North Carolina’s 80%.  Simply domination.

The numbers jump off the page.  All five North Carolina starters finished in double-figures:

  • Kendall Marshall: 20 points, 10 assists, 4 rebounds
  • Tyler Zeller: 19 points, 10 rebounds
  • Harrison Barnes: 16 points, 4 rebounds
  • John Henson: 13 points, 10 rebounds
  • Reggie Bullock: 12 points, 6 rebounds

While North Carolina’s depth is questionable, no team has five starters that can do that kind of damage.  With a nice showing in the ACC tournament, the Tar Heels may yet end up with a #1 seed.

For Duke, it is a disappointing effort ending an otherwise decent regular season.  There have to be concerns about the defense.  But this is a Duke team that lost to Florida State and Miami at home.  Mason Plumlee had 17 points, while Miles Plumlee added 16 points and 11 rebounds.  Austin Rivers also had 15 points.  All told, losing to North Carolina in this fashion is not as disturbing as North Carolina’s undressing by Florida State.  This is not a vintage Duke team, but it can do some damage in March.

The Confidential will have a weekend recap Monday morning…

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball, Game Review and tagged , , , , , ,
01 Feb 2012

North Carolina and Virginia Keep Winning

North Carolina and Virginia each did their part in maintaining their placement in the polls last night, as both were able to win.  The #16 Cavaliers defended their home court in a 65-61 victory of Clemson.  The #5 Tar Heels handled Wake Forest on the road, 68-53.

The ugly game of the night across the nation was Illinois’ victory over Michigan State by a score of 42-41.  That is a score reminiscent of the 1940’s.  As usual, however, the abysmal shooting in that game will be rationalized as a product of “good defense.”

Well, their must have been some good defense in the North Carolina-Wake Forest game too, as the two teams shot 31.0% and 29.6% from the field.  Nevertheless, both teams were able to avoid scores in the low 40’s, in part because both teams were competent at the free throw line.  The rebounding numbers were pretty impressive too–with North Carolina edging Wake 50-36.  That’s a lot of boards.  In fact, Tyler Zeller had 18 of them, while Josh Henson added 12.  Terrell McKie led the Demon Deacons with 13 rebounds.  From a scoring standpoint, the Tar Heels only had 6 players score, but 4 of them were in double-figures, led by Zeller’s 18.  CJ Harris led Wake Forest with 19 points.  With the loss, Wake Forest drops to 11-11.  North Carolina improves to 19-3.

Up in Charlottesville, the Cavaliers narrowly defeated Clemson in a typically slow tempo game.  In comparison to the rebound-fest described above, Virginia and Clemson combined for only 48 rebounds–with Virginia having an impressive 31-17 edge in that regard.  But the game was a nail biter for Virginia as Clemson maintained a lead into the early part of the second-half before Virginia pulled away.  The Tigers made it close down the stretch, forcing Virginia to win it at the free throw line.  Devin Booker led the Tigers, who dropped to 11-10, with 14 points.  As usual, Mike Scott led Virginia with 18 points and 10 rebounds.  Virginia improves to 18-3 and maintains its 4th place position in the conference standings.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball, Game Review and tagged , , , , , , , , ,
11 Dec 2011

Hoops Recap: Sunday Improvement for the ACC

Yesterday, the ACC struggled to a 3-3 record among current conference teams.  Sunday got much better as the league went 4-0.

Florida State improved to 7-3 with a 75-60 over North Carolina-Greensboro.  The Seminoles’ defense did the job, allowing only a 35% shooting percentage.  However, the offense struggled to the tune of 26 turnovers.  Overall, Florida State has a balanced attack, with none of the 9 players to get action to exceed 30 minutes.  Michael Snaer led the way with 14 points.

Virginia Tech also improved to 7-3 with its 73-60 win over Norfolk State.  The score was a bit misleading, as CBS noted:

The Spartans (6-4), who have quality victories over Drexel and Texas Christian and lost to Marquette by just two points, kept the game close throughout and cut the lead to 65-59 on Chris McEachin’s 3-pointer with 2:58 left in the game. But Virginia Tech’s Dorenzo Hudson hit a free throw with 2:05 left to make it 66-59. After McEachin missed a 3-pointer for Norfolk State with 1:40 to go, Eddie put the game away, draining his final 3-pointer with 1:07 remaining to push the Hokies’ lead back to 10.

But the Hokies were able to fend off this surprisingly tough foe, led by Jarell Eddie’s 24 points.

In its final tune-up before hosting Syracuse on Saturday, North Carolina State defeated North Carolina Central, 65-60.  The Wolfpack held a 10-point lead at halftime, but were never able to put away the Eagles.  C.J. Williams led the way for North Carolina State with 21 points.  Credit the team board work too; although no individual put up gaudy rebounding totals, North Carolina State held a 41-30 advantage in that category.

Finally, the ACC’s day was so good that even Boston College nabbed a rare win.  The Eagles were able to defeat Stony Brook soundly, 66-51.   Patrick Heckmann came off the bench to lead Boston College with 18 points.  With the win, Boston College improves to 3-7.  A win is a win is a win.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball, Game Review and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
11 Dec 2011
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Hoops Recap: Saturday Not Kind to the ACC

Although future ACC member Syracuse was able to win and likely grab onto to #1 in the next polls, the current ACC did not fare as well–splitting its 6 games on Saturday.

Actually, another future ACC member, #15 Pittsburgh, did its job with 74-68 win over 6-3 Oklahoma State.  As is typical, the Panthers were outstanding defensively and on the boards.  The Cowboys were held to 40.9% shooting and were outrebounded 37-23.  Ashton Gibbs led Pitt with 17 points, while Lamar Patterson was a box score stuffer with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists.  With the win, Pitt moves to 9-1.

And #7 Duke certainly did its part, defeating a surprisingly tough Washington Huskies squad, 86-80.  Although the Blue Devils opened strong with a 14-point halftime lead, Washington made it interesting late.  This was particularly impressive as the Huskies had been in New York all week, starting with a Jimmy V Classic loss to Marquette.  But credit Duke for starting strong and doing enough at the free throw stripe down the stretch to win.  Duke had 7 players play 20 minutes, and 6 of them contributed at least 8 points.  Austin Rivers led Duke with 18 points, allowing Duke to get to 9-1.

Similarly, #4 North Carolina was able to fend off upstart Long Beach State, 84-78.  This one was the opposite of the Duke game, with Long Beach State controlling the first half before succumbing to the Tar Heels talent advantage in the second half.  While the knee-jerk reaction is to wonder how North Carolina was not able to destroy a 4-5 team from California, recall that Long Beach State upset Pitt on the road and only narrowly lost to Kansas too.  The North Carolina quartet of Harrison Barnes, John Henson, Reggie Bullock, and Tyler Zeller scored 78 of North Carolina’s 84 points.  But credit Kendall Marshall too–he dished out 16 assists, the fourth time this year he has had 14 assists or more.  North Carolina is now 8-2 on the season.

In a test game for Wake Forest, they lost to Seton Hall on the road, 68-54.  The Demon Deacons were unable to stop Herb Pope, who scored 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for the host Pirates.  While nobody was expecting a win over 9-1 Seton Hall, this game  certainly was not one where Wake Forest was going to be overmatched from a talent standpoints.  Overall, Seton Hall figures to little more than a middle-of-the-pack Big East team.  But that was still too much for Wake, which falls to 6-4.  Wake Forest was led by Travis McKie’s 17 points.

In another ACC-Big East matchup, West Virginia handled Miami, 77-66.  Bob Huggins’ Mountaineers were coming off a win over Kansas State on Thursday, but had enough in the tank to defeat the visiting Hurricanes.  Truck Bryant led West Virginia with 27 points, including 5 three-pointers.  Miami was led by Malcolm Grant’s 17 points.  Although the early season started with great promise, the Hurricanes have now lost 4 of 5 in this very tough stretch of non-conference games.  Fortunately for Jim Larranaga, the difficulty eases up a bit before conference games start.

Clemson provided the third loss for the ACC on Saturday, falling to 7-3 Arizona, 63-47 in Tucson.  For the 4-4 Tigers, a trip to 7-3 Arizona was always going to be quite a test.  Unfortunately, only Andre Young was able to score effectively, as he led the Tigers with 17 points.  The team as a whole shot 31.7% from the field–which will never get it done.

Finally, Georgia Tech defeated Savannah State, 65-45.  While the Yellow Jackets deserve credit for being willing to travel to an in-state opponent of this caliber, this was never going to be much of a contest.  Brandon Reed and Daniel Miller combined to go 12 for 13 from the field, as Savannah State was simply overmatched.  With the win, Georgia Tech gets to 6-4.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball, Game Review and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
09 Nov 2011

Harrison Barnes, Consensus Pre-Season All-American

The basketball elite at ESPN have made their votes and Harrison Barnes of North Carolina was deemed a consensus Preseason All-American.  All fifteen voters agreed that Barnes should be a first-team All-American.  Three of the fifteen even voted him as the Preseason Player of the Year.

It should also be noted that a few other ACC players received some recognition too.  Barnes’ teammate, Tyler Zeller, was named to the second-team on several ballots.  Two more Tarheels, Kendall Marshall and John Henson, appeared on a second-team ballots as well.  It is easy to see why North Carolina is a consensus preseason #1.

No other current ACC team placed any players on the list.  Instead, it was the North Carolina show.

But in terms of future ACC members, Syracuse and Pitt were represented.  Kris Joseph (Syracuse) and Ashton Gibbs (Pitt) each appeared in several ballots.  Joe Lunardi even placed Gibbs on his preseason first-team.

Congrats to all of these players.  Let’s hope that they all stay healthy and have the opportunity to prove the voters right in providing these accolades.  The pressure is on to live up to the hype.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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