Writing the Pine

North Carolina opened the season tonight against Isiah Thomas’s Florida International squad.  Here are my thoughts from watching the game:

• Way too many careless turnovers by UNC.  Dexter Strickland had five in 11 minutes of play.  The good news: Larry Drew only had two.
• Speaking of Larry Drew, who is worried about point guard play?  Drew showed he can run Roy Williams‘ offense fine.  He had seven points and six assists in 21 minutes of play.  He showed a nice stroke and a quick handle (he even made a guy fall with that killer crossover).  He always made sure to bring the ball up in the middle of the court and had some nifty drives and dishes.  I do think he got away with some stuff today that he won’t be able to get away with against better teams.  But he was solid enough today to make me believe that he is not the second coming of Quentin Thomas.
• If Dex is gonna be playing the point, he’s got to do more than just try to dribble the ball up the court as fast as he can.
• Rob Stone and Jay Williams were awful.  They constantly said the wrong player’s name and stumbled over their words.  I’ll give them a pass though because of all the love they gave UNC.  Especially J-Will.  The former Blue Devil did not hide his affection for UNC.  And if I’m not mistaken, he wanted to play at Carolina first and then Duke.
• Lots of miscommunication on the offensive end especially by the bigs.  I saw two guys in the same spot multiple times.
• The defense was actually pretty good.  Good rotations and help D.  It also helps to have a front line with an average height of 6′10.
• Deon Thompson and Ed Davis played big today.  I want them to play like that against guys their own size.
• I would like to see Tyler Zeller, the Wear twins, John Henson, and even Ed Davis toughen up more.  Their lack of strength of toughness was apparent today as they constantly had the ball poked away from them.  They need to be more ferocious when they are out there so guys won’t even try to do stuff like that.  While they are all very tall, I can definitely see guys like Derrick Favors and Trevor Booker bullying them inside.  Heck, even Kyle Singler goes after the ball with more tenacity.  I would just like to see our bigs play to their size.  Under no circumstance should Zeller, a 7-footer, have had only one defensive rebound in 20 minutes of play today.  They all can take a page out of Tyler Hansbrough’s book of playing big and playing hard.  I do like Deon’s presence in the front though.  But at “only” 6′8, he’s just not a huge shot-blocking presence nor a great defensive rebounder.
• Marcus Ginyard is ripped.  And his foot looks healthy judging from that two-handed jam he threw down.
• I hope Will Graves stays focused throughout the season.  I was surprised to see him get the start today.
• I never realized when Leslie McDonald was on the court.  I have to watch him closer next time.
• If it wasn’t for all the talent that keeps shuttling in to Chapel Hill, I’d say Justin Watts could have had the same career trajectory as Reyshawn Terry.  Unfortunately he won’t get the playing time to become as productive as Terry.  Watts did provide the highlight of the night with his posterization of an FIU player followed by emphatic swat of another FIU player.
• The freshmen played like freshmen.  It was expected I guess.  None of them really showed why they were rated so highly in high school.  Henson looks very awkward out there.  Even on that alley-oop.  He obviously needs to get (a lot) bigger but it seems like he is still not used to his body.  His arms were flailing all over the place.  It was not very pleasing to watch.  I always shook my head when UNC fans compared him to Kevin Durant and I still do.  Durant was light years ahead of Henson in terms of development and skills at the same age and that was apparent even in high school clips of him.  I don’t see Henson scoring 20 points in a game this season which is actually good news because that means he’ll be back next year.  ALONG WITH HARRISON BARNES.  Hopefully.  I’m expecting the worst (Barnes going to Duke) but as always, hoping for the best.  We’ll see what happens on Friday.
• I’m happy with the win.  While it was not as convincing as I would’ve liked it to be, like is always said, a win is a win.  I’ll take it but I don’t think UNC is the fourth best team in the nation (not yet at least) and they showed why not tonight.