...and this one (the outcome, at least) was about JUSTICE.
I'm just gonna say it (and dissent at your peril) but for those of us who have lived and breathed Carolina basketball since our youth, this was an old-fashioned against-all-odds / 5-on-8 / de-facto-road-game Carolina tourney win. Somewhere in heaven Woody Durham was calling this one. Unfortunately, he would've had to say. "go where ya go, and do what ya do". Thing is, it should never have come anywhere near down to that... but more on that below.
First, my game notes:
- Our first two possessions worried me as we looked sluggish out of the gate and got down 0-4, but lemme tell ya, we woke up and gave Baylor a good first-half ass-whuppin, all the while fending off their incessant goon-ball. And no, that is not too strong of a term. It started with their normal shenanigans of grab-and-hold defense combined with illegal screens on pretty much every possession. And I was really proud of how we "played thru" that junk.
- And hell, we came out in the second, fending off even more Baylor goonery to extend the lead to what SHOULD have been the decisive margin. Again, more on that below...
- Speaking of waking up, somebody gave RJ a loud alarm today, because he came out smokin'. Thank heaven, as our other marksmen hadn't got outta bed just yet. Baylor's physicality also woke us up in general as we blocked out and won the scrums more often than not. And maybe most importantly, we played as good a version of 22 defense as I've seen in a LONG time --- almost nothing Baylor got was uncontested.
- Ok, I'm gonna say it straight-up: There were 2 big reasons we extended out to a 25-pt lead --- for a brief shining 7-8 minutes, the zebras actually called some of the continuous fouling (that they'd mostly ignored in the first half), and Birdy Manek woke up and took their asses to school. Yeah, well... so much for that. Apparently they got the memo and it turned the game. There were more horrible calls/no-calls than you could shake a stick at. Most momentum-changing was the gawd-awful body-check on Caleb tha resulted in a back-court, and of course, the terrible assignment of a flagrant-2 for what was by rule a flagrant-1. Not only did that eject our hottest guy, it took away a veteran decision-maker in the face of Baylor's "hot" press.
- Now, as a coach you hafta point out that we lost our composure in the wake of that, committing dumb offensive frustration-fouls, making dumb passes and missing way the hell too many FTs. In other words, we stopped "playing thru". And in Press-O (that we executed so well Thursday) we held the ball instead of quick reversals and pitching ahead (thankfully that got mostly cleaned up in OT).
- Speaking of OT... we were watching the debacle of the last 10 minutes, hoping against hope that it wouldn't get to OT --- what with us down two starters, and them (miraculously) down none. But lemme tell ya, we got some clutch heroics from off the bench. Dontez nailing that opening 3 was MEGA-BIG to regain our mojo (Lordy, when he finally learns to play under control...), and McKoy coming in cold and playing D like an absolute HOSS, as Mando was saddled with foul trouble. I dunno what Hubert said in the huddle before OT (I"m sure Adam will tell us at some point), but it worked. And THE key move was finally swithing Leaky onto #10 (who was abusing RJ on isos) and choking that f***er off. Yeah... as much as I DIDN'T like our last regulation possession, that made up for it. Net reult? 13-6 in OT, bitches!
- And finally... and I ain't holding back. The way that game was called was inexcusable. Take this in, y'all: That bleach-blonde goon #1 had 3 fouls called all game --- again, THREE fouls. That dirty sumbitch shouldn't have made it to half-time. Un-f***ing-real. And while Scott Drew is a capable coach (who has a Natty under his belt) I have ZERO respect for a coach that encourages his teams to play goon-ball like that. It's the sort of shortcut that wrecks a beautiful game, and has no place. And far too often a bad crew doesn't rein it in early and fights, injuries and mayhem ensue, too often affecting the outcomes, and/or the retaliator getting the blame.
- Anyway (phew, deep breath...), I filled out 4 brackets for various contests, and had us beating Baylor in every one. That wasn't homerism. I knew damn well we were better than them... IF we continued our aggressive play, and IF we could survive everything that was stacked against us. Somehow, some way, we did. I can't help harkening back to 1977 and surviving a similar environment vs Bill Laimbeer and his ND goon-squad on St Patrick's day, no less. The bad news there was Phil Ford got hurt. Hopefully we come out of today with only bruises. But in both those games, the final result was JUCTICE, baby!.......
I'm just gonna say it (and dissent at your peril) but for those of us who have lived and breathed Carolina basketball since our youth, this was an old-fashioned against-all-odds / 5-on-8 / de-facto-road-game Carolina tourney win. Somewhere in heaven Woody Durham was calling this one. Unfortunately, he would've had to say. "go where ya go, and do what ya do". Thing is, it should never have come anywhere near down to that... but more on that below.
First, my game notes:
- Our first two possessions worried me as we looked sluggish out of the gate and got down 0-4, but lemme tell ya, we woke up and gave Baylor a good first-half ass-whuppin, all the while fending off their incessant goon-ball. And no, that is not too strong of a term. It started with their normal shenanigans of grab-and-hold defense combined with illegal screens on pretty much every possession. And I was really proud of how we "played thru" that junk.
- And hell, we came out in the second, fending off even more Baylor goonery to extend the lead to what SHOULD have been the decisive margin. Again, more on that below...
- Speaking of waking up, somebody gave RJ a loud alarm today, because he came out smokin'. Thank heaven, as our other marksmen hadn't got outta bed just yet. Baylor's physicality also woke us up in general as we blocked out and won the scrums more often than not. And maybe most importantly, we played as good a version of 22 defense as I've seen in a LONG time --- almost nothing Baylor got was uncontested.
- Ok, I'm gonna say it straight-up: There were 2 big reasons we extended out to a 25-pt lead --- for a brief shining 7-8 minutes, the zebras actually called some of the continuous fouling (that they'd mostly ignored in the first half), and Birdy Manek woke up and took their asses to school. Yeah, well... so much for that. Apparently they got the memo and it turned the game. There were more horrible calls/no-calls than you could shake a stick at. Most momentum-changing was the gawd-awful body-check on Caleb tha resulted in a back-court, and of course, the terrible assignment of a flagrant-2 for what was by rule a flagrant-1. Not only did that eject our hottest guy, it took away a veteran decision-maker in the face of Baylor's "hot" press.
- Now, as a coach you hafta point out that we lost our composure in the wake of that, committing dumb offensive frustration-fouls, making dumb passes and missing way the hell too many FTs. In other words, we stopped "playing thru". And in Press-O (that we executed so well Thursday) we held the ball instead of quick reversals and pitching ahead (thankfully that got mostly cleaned up in OT).
- Speaking of OT... we were watching the debacle of the last 10 minutes, hoping against hope that it wouldn't get to OT --- what with us down two starters, and them (miraculously) down none. But lemme tell ya, we got some clutch heroics from off the bench. Dontez nailing that opening 3 was MEGA-BIG to regain our mojo (Lordy, when he finally learns to play under control...), and McKoy coming in cold and playing D like an absolute HOSS, as Mando was saddled with foul trouble. I dunno what Hubert said in the huddle before OT (I"m sure Adam will tell us at some point), but it worked. And THE key move was finally swithing Leaky onto #10 (who was abusing RJ on isos) and choking that f***er off. Yeah... as much as I DIDN'T like our last regulation possession, that made up for it. Net reult? 13-6 in OT, bitches!
- And finally... and I ain't holding back. The way that game was called was inexcusable. Take this in, y'all: That bleach-blonde goon #1 had 3 fouls called all game --- again, THREE fouls. That dirty sumbitch shouldn't have made it to half-time. Un-f***ing-real. And while Scott Drew is a capable coach (who has a Natty under his belt) I have ZERO respect for a coach that encourages his teams to play goon-ball like that. It's the sort of shortcut that wrecks a beautiful game, and has no place. And far too often a bad crew doesn't rein it in early and fights, injuries and mayhem ensue, too often affecting the outcomes, and/or the retaliator getting the blame.
- Anyway (phew, deep breath...), I filled out 4 brackets for various contests, and had us beating Baylor in every one. That wasn't homerism. I knew damn well we were better than them... IF we continued our aggressive play, and IF we could survive everything that was stacked against us. Somehow, some way, we did. I can't help harkening back to 1977 and surviving a similar environment vs Bill Laimbeer and his ND goon-squad on St Patrick's day, no less. The bad news there was Phil Ford got hurt. Hopefully we come out of today with only bruises. But in both those games, the final result was JUCTICE, baby!.......
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