University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Asheville Game Guide
December 15, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 15, 2006
By Lauren Brownlow
After a weeklong hiatus, Carolina returns to the court tomorrow at 2 p.m. against UNC-Asheville. The game marks the beginning of a stretch in which the Tar Heels will play 3 games in 6 days after playing just 2 games in the past 16 days.
The Basics
After a week off, 3rd-ranked Carolina (7-1) will face UNC-Asheville (4-5) on Saturday. The Tar Heels are coming of a 94-69 win over High Point, and the Bulldogs beat Tusculum 84-66 on December 9.
Game Time: UNC-Asheville at North Carolina, 2:00 p.m.
Last Time: The Tar Heels came back from a tough loss to Southern Cal to beat the Bulldogs last season in Chapel Hill on December 28 by a score of 89-47. Danny Green led the Tar Heels with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Reyshawn Terry, Tyler Hansbrough and Marcus Ginyard each added 14 points. The Tar Heels held the Bulldogs to 30% shooting and forced 29 turnovers (including 20 steals). UNC-Asheville's leading scorer for the game, Oliver Holmes, graduated.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage begins at 1:00 p.m.
Injury Report: Quentin Thomas is out for 2-4 weeks with a stress fracture in his foot. Bobby Frasor is questionable with a hip injury and a sore foot. UNC-Asheville's 7-6 center Kenny George is questionable with a leg injury. Sophomore forwards Matt Day and Jason Ridenhour are also out with injuries.
Storylines
The Hansbrough/Wright connection: Though teams still insist on double-teaming Hansbrough, he hadn't showed a lot of comfort in finding his fellow big man when the defense converged on him. It wasn't until High Point that the comfort level between the two big men became incredibly evident. Their spacing was much better, and they were working the high-low very well as Hansbrough showed by hitting his first three-pointer of the year.
"He hasn't had that many opportunities to shoot it this year, but he is really a good shooter. As time goes along I think he will shoot more of those and I think he'll make them too," Roy Williams said. "I think people are still running two and three guys at him, which is somewhat hard to understand because the other guys are so effective offensively as well. We just have to get him to do a better job of passing out of the triple team and doing it a little more quickly."
In a stretch of less than a minute during the second half, Wright dished his third assist of the game to Hansbrough for his 24th points, only for Hansbrough to turn around on the next possession and feed Wright for his second assist and Wright's sixth and seventh points.
"We're at a phase where we're still kind of getting each other's movement down, and sometimes I kind of force it," Hansbrough said. "I practice with him (Wright) every day, and we're working well together. We're looking for each other. It's just something that we'll keep getting better at it.
"We have a whole new team and a lot of weapons. We have shooters, and we have Brandan down low who can do a lot of things, too. This year is different, but tonight they double-teamed me and I saw it coming, and I kicked it back out and at times I was in good position to score."
Free throws: Carolina is averaging 28.8 free-throw attempts per game, second in the ACC to only Wake Forest (32.1). The Tar Heels are averaging 19.5 free-throws made per game, also second only to Wake (20.3). But the Tar Heels still rank 8th in the league in free-throw percentage, and with the way Carolina wants to play basketball, everyone needs to be better at making their free throws. With a minimum of 2.5 free throws made per game, no Tar Heel ranks in the top 10 in the ACC in free-throw percentage. Using that minimum, Brandan Wright, Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson are shooting a combined 93-143 from the line (65%). Reyshawn Terry is a very good free-throw shooter and needs to get to the line just a bit more, averaging just 3 attempts a game.
UNC-Asheville ranks second in the Big South in free-throw percentage at 71.4% (142-199). The Bulldogs have two players in the top 10 in free-throw percentage in the Big South. Bryan Smithson ranks 5th (82.4%) and Vincent James 10th (65.2%).
At The Game
Listening to the Tar Heel Sports Network at the game: The in-stadium frequency in the Smith Center will be FM 92.7. That station will have a non-delayed feed of WCHL 1360, the local affiliate.
Watching At Home
Turn down the sound: If you're watching at home while listening to the radio or over the computer via Carolina All-Access, there will inevitably be some delay. For the reason--and a possible solution - click here.
A full list of THSN affiliates can be found here.
FSN coverage: The game will be available on FSN.
Names To Know
Alex Stepheson/Deon Thompson: At 9.8 minutes a game, Thompson seems to be becoming more of a part of the rotation than Stepheson at 5.8 minutes, but both freshmen played important minutes against Kentucky. Thompson is averaging 4.3 points a game and 2.9 rebounds, while Stepheson is averaging 2.3 points and 2.1 rebounds.
In the first five games, Thompson went 6-14 from the floor; in the last three, he has shot 8-11. Thompson's 80% mark from the free-throw line (8-of-10) is a team-high among the big men. After pulling down just nine rebounds in the first six games, Stepheson has eight in the last two. Both had season-highs in minutes played versus High Point as Thompson played 16 and Stepheson 12. Stepheson had four turnovers and three fouls in the first three games, and hasn't had a single foul or turnover in the last five. Thompson has six turnovers in the first five games and only two since.
Both freshmen could play an important role when the Tar Heels face teams with a lot of height. The December games leading up to ACC play will serve as an excellent training ground for the two freshmen to continue to improve and grow.
Bryant Smithson: The junior guard has scored in double figures in all of the Bulldogs' eight games and is leading the team in scoring with 16.2 points per game. He is also leading the team in both three-point percentage (41.4%) and made three-pointers (12-29). Despite being only six feet tall, he has shown a willingness to attack the basket as he has attempted 34 free throws, the second-highest figure on the team and the same number as Ty Lawson. Smithson is a transfer from Middle Tennessee State and scored 25 points in his UNC-Asheville debut, the best of any UNC-Asheville player in 20 years.
Quotables
"I matured a great deal when we won 200. I took my team and my golfing buddies and we went to Baskin Robbins and had a heck of a celebration."--Roy Williams
"We're all spoiled rotten. We'd probably criticize the pope if the pope was coaching, and I don't know if he's had a good year or not."--Roy Williams
"I brought my high school coach and introduced him to Coach Knight. It's funny, my high school coach is the guy who got me started playing golf, and he said, 'Roy tells me you're the guy that got him started playing golf.' But I can't repeat what he said, but it was really funny. I'd have a hard time repeating it if it were just one of us, much less a young lady or two in the crowd."
After a reporter pressed him to elaborate, he said, "He said, 'Boy, so you're the blankety-blank-blank that did such a blankety-blank-blank thing. I don't even know why Roy even talks to you anymore.'"--Roy Williams
"It's ten crossings of the court (in 55 seconds). It's one that half of you guys couldn't do, and the ones that did do it would puke as soon as you finished, or you'd have to have oxygen. We'd have to have more than one doctor here."--Roy Williams when asked what a 55 is after he had threatened to make the team run them after the game if they did not get a defensive stop on the next possession.
Lauren Brownlow is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
