University of North Carolina Athletics
High Point Game Guide
December 8, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 8, 2006
By Lauren Brownlow
The Basics
The No. 3 Tar Heels (7-1) are looking for what could be Roy Williams' 500th career win on Saturday when they face the High Point Panthers. Coming off a big week when the Tar Heels beat Ohio State and Kentucky, the team has had a week off to prepare for the third of a five-game home stand. High Point (6-3) is coming off a 59-57 win over Longwood on Wednesday. Two of the Panthers' three losses are to Cincinnati (63-51) and Maryland (81-63). The Panthers trailed the Terrapins by just four at halftime.
Game Time: High Point at North Carolina, 7 p.m.
Last Time: On December 11, 1946, a Tom Scott-coached Carolina squad beat High Point 44-41 at home. That year's squad featured the famous Tar Heel John "Hook" Dillon.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage begins at 6 p.m.
Storylines
Keeping the intensity level high: With about 17:31 to go in the Kentucky game, Tyler Hansbrough knocks the ball away from the man he is defending. The ball squirts loose, and Hansbrough leans down to grab it. Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington stand around and watch, and the team starts to run the break, even though Hansbrough can't get a handle on the ball, as the Kentucky player is diving for it. Kentucky gets it back and though Danny Green blocks the quick shot, Lawson is called for a foul. Roy Williams immediately pulls those five out for a new five.
"The basketball's rolling on the floor and we're tiptoeing through the freaking tulips, reaching over to get the ball. That's the stupidest thing," Coach Williams said. "You know the reason we do that little patter, patter feet and dive (in warm-ups)? Because we tell people that we're going to dive for the loose ball. We had four guys daintily trying to get the dadgum basketball. If it's rolling on the floor, it's got North Carolina written all over it. You'd better get it, or I'll get somebody else in that will."
Marcus Ginyard, one of the five who came in, was also disappointed in the lack of effort shown, especially since he is not one you would find "tiptoeing through the tulips" with a loose ball on the ground.
"That's something that should never be addressed by the coaches. That's something that the players should take care of all the time," Ginyard said. "You can't coach that effort; you can't coach that hustle. That's something that's outside their hands and they should never have to deal with. There's not one thing I could think of that would make him angrier."
But Coach Williams needs the help of the Carolina faithful. As Adam Lucas noted, Billy Packer chastised the Carolina crowd for returning to its wine-and-cheese ways after a fantastic performance against Ohio State.
"The crowd definitely wasn't as emotionally into the game as they were Wednesday night. It's only the second time in my entire career that I've ever stood up and waved at the crowd and tried to wake them up," Williams said. "But it's part of it. I told this team that we shouldn't wait for the crowd to get us going, let's get the crowd going. But we've got to do a better job in that, playing, coaching, cheering, standing up stomping your feet, we've got to do a better job of everything."
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.
Names To Know
Bobby Frasor: Frasor played another solid game against Kentucky, playing 12 minutes and not scoring any points but dishing out three assists and committing just one turnover. One of Frasor's three assists came on a spectacular lob to Brandan Wright for a dunk with 9:26 left. As usual, Frasor made contributions that will only make the coaches' stat sheet, tapping out an offensive rebound to keep it alive and taking a charge with about 10 minutes left. He took a knee to the thigh that took him out of the game with about 3:20 left, but he went back in when Lawson fouled out with just seconds remaining. Lawson is extremely fun to watch, but don't think you've seen the last of Bobby Frasor.
"The Bob Cousy Award - I love Ty, but to have Ty as one of the finalists and not the guy who started 23 games last year is asinine," Roy Williams said of the fact that Ty Lawson was a preseason nominee for the award and Frasor was not.
Frasor ranks first in the league in assist-turnover ratio with 21 assists and just six turnovers for a 3.50 ratio. The next-closest is Boston College's Jared Dudley with 2.55. Though he hasn't done much shooting, he is second on the team in three-pointers made (8) to Wayne Ellington (14) and second in three-point percentage with 44.4% to Ty Lawson, who is shooting 46.2%. Frasor still ranks sixth on the team in scoring with 4.3 a game and his three-pointer definitely looks a lot smoother than it did a year ago.
"Last year I was looking more to run the team. This year, I worked on that in the off-season," Frasor said. "I'm confident in that right now, my percentages are up, I'm taking good shots. Hopefully I'll continue to do that and they'll continue to fall for me."
Frasor's sore foot has been an interesting development, as he has continued his solid play and double-figure minutes. With a week off to rest the foot, Frasor should use this time to come back strong, get his minutes back up and get back into an offensive groove.
Reyshawn Terry: Terry is coming off his best all-around game of the year and his first with fewer than two turnovers. He ended up with 16 points (including 4-of-6 from the three-point line), nine rebounds, three assists, two steals, one block and just one foul, which ties a season-low for Terry. He also had tied his season-high in assists, rebounds and offensive rebounds (three). He got the Tar Heels going early with a nice pass to Brandan Wright for a dunk. The next play, his deflection of a Kentucky pass led to a Hansbrough steal and he set a nice screen for Ellington to knock down a three-pointer. He followed that up with a three-pointer and another basket, all in the first three minutes of play. "I definitely felt like I just had to jump out and be that guy to have a lot of energy and get our team going from the start," Terry said. "We just came off a high win with Ohio State. A lot of people were bickering about whether we were going to be mentally into it form the jump, so I just had to go out and get the younger guys ready and let them know that this is another game so we have to play big today. I definitely felt like that was my role." Terry does not have the scoring he did last year, but with all the other scoring threats on this team, he doesn't need to. Terry ranks seventh in the ACC in blocks with 1.7 a game. Terry ranks 14th in the league in rebounding with 6.1 a game.
"It does help our team when Reyshawn scores, but it's not nearly as crucial this year as it was last year," Williams said. "This year, we scored 100-something one game and he had single digits. We couldn't have scored 100 last year if he had single digits and we left the other team in the locker room. Everybody's got to play, and Reyshawn hasn't played very well. I think knocking some of those shots down today was crucial for him."
Terry was very active on the floor on the defensive end, deflecting a lot of Kentucky passes, making a few blocks and diving on the ball quite a few times. But as Coach Williams pointed out, being active is not necessarily enough.
"I think he was sorry defensively," Coach Williams said. "When Derrick Jasper gets it and drives it all the way to the basket from the wing over there when you're supposed to make your man go the opposite direction, that's not very good. When you don't know who your man is and you sprint back to the wrong guy, that's not very good."
The Kentucky game was only Terry's third game in double figures this year, and he has struggled with offensive fouls and turning the ball over. But his performance Saturday did a lot to give him confidence in his game and he seemed more comfortable on the floor. "I don't look at it as losing confidence. It's just a struggle right now. With the guys that we have - we have a lot of guys that can get it done," Terry said. "I just have to find my fit, just being that senior leader, just making some sacrifices for the team. I really don't have a problem doing that. Tonight, I just happened to have a good game. "I just think it's a matter of me getting a feel of Brandan and Tyler playing together and all of us getting the feel of each other a little bit more. With that said, time will tell. It takes time. It's a process. We just have to go out there and get the feel of each other even more each game." Arizona Reid: The junior guard is coming off his fifth double-double of the year with a 16-point, 10-rebound performance against Longwood on Wednesday. This season, he leads his team in scoring with 17 points a game and is sixth in Big South in scoring. He leads his team in rebounding with 9.4 a game and in offensive rebounding with 3.9 a game. He has eclipsed 20 points in four of High Point's nine games, including a 32-point, 17-rebound effort against Covenant College and 19 against Maryland in a game in which the Panthers played the Terrapins tough, trailing by just four at halftime.
Reid was first-team All-Big South last season. He started in every game last season and led the team in scoring (18.3 points per game) and rebounding (9.1). He had 12 double-doubles and seven of those with 20 or more points and ten or more rebounds last season. He also had a career game against Kentucky, scoring a career high 29 points and 16 rebounds.
Though Reid is very talented, he has fouled out of five games. Since he seems to be the Panthers' biggest scoring threat, the Tar Heels need to go at him early and often.
Quotables
"If you go to every program in the country and say, `Do you want a guy who wins one national championship in ten years and wins 74% of his games,' I think you'd probably have to have some extra napkins, because they'd be slobbering all over themselves." -Roy Williams on Tubby Smith's coaching record
"I don't think I'd be welcomed that nicely over at Durham, if I were to just walk in and say, `Hey, I thought I'd come see Georgetown and Duke play, went down the street to get a hot dog and ended up in Cameron Indoor Stadium.' Mike (Krzyzewski), I doubt that he'll put on the mustache and come over here to our game." -Roy Williams on if he was going to watch the Georgetown-Duke game.
"The fans, I'm hoping they won't be sitting back relaxing because it is Kentucky. That's a level of disinterest that I hope we never have; somebody sees Kentucky come in and says, `Oh, ho-hum.' This is big-time college basketball at its best. It is Kentucky against North Carolina, the two winningest teams in college basketball. We only have 17 home games. I can get fired up to eat ice cream 17 times in a month, much less coach 17 basketball games in a year." -Roy Williams before the Kentucky game, foreshdowing the lack of fan involvement
"That's the reason they call that big thing up in the sky a scoreboard. It does help your team if you score." -Roy Williams responding to a reporter that suggested Reyshawn Terry's scoring contribution helps the team win
Lauren Brownlow is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
