University of North Carolina Athletics
Penn Game Guide
January 3, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 3, 2007
By Lauren Brownlow
The Basics
No. 2 Carolina (12-1) is coming off its ninth straight win, notching 81-51 victory over Dayton on Sunday. The Tar Heels will face Penn on Wednesday night in the Smith Center in what will be their last game before their ACC schedule begins on Sunday. The Quakers (6-5) are coming off a 94-85 defeat at Seton Hall on December 23. The Quakers have also suffered narrow losses to UTEP (69-66) and Villanova (99-89).
As of this morning, tickets are still available. It is the last game of the season with public availability.
Game Time: Penn at North Carolina, 8 p.m.
Last Time: In the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 1987, the No. 1 seeded Tar Heels beat the 16th-seeded Penn Quakers 113-82. Joe Wolf paced the Tar Heels with 25 points.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage begins at 7 p.m.
Injury Report: Quentin Thomas dressed for the first time since Gonzaga against Dayton as he recovers from a stress fracture in his foot. Bobby Frasor will not play.
Storylines
Establishing a defensive identity: Coach Williams has been trying to get his team to take playing defense more seriously all season long. After a remarkable defensive transformation in the previous 6-7 games, this is the last game before conference play begins and the last chance to solidify that defensive identity.
"There are not many teams that get out and pressure in the halfcourt and deny in the passing lanes anymore as much as there was 10 or 15 years ago," Coach Williams said. "But I'm comfortable coaching that way, it's what I believe in, so we practice it every day."
When asked if he was pleased with the Tar Heels giving up no more than 52 points in the last four games, Coach Williams did not seem impressed.
"I've never been a fan of how many points you're giving up a game, because you could hold the ball yourself and really hold them down," Coach Williams said. "You look at those opponents, each one of those opponents have tried to spread us and tried to control the tempo. If somebody comes in and wants to run up and down the floor with us and we hold them to 51 or 48, I'll be ecstatic then."
So as a result of the tempo factor, Coach Williams prefers looking at field goal percentage defense. Fine: No Carolina opponent has shot higher than 43.5% in the last six games, and the Tar Heels held the Flyers to just 30% from the field, a season low.
"Again, we weren't very sharp offensively, but give Dayton's defense some credit for that," Coach Williams said. "But when you hold a team to 21 percent in the first half you know that you're going to be okay regardless of what you're doing on offense and the offensive end."
Coach Williams has somehow managed to get these freshmen to buy into playing defense, and all of them are starting to see the benefits.
"It makes everything a lot easier," Brandan Wright said. "When you come out and do things on defense, the teams are shooting below 40% it makes everything easier for us. We don't have to go out there and score 100 points a game."
The last few games were not as challenging as ACC games will be, but one thing most of these teams have done is force Carolina to learn to play at a slower tempo. Every single defender on the floor has had to communicate, know who their man is, know who to double team and play defense for almost a full 35 seconds of shot clock. The traps have forced some teams to move faster, but the tempo of the past four games has been slow and deliberate.
"We know teams are going to hold it out for a last-second shot clock, so that's why we play pressure defense. It forces them to shoot bad shots or shoot quicker than they normally would," Danny Green said.
The experience of guarding Dayton's Brian Roberts was also positive for the Tar Heels, as they will be facing an even more prolific scorer in Penn's Mark Zoller on Wednesday and more scorers to come in the ACC. The Tar Heels held Roberts to 5-of-17 from the field and 2-of-7 from the three-point line, including 2-of-10 from the field in the first half and 0-of-3 from the three-point line. Roberts was shooting 44.1% from the three-point line and 44.4% from the field, and the Tar Heels held him to 29.4% from the field and 28.6% from the three-point line.
"The (Brian) Roberts kid is a little bit of a load for them, a load for the team that he's playing against," Coach Williams said. "We really tried to cut down his percentage and tried to get a hand up every time he shot it. The big guys did a nice job of helping when he did penetrate past our perimeter guys."
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.
ESPN coverage: The game will be available on ESPN.
Names To Know
Reyshawn Terry: Terry struggled out of the gate against Dayton, going 1-of-4 from the field, 0-of-2 from the three-point line and turning it over three times against just one assist in 10 minutes. In the second half, however, Terry went 1-of-3 from the field (1-of-2 from the three-point line), pulled down four rebounds (to add to his three in the first half), dished out two assists and did not turn it over.
Terry took two charges during the course of the game, and has showed much better body control on the offensive end as well, failing to record a charging foul in at least seven games.
Everyone has been waiting for Terry to morph into David Noel, but it is an impossible comparison, mostly because they play for two completely different kinds of teams. Terry is on a loaded team full of talented scorers, while Noel was one of just two or three consistent scoring threats last season. Through 13 games last year, David Noel had 40 turnovers to Terry's 26. But in 431 minutes, David Noel's 40 turnovers (0.09 per minute) equal out to Terry's 26 in 276 minutes (0.09 per minute). Noel was forced to be a scorer on last year's squad, but even his 0.39 points per minute in the first 13 games (166 in 431 minutes) does not compare with Terry's 122 points in 276 minutes (0.44 per minute).
The point is, there really is no comparison. Carolina needed Terry to score last year; it doesn't this year. Carolina needs Terry to step up and set a positive example for this young group on both ends of the floor, just like Noel did, and so far he has done just that. Sometimes, that entails doing things that don't necessarily show up in the stat sheet.
"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."
Alex Stepheson: In just 98 minutes (7.5 a game), Stepheson has scored 43 points (3.3 a game) and pulled down 38 rebounds (2.9 a game). He leads the team in rebounds per minute (0.39), offensive rebounds per minute (0.16), and defensive rebounds per minute (0.25). Fifteen of his 38 rebounds are offensive rebounds (39.5%), and that percentage ranks third on the team behind Marcus Ginyard (19-of-43; 44.2%) and Tyler Hansbrough (43-of-99; 43.4%). After pulling down just three offensive rebounds in the first seven games, Stepheson has 12 in the last six. He has also increased his rebound totals from 13 in the first seven games to 25 in the last six.
Though Stepheson struggled scoring earlier in the year with just 15 points on 4-of-11 (36.3%) shooting in the first seven games, he has 28 points on 12-of-19 shooting (63.2%) in the last six. Stepheson turned in one of his most efficient performances on the year in the first half of the Rutgers game, scoring six points on 3-of-4 shooting from the field and pulling down three rebounds (two offensive) in just four minutes of action.
Known as a shot-blocker in high school, he has five blocks on the year, including two against Dayton, both in the first half in his first six minutes. He also pulled down three rebounds in that stretch. In the second half, he added five points on 2-of-4 shooting from the field and another three rebounds (two offensive) in just six minutes. Coming into the game with just six fouls on the year, Stepheson and Thompson combined for seven fouls in just 26 minutes (three for Stepheson in 12 minutes). Quite a few came while struggling with Dayton's defenders to get position.
"Their (Dayton's) defense inside was very difficult for us," Coach Williams said. "We had two or three offensive fouls on our post players because they were trying to do a good job of fighting around."
Stepheson has also nearly doubled his minutes played from 34 in the first seven games (4.9 a game) to 64 in the last six games (10.7 a game). It is not likely he will see as many minutes when ACC play begins, but Stepheson will likely get significant playing time on Wednesday. He will face quite a challenge against one of the top-20 scorers in the country (Penn's Mark Zoller). When he and Thompson are called upon in ACC play to spell Hansbrough and Wright, both need to be ready to answer, and this game should help that process.
Mark Zoller: The 6-7 senior leads his team in both scoring (21.3 points a game) and rebounding (7.9 a game). Of his teammates that have attempted 20 or more field goals, he ranks second in field-goal percentage (57%) and three-point percentage (41.3%). He leads the team in three-pointers made (19) and attempted (46). He also leads the team in free-throw percentage, shooting 53-of-69 from the stripe (76.8%). He also ranks third on the team in both assists (2.5 a game) and steals (1.5 a game).
Zoller has nearly upped his junior season scoring average by 10 (12.7 to 21.3) while only averaging over four more minutes a game (28.9 last season to 33.5 this season).
Ibrahim Jaaber: The senior guard is coming off a career-high 32 points (15-of-22 from the field) in the Quakers' Dec. 23 loss to Seton Hall, including 28 points in the second half. Jaaber was an Honorable Mention AP All-American last season, and is picking up where he left off this year, leading the team in minutes played (36.5 a game), assists (5.5 a game), steals (3.4 a game), field goal percentage (59.2%) and offensive rebounds (2.3 a game). He ranks second on the team in scoring with 15.7 points a game and in made three-pointers with 15. His 37.5% from beyond the arc ranks third on the team. Of the Quakers averaging double-figure minutes, Jaaber has the best assist-turnover ratio (1.5).
Quotables
"When Ty (Lawson) went down on that lay up attempt he landed right on his tail. That was bothering him at the end. I was just happy it wasn't his hand because his tail has got a good bit of padding down there." -Roy Williams
"Two guys are coming down towards you, they're not coming just to see what kind of day you're having - they're coming down to screen you." -Roy Williams
"Several years ago, when I was here as an assistant, Linda Woods (Coach Smith's secretary) asked me, `Do you have anything special planned tonight?' I said, `No.' She said, `You're not going to any party?' I said, `No.' She said, `You don't realize what day it is, do you?' I said, `No.' So New Years Eve has never been very important to me." -Roy Williams
"You put them (the 2005 team) on a neutral floor (and) they would be out of luck. They had some talented players on the 2005 team, but our youth would take over. Those are old guys." -Brandan Wright on this team's chances against the 2005 team
Lauren Brownlow is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
