University of North Carolina Athletics
FSU Game Guide
January 28, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 28, 2009
By Lauren Brownlow
The Basics
No. 5/6 Carolina (17-2, 3-2) will travel to Tallahassee to take on Florida State (16-4, 3-2) after taking a week off for its first of two straight road games in ACC play. Carolina will play four of its next six games on the road. Carolina is coming off of a 94-70 win over No. 10 Clemson; the Tar Heels have won three straight ACC games after dropping their first two. Florida State is coming off of a 73-62 win at Virginia on Saturday. The Seminoles' defense held Virginia to just three first-half field goals.
Carolina leads the series between the two schools, 39-8. Carolina has won nine straight meetings, including all three last season (one in overtime), and has won 20 of the last 23. Carolina has won three straight games in Tallahassee; the longest Carolina winning streak at Florida State is four games (1993-06 and 1997-01). Carolina has a 12-4 record in the Donald L. Tucker Center, losing in 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2004. Roy Williams is 9-1 against the Seminoles, the lone loss coming in his first game against Florida State as head coach.
Game Time: North Carolina at Florida State, 9:00 PM.
Last Time: Carolina beat Florida State 82-70 in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament on March 14, 2008. Carolina shot 59.3% in the second half and stretched out a 35-28 halftime lead to as many as 15 points. The Tar Heels did allow Florida State to shoot 49.1%. The Seminoles had made just 6-of-16 from beyond the arc in first 35 minutes but finished the final 4:47 making 4-of-5. The Tar Heels responded almost every time so the lead was never cut to fewer than 11 points in that span. The rebounding was even at 30, marking just the third time to that point that Carolina had not out-rebounded an opponent. Carolina's ten turnovers were its fewest against the Seminoles all season.
Tyler Hansbrough led the Tar Heels with 22 points and tied for the lead in rebounds with six. Wayne Ellington added 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting, beginning what would end up being a fantastic ACC Tournament run for him. Marcus Ginyard added ten points on 4-of-5 shooting (including 2-of-2 three's); he also tied for the team lead in rebounds with six and led the team in assists with four. Jason Rich led the Seminoles with 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting. Toney Douglas had 18 points on his best shooting day against the Tar Heels that season (7-of-17, 4-of-7 from beyond the arc). He also added a team-high five assists and three steals. Ralph Mims had 15 points (3-of-7 from three) and Uche Echefu added a team-high nine rebounds.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage begins at 8:00 PM.
Injury Report: Mike Copeland tore his ACL in May and saw his first action of the season against Nevada. Tyler Zeller broke his wrist against Kentucky. He had surgery and will likely miss the rest of the season. Marcus Ginyard returned to limited action in the Nevada and Boston College games but has missed the last two games. He is still trying to get back into his normal form after having surgery on October 8th to repair a stress fracture in his foot. Carolina will continue to hold him out of practice until the end of this week and then re-evaluate his condition.
Storylines
Putting the ball in the basket: As Roy Williams likes to say, that's what basketball comes down to - putting the ball in the dadgum basket. Carolina didn't play as well defensively as it would have liked in its first two ACC games, but shooting a combined 28.8% in the second half of both losses didn't help. Carolina got over a third of its points from the foul line in the second half of both games, which is fortunate since it hit just 30.6% of its two-point attempts. Without those two second halves, Carolina has shot 49.3% from two-point range in ACC games and 46.5% overall. Carolina has had 15 shots blocked in the last three games (5.0 per game) but had 15 shots blocked in its first two games (7.5 per game).
Florida State blocks 17% of its opponents' shots, a figure that ranks sixth in the country. The Seminoles are one of the best defensive teams in the conference, holding teams to 38.2% shooting (second behind Wake Forest) and it showed against Virginia last weekend. With 5:15 to go in the first half, one might have thought they had stumbled across a football game as they led the Cavaliers 26-7 and had an astonishing 18 points off Virginia turnovers already. Even though the Cavaliers have struggled some offensively this season, it takes a lockdown defensive effort to hold an ACC team to just seven points in nearly 15 minutes.
Florida State is ninth in the league in three-point defense, allowing teams to shoot 32.3 percent from beyond the arc. In ACC play, opponents have hit 39.4% of their three's in the Seminoles' two losses and just 26.4% in three wins. The Seminoles are 16th in the nation in two-point field-goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to hit just 41.1 percent inside the arc. In ACC play, teams have shot just 44.9% against Florida State from two-point range in two ACC wins and 50% in two ACC losses. Carolina has played three of the top 50 teams in the nation already in terms of two-point defense, including Wake Forest (which is in the top ten). In those games, Carolina shot 39.9% from two-point range, 49% from beyond the arc and averaged 24.7 free-throw attempts and 80.7 points. In Carolina's other 16 games, it averaged 95.3 points and shot 56.2% from two-point range, 35.7% from three-point range and averaged 26.7 free-throw attempts.
"They make it difficult for you to get easy buckets and if you can take away another team's easy baskets, it's a huge advantage for you," Williams said. "We've got to do a great job of taking one hard fake and then take it right to the rim hard right at the guy's face. We've got to be able to make some outside shots. We've got to be able to move the ball. ... With their size, a little bit like Wake Forest, they don't necessarily have to block (shots) because they make you alter the shots. They take away your real easy shots."
The real key to beating Florida State seems to be balance offensively. Duke and Miami, the two teams to beat Florida State in ACC play, combined to hit 46.2% of their field goals, 39.4% of three-pointers and averaged 32 free-throw attempts, hitting 21 of those. Those teams also combined to average 11.5 assists and 16 turnovers; the three teams to lose to Florida State averaged just 9.3 assists to 17.7 turnovers. Florida State averaged 22.3 points off those turnovers in its three wins and 17 points in the two losses.
Despite the height on its front line, Florida State is last in the league in rebounding offense and tenth in rebounding margin (+2.6). The Seminoles are third in blocked shots behind Clemson and North Carolina, averaging 6.2 per game. In Florida State's first three ACC games, it allowed teams to score 15 second-chance points on 12.3 offensive rebounds. Something has changed significantly as now, that number has dropped to a mere 6.5 second-chance points on 11 offensive rebounds. The Seminoles averaged 13.3 points off of 14.7 offensive rebounds in their first three ACC games. Against Duke it was particularly a problem as the Seminoles had a whopping 23 offensive rebounds - the most in any league game - and managed just 16 second-chance points. In the last two games, Florida State has still struggled to capitalize on second chances with 8.5 points on 15 offensive rebounds.
Still, rebounding is an area that Carolina has been inconsistent in this season and despite averaging nearly four more offensive rebounds in ACC play (17.4 compared to 13.7 in non-conference), Carolina has scored fewer second-chance points (16.2 to 16.9). Even in two ACC wins, Carolina has averaged as many second-chance points as it did offensive rebounds in non-conference play (13.7). In the two losses, Carolina had 20 second-chance points on a whopping 24.5 offensive boards. Last year's Tar Heels out-rebounded the Seminoles 54-26 in Tallahassee and that was the difference in the game. But this year's team isn't quite on that level on the backboards - yet. "I think we're a good rebounding team. I thought last year we were a great rebounding team and we're not to that point yet," Williams said. "When we have a couple of line-ups in there tonight, we have one guy shooting the ball and three guys getting back so we've got to do a better job of getting people where they're supposed to be."
No free lunch: Carolina's nine steals against Clemson were its most in ACC play so far and the most in the last five games, but Carolina's defensive turnaround has been the story of its three-game ACC winning streak. Carolina has either turned around or changed its last three games with its defense, particularly against Miami and Clemson. "We just finally made a decision to put our foot down and get stops," Ellington said. "We wanted to do it on the defensive end of the floor. We knew our offense would come. We just wanted to get into passing lanes and force them to do something they don't usually do."
The Tar Heels obviously struggled putting the ball in the basket against its first two ACC opponents. But their opponents didn't, shooting 46.6% from the floor, 39.5% from beyond the arc and averaging 88.5 points, 38.0 in the paint. Carolina also only scored 9.5 points off of 13.5 turnovers in those two games. In the last three league games, Carolina has scored 16.3 points off of 13.7 turnovers and held opponents to 34.9% shooting (27.1% from beyond the arc), 65.3 points per game and just 28.7 points in the paint. Carolina is 33rd in the nation in two-point defense, allowing opponents to hit just 42.9 percent of shots inside the arc. Capitalizing off of opponents' mistakes and holding opponents to fewer easy baskets in the paint has been a major key to Carolina's defensive turnaround.
"It's more of an attitude and desire, just putting in the extra effort and being involved. You've just got to be involved defensively," Danny Green said. "Everybody has to be involved. We have this thing where we don't want to give anybody any free lay-ups or free easy baskets. We call it `no free lunch'. So you get in there, you challenge a shot, box them out and limit them to one bad shot. If we can, one of the bigger guys or shot blockers will try to block it. If not, we put a hand up and don't give them anything easy."
As stated above, Carolina has played three of the nation's top 50 teams in two-point defense and is 2-1 in those games. The difference in two of the three games - double-digit wins over Kentucky and Miami - was the Tar Heel defense taking over. Carolina forced turnovers early and often against Kentucky (28) but against Miami, the turnovers came when it mattered most - a 13-0 first-half run that ignited Carolina. Carolina also capitalized on those turnovers, scoring 40 points on 42 miscues combined in the two games. Taking a turnover the other way for a lay-up is one of those types of plays that can demoralize an opponent.
Florida State's ACC opponents have been able to capitalize on the Seminoles' turnovers, nearly one-fourth of their points have come off of Florida State's turnovers (86 of 341). Over one-third of Virginia's points (22 of 62) came on turnovers. Almost a third of Maryland's points (22 of 73) in Florida State's overtime victory came off of turnovers. A little over a third of Florida State's points in ACC play have come in the paint and less than 20 percent have come from the foul line. In the three wins, that number goes up to 40% of points in the paint and 40% from the foul line. In the two losses, it's 40% in the paint, 16.5% from the foul line and over a third from the three-point line.
The Seminoles average 11 assists and 15.5 turnovers in two league losses and 13 assists and 16.3 turnovers in three wins. Florida State averaged 63.5 points in two losses and 75.7 points in three wins in the league, despite shooting nearly ten more shots per game in the losses and attempting seven more three-pointers on average. The Seminoles shot 34.8% from the floor in the losses and 48.2% in the wins, including over 50% in two of three league wins. Carolina needs to continue to force opponents into tough shots and as Green said, allow "no free lunch" to the Seminoles in the paint. This is a very good defensive team that has at times struggled to score but certainly has the ability to do so; Carolina can't make it any easier.
At The Game
Listening to the Tar Heel Sports Network at the game: The in-stadium frequency in the Tucker Center will be 96.9 FM.
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.
Raycom coverage: The game will be available regionally on Raycom. For a coverage map, click here.
Names To Know
Ty Lawson: Were it not for facing off against one of the league's best defensive guards in Toney Douglas, this might seem like a matchup in which Lawson could really thrive. After all, he sprained his ankle early in Carolina's overtime win in Tallahassee, sending Carolina into a tailspin. He never faced the Seminoles at full strength last season, but he still managed to score 22 points in 45 points (nearly 0.5 points per minute), shooting 8-of-12 (66.7%) from the floor and dishing out six assists to just two turnovers in limited action. In just four minutes in Tallahassee last year, he had four points in the first four minutes on 2-of-2 shooting and a steal. In the ACC Tournament win over Florida State, he had eight points on 2-of-4 shooting (4-of-6 from the foul line) and added three assists and two turnovers, his only turnovers of the year against the Seminoles.
He took a lot of the blame - unfairly - for Carolina's poor start to ACC play. Still, he appears to have taken the criticism to heart. After scoring just 19 points in Carolina's first two league games, he had 19 points in the Virginia game and has averaged 15.3 points in the last three games on 59.3% shooting (63.6% from beyond the arc) after starting out league play shooting just 28% (14.3% from beyond the arc). He also famously began ACC play with nine assists and eight turnovers and has 24 assists and just five turnovers in Carolina's last three games.
He ranks in the top 100 of five Ken Pomeroy categories and leads Carolina in four, including offensive efficiency, assist rate and steal percentage. He continues to lead the league in assists, assist/turnover ratio and steals; he is also on pace to have the best assist/turnover ratio ever for a Carolina point guard. The ACC has a lot of talented guards, Toney Douglas among them, and it's not as simple as imposing one's will on guards of that caliber. But Lawson has shown the kind of fire and determination in the last three games to do everything within his power to do just that.
Two of the ACC's three best guards - Greivis Vasquez of Maryland and Nolan Smith of Duke - had six assists to 12 turnovers and scored just 18 points combined on 5-of-19 shooting. Florida State nearly pulled off the comeback against Duke and beat Maryland by bothering both point guards. In the loss to Miami, however, Florida State allowed Jack McClinton to score 28 points to go with six assists and no turnovers.
Tyler Hansbrough: When Lawson went down last year in Tallahassee, it was ultimately Hansbrough who had to step up and take the Tar Heels on his back. He responded by notching the first 20-point, 20-rebound effort by a Tar Heel since Sean May did it against Duke in 2005. Hansbrough had 22 points and 21 rebounds, despite just shooting 5-of-14 from the floor (12-of-14 from the foul line). In the final 12:28 (including overtime), he shot 4-of-8 from the floor and had 15 points and eight rebounds, four offensive. He got his shooting groove back in the next two games against the Seminoles, combined to shoot 12-of-25 (48%) from the floor and 18-of-21 from the foul line, averaging 21 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists. He was in foul trouble of two of the three games but he averaged 11.7 free-throw attempts in the three meetings and 46.9% of his points against the Seminoles came from the line.
Florida State is a big, physical team - particularly in the frontcourt - and that's something that Hansbrough has seen quite a few times already this season. It's not something that is new to Hansbrough in his career, but in the last few games, he has appeared to take more of a beating than usual. He had a tooth loosened against Clemson after taking an elbow while going after a loose ball and not all of the contact on him has been whistled this season. "He's a tough kid," Danny Green said after learning about Hansbrough's tooth. "He goes through a lot - a lot of banging, a lot of fouls down there. Sometimes I wonder how he does it every day. He doesn't take any days off. Sometimes, I don't know how he does it."
According to Ken Pomeroy, Hansbrough leads the nation in fouls drawn per 40 minutes (9.2); the next-closest has drawn 8.7. At home in three league games, he is averaging 21.7 points and getting a little over a third of his points from the foul line on ten attempts per game. On the road, he has attempted 15.0 free throws per ACC game and 58% of his 22.5 points have come from the foul line. He has also shot just 9-of-25 from the field in two ACC road games so far. Despite shooting just 42.9% in ACC games, what would be considered a sub-par stretch for the reigning National Player of the Year, he is still leading the league in scoring and ranks in the top in field-goal percentage. He has had some games where he has been content to shoot jump shots and others in which he will continue to try to establish a presence in the paint. But he needs to maintain his composure in what will undoubtedly be one of the most physical contests he has been in this season.
Toney Douglas: The senior Florida State guard has almost literally been carrying his team's backcourt this season in the absence of Jason Rich and Ralph Sims, ranking third in the league in scoring (19.6 points), fourth in made three-pointers (2.2) and third in steals (2.1). He has been asked to carry this team on both ends of the floor and he has done a good job of that so far. He has always been one of the league's best defensive players and now it appears that his offense is starting to become just as consistent of a force. How Carolina is able to respond to yet another talented guard that is beginning to get hot - a task the Tar Heels have not been quite up to in recent games - will be important in seeing how far they have truly come defensively.
Carolina has already faced five of the top 15 scorers in the league so far. Two of those players scorched the Tar Heels for a combined 59 points, nearly 20 above their combined averages (39.9 between Jeff Teague and Tyrese Rice). But Carolina has faced the No. 6, 8 and 14 scorers in the ACC in the last three games and has held those three to a combined 30 points, nearly 19 below their combined average. The one exception was Jack McClinton who had 21 points. But Virginia's Sylvan Landesberg and Clemson's Trevor Booker combined for nine points, nearly 26 fewer than their combined averages.
After starting out ACC play hitting just 4-of-17 three-pointers, Douglas has hit 8-of-16 in the last two games including 7-of-14 in the loss to Miami. He has shot 44.9% or higher from the floor in four of five ACC games and the last four in a row. In the last game against Virginia, Douglas played an ACC game-low 34 minutes but had 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting (72.7%), his best percentage of the season so far. In fact, two of his eight best performances of the season have come in ACC play. He has been getting hot as four of his over-50 percent shooting games have come in the last seven.
In two ACC losses, Toney Douglas has shot 16-of-43 (37.2%) from the floor and 24-of-44 (54.5%) in three ACC wins. Oddly enough, he has shot very well from three-point range in the two losses (9-of-20, 45%) than in the three wins (3-of-13), but has shot much better from two-point range in the wins (21-of-31) than in the losses (7-of-23). He also just three assists to seven turnovers in the two losses compared to nine assists to six turnovers in the three wins. Douglas has at least one steal in every ACC game and has averaged 2.2 steals per contest to go along with his 23 points in a staggering 36.8 minutes per contest.
In three games against the Tar Heels last year, Douglas wasn't nearly as much of a factor in two of the three games. In the first two contests, Douglas shot 6-of-32 from the floor and 2-of-18 from beyond the arc, scoring just 23 points combined in the two games. In the ACC Tournament game, Douglas found his touch a bit, scoring 18 points (including 4-of-7 three's), five assists and three steals. But Douglas is a factor always with his defensive play. Even though the ball wasn't going in the basket for him, he had five steals in the overtime loss to Carolina and nine steals in all three games. Much of what he can do defensively can't be quantified by looking at statistics and Ty Lawson never faced Douglas when he was at 100 percent. But Douglas will be yet another skilled ACC guard that Lawson won't be able to simply impose his will against on either end of the court.
Solomon Alabi: The 7-1, 241-pound redshirt freshman center is arguably the force in the paint that the Seminoles needed to get over the hump. He missed most of last season with a stress fracture but spent his time working on fundamentals, and though it has come slowly, Alabi has begun to emerge. The real importance of the lanky Alabi is on defense; he alters more shots than could be statistically enumerated but his 2.0 blocks per game are second in the ACC. He is part of a front line that makes Florida State one of the tallest teams in the country. According to Ken Pomeroy, Alabi is 14th in the nation in block percentage (11%) and 75th in offensive rebounding percentage (13.3%).
In the first 16 games of the season, Alabi shot 50% and averaged 6.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in just 19.6 minutes. He played just 16 minutes against Duke and had just four points, but did have nine rebounds (more than 0.5 per minute) and six offensive boards. In the last four games, all league games, he has averaged ten points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 23 minutes. He also increased has three steals in the last four games after nabbing just six in the first 16. He has also rarely been in foul trouble; he has just 27 fouls in 20 games. In three ACC wins, he has averaged 23.7 minutes and still has shot 60% and averaged 10 points; his blocks increase to 2.3 per game. Against Virginia, Alabi had 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting, four rebounds, one steal, and two blocks in 26 minutes.
Quotables
"So Des Moines, Iowa, minus-11 degrees and the game was canceled, Memphis and drive 200 hundred miles and get back in about 2:30 in the morning and Sunday spent five hours in the gym, and my wife says, `You know, we didn't even have a game and I'm already still worn out.' Other than that, I had a great weekend." -Roy Williams
"We have to understand that sometimes, the other team's guards are real good. It's not like Ty Lawson is guarding Woody Durham or Roy Williams or Ted Seagroves every night. If he's guarding us, he would just go out there and take the ball." -Roy Williams
"She (Kay Yow) was fun to be with. She cares about people she cared about the game. She cared about college athletics. She cared about what her players were going to be doing 20 years later. She has a great record and that record put her in the Hall of Fame ... But when I think of Kay Yow, I'm going to think of her and the way she felt about people and the way she interacted with people. No one was a stranger, but she loved the game and she loved the people that played with her and for her. I hope that's what people say about me someday." -Roy Williams
"Football coaches say, `Offense, defense and the kicking game.' Well, in basketball we don't get to kick. I'd like to kick some things every now and then. It's offense and defense, you've got to play both stages." -Roy Williams
"I don't say too much about that because I know every coach thinks that Tyler Hansbrough got here 40 years ago." -Roy Williams when asked if it feels like Toney Douglas has been at Florida State for a long time
Lauren Brownlow is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
