University of North Carolina Athletics
NC State Game Guide
February 12, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 12, 2010
By Lauren Brownlow
The Basics
North Carolina (13-11, 2-7) will face NC State (14-11, 2-8) in a battle of two teams trying to break a losing streak. Since their last meeting on January 26th, neither team has won an ACC game and Carolina has lost four straight. NC State lost 72-52 at home on Wednesday night to Virginia Tech. North Carolina lost that same night to Duke, 64-54. Carolina has dropped four home games in a row and the longest-ever streak is five straight, which happened in 2002. Carolina leads the series with NC State, 141-72, and has won seven in a row. Before the game begins, Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington will have a ceremony recognizing their jerseys being honored. At halftime, the returning players, coaches and managers here for the Celebration of a Century will be recognized.
Game Time: NC State at North Carolina, 4:00 PM.
Last Time: Carolina beat NC State 77-63 at the RBC Center on January 26th. It was also Carolina's last win. Carolina shot 50.9% for the game and 57.7% in the second half. NC State shot 29% in the second half after shooting 50% in the first. Carolina was down five early in the second half but went on an 18-2 run to take an 11-point lead. Deon Thompson led Carolina with 20 points and Larry Drew II added 18 to go with seven assists and just one turnover. Dexter Strickland had 14 on 6-of-7 shooting and Ed Davis added 12 with a nine rebounds. Tracy Smith led NC State with 20 points and six rebounds and Javier Gonzalez added 19 points, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage will begin at 3:00 PM.
Injury Report: Ed Davis broke the lunate bone is his left wrist during the Duke game and will be out for six weeks. Travis Wear is out indefinitely with a severely sprained ankle. Tyler Zeller, recovering from a stress fracture, was cleared for straight-ahead running and shooting on February 8th but will miss at least the NC State game.
Storylines
Nine extra possessions: That's exactly what freshman John Henson called Duke's 23 offensive rebounds to just 14 for Carolina, showing that he already has developed a keen understanding of the Carolina system. "I think it was 14-23 so that's like giving them the ball nine times before we even start playing, going back and forth. Those nine times, they really hurt us at the end of the game," Henson said. They did indeed; Duke had 21 of their 64 points off of offensive rebounds while Carolina had 13. And Carolina was actually very fortunate that Duke squandered 13 of the 23 offensive rebounds, missing 12 shots and turning it over once. Some of the Carolina players mentioned the long rebounds being the culprit, and certainly there were some of those. But as this Tar Heel team seems more and more willing to talk about the ball bouncing the way of the other team, Marcus Ginyard mentioned that they need to be making some balls bounce their way. "We just weren't tough enough on our box-out assignments. There were a lot of long rebounds they ended up chasing down that we just didn't get to. Those 50-50 balls, we'd like to say that they've got to be ours, but they got to them," Ginyard said. Before the Duke game, Ginyard had discussed how good this team had looked at times defensively, only to go up the floor on the next possession and completely miss an assignment or lose focus. For the most part, this team held its focus, but the key to getting a stop doesn't just mean forcing a bad shot - it also means getting the rebound. Duke scored two two-pointers, three three-pointers and hit 4-of-6 foul shots on its second chances. That is 17 extra points in a ten-point loss. "There were stretches where we looked great and then a lot of times - most of the time - we didn't really finish the defense the way we needed to," Ginyard said. "Giving up over 20 offensive rebounds, you're not going to be able to beat good teams like this that way."
And it doesn't help that Carolina isn't capitalizing on its own second chances. Carolina was averaging more second-chance opportunities and scores in its first six games (14.5 chances, 6.3 scores) than its opponents (5.2 scores on 11.5 chances). In the last three games, Carolina has averaged 6.7 scores on 14.3 chances while opponents have averaged 7.3 scores on 15.7 chances. In the last three games, Carolina has scored more two-pointers on its second chances but its opponents have seven second-chance three's while Carolina has none. Also, Carolina has gone to the line after an offensive rebound and come up with one or no points three times in the last three games. Opponents have left with just one point three times but the second-chance three's make up for that. On the whole season, Carolina has gone to the line 14 times after an offensive rebound and come away with no two points just five times, scoring one point seven times and none twice. Last time against NC State, Carolina got just 11 offensive rebounds but scored on six of them. The Wolfpack pulled down just eight and scored on four. Carolina has had trouble with the defensive glass recently and htat is an area the Wolfpack has excelled in, averaging a whopping 24.0 in the last two games and pulling down 48 of their 94 misses, converting those into just 31 second-chance points. But if that kind of ofesnie rebounding keeps up because Carolina can't keep the Wolfpack off the boards, some of those second-chance shots are bound to start going in.
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
Will Graves: The junior guard has clearly felt an obligation to carry the offense on the perimeter this season. In ACC play, his 94 shot attempts lead the team and next-closest is Larry Drew II at 78; his 57 three-point attempts are far ahead of Drew's 34. But in the last two games, Graves has been more efficient - dropping his average shot attempts from 10.9 in the first seven games to 9.0 in the last two, he has made 55.6% of his shots compared to 34.2% in the first seven and has averaged nearly the same amount of points - 12.4 in the first seven, 12.0 in the last two. He has also increased is three-point percentage from 37.5% to 44.4% and has also managed to increase his rebounds from 6.3 to 6.5. He got going early in the Duke game and ended up making 3-of-5 three's, his most since Virginia, and his highest percentage since 2-of-3 against NC State. But that game was also a struggle for him; one of his three's came practically at the buzzer and without it, he made just 1-of-6 field goals (1-of-2 three's). He also fought hard to get open against Duke to possibly make a game-changing three-pointer, but it was hard as all teams know he is Carolina's best perimeter threat. Still, if he can get a look, he can help get Carolina's offense going. "Any time I step on the court, I feel like it's going to be a good shooting night," Graves said. "It's just a matter of trying to get open shots. (Duke) plays great defense and I didn't want to take too many bad shots, so I limited when I was going to shoot. I always think team first."
John Henson: It's been well-documented that John Henson has spent some time playing the four-spot recently. Since that switch, he has averaged 8.0 points on 45% shooting (including 6-of-7 from the foul line), adding 4.3 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and committing just one turnover despite averaging 16.7 minutes. In his first six ACC games, he had shot 4-of-10 (40%) and averaged 1.5 points, adding just 0.8 rebounds, 0.8 blocks and committing eight turnovers in just 7.8 minutes per game. He won Defensive Player of the Game honors against Maryland, the first time in his young career. And the 20 minutes he saw against Duke were the most he has played all season, despite the fact that most freshmen shrink away from that moment early on. He responded with six points, seven rebounds (his most since Presbyterian) and four blocks while also not committing a turnover. But for him, the switch was less about seeing time at the four and more about a change in his mentality. "(Against Virginia), I played about five minutes and that flipped the switch in my head and I said, `I've got to start playing harder, working harder, coming to practice every day and playing hard.' That's what I've been doing and that's been carrying over to the games. That's the secret right there - just play hard and things will fall into place," Henson said. With Ed Davis, Tyler Zeller and Travis Wear all out indefinitely, Henson will be called upon to play an even bigger role than he has already. Carolina will need him to continue to be a game-changing force in the paint defensively while also improving aspects of his offensive game.
Tracy Smith: It's easy to see why NC State has struggled as of late - its star player has struggled. Going into the first Carolina game, Smith had shot 52.4% in league play, averaging 15.5 points and 8.5 rebounds; State had two upset wins over Duke and Florida State. He had another big game against Carolina, scoring 20 points on 9-of-15 shooting and adding six rebounds. But in the three ACC games since then - all Wolfpack losses - Smith has averaged 15.3 points but has shot just 41.9 percent. Despite playing a dominant game against a talented Georgia Tech front line in Atlanta last week, netting 22 points and nine rebounds, he struggled against Virginia Tech, turning it over five times and shooting just 4-of-12. He also has nine of his 17 turnovers in ACC play in the last two games alone. But Smith has shown he is more than capable of dominating any ACC game, making 10-of-12 shots against a physical Duke front line that gave Carolina fits. Against Carolina, his statistics are getting progressively better - he went from scoring a combined 12 points in his first three games against Carolina to dropping 15 in the last meeting last year and then 20 in the first game this year, shooting 14-of-27 in those last two games and adding 7.0 rebounds per game, committing just six fouls and not one turnover. He will be a challenge for this young and depleted Carolina front line to defend.
Javier Gonzalez: Somewhat like Cliff Tucker of Maryland, although Gonzalez plays a much bigger role game in and game out, Gonzalez seems to enjoy feasting on the Tar Heels offensively. He has averaged 10.8 points in four games against Carolina on 55.6% shooting (a ridiculous 64.3% from beyond the arc). In his last two games against Carolina, he has averaged 18.5 points and made 13-of-19 shots (7-of-8 three's) despite averaging just 25 minutes in those games. He has five assists to seven turnovers in those games but it hasn't seemed to matter much as three-pointer after three-pointer rained down. Since dropping 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting (3-of-4 from behind the arc) against Carolina in the first meeting, Gonzalez has scored 22 points in his last three ACC games on 8-of-24 shooting (3-of-11 from three). But as he has shown in the past, he's more than capable of getting it going against Carolina. Still, this is yet another rivalry game and Larry Drew II had perhaps his best defensive game of the year on Duke's Nolan Smith. Carolina will have to continue to play as well on that end as it did for at least 32 minutes against Duke.
Lauren Brownlow is the executive editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
