University of North Carolina Athletics
Miami Game Guide
March 1, 2010 | Men's Basketball
March 1, 2010
By Lauren Brownlow
The Basics
North Carolina (15-14, 4-10) will host Miami (18-10, 4-10) to close the home schedule and say goodbye to three seniors. North Carolina is coming off of a 77-68 win over Wake Forest in Winston-Salem. Miami lost at home to NC State on Saturday, 71-66. Carolina is 2-5 and 2-5 on the road in the ACC. Miami is 0-7 on the road and 4-3 at home. Carolina leads the series with the Hurricanes, 13-2. The last Miami win came in Chapel Hill in 2006.
Game Time: Miami at North Carolina, 8:00 PM.
Last Time: Carolina beat Miami 69-65 in Coral Gables on February 15, 2009. Ty Lawson scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half, including a game-saving three-pointer with 10.6 seconds left. Carolina was up 54-40 with 12 minutes left but Miami came back to get within one point. Tyler Hansbrough took a charge with 44.3 seconds left to protect the one-point lead before Lawson hit the three-pointer. Hansbrough had just eight points. Neither team shot above 40% (Carolina shot 38.8 percent) and the two teams combined to attempt just ten free throws and commit just 20 fouls. Lawson led Carolina with 21 points and Wayne Ellington added 15 points and ten rebounds. Ed Davis led the team in rebounding with 11. Jack McClinton led Miami with 35 points on 13-of-25 shooting (7-of-12 from beyond the arc). Brian Asbury added 12 points and Jimmy Graham had a game-high 15 rebounds. Miami hit 11-of-29 three-pointers as a team and McClinton and Asbury combined to hit 9-of-16.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage will begin at 7:00 PM.
Storylines
Withstanding the spurts: At Wake Forest, Carolina took a ten-point lead with 7:18 to go. Wake made a lay-up and a three to cut it five points within 55 seconds. Will Graves made a three-pointer to get it back to eight points and within 37 seconds of Wake getting it to five points, two free throws by Dexter Strickland had it back out to ten. Less than a minute later, it was up to 11. Wake got it to six points, Carolina hit a three-pointer 16 seconds later to get it to nine again. When Wake Forest got it to four points with 1:28 to go, Carolina did not commit another turnover, scored eight points in that span and held Wake without a field goal for the final 59 seconds. Although Wake Forest outscored Carolina the rest of the way, it was just 21-20. And Carolina made the plays it needed to make, but not all games have been that way. "We think we're in pretty good shape and it's a ten-point game. Then all of a sudden, they score two, we miss a wide-open shot and then they score two to make it five. Then we come down and make a three. I think it was Will Graves at that time. Then we're still okay and then they bank one in from the three-point line," Roy Williams said. "But we didn't drop our heads and act like `woe is me, the sky is falling' kind of thing. We got the ball inbounds, got it down, we got fouled and didn't make the free throws. The whole part of it was just that they just handled things so much better. I don't think that I changed my tone or tune or anything. It was one of those days that we handled it a lot better."
But in two of Carolina's recent games, it didn't go that way. At Boston College, it took two runs totaling 7:45 and giving BC at 17-2 edge that were too much to overcome. The Eagles made 7-of-11 shots but rebounded all of their misses for scores. Carolina shot just 1-of-11 and had two points, committing three of their 12 turnovers in that span. Carolina scored 65 points in the other 32:15 and made 24-of-53 while BC shot 24-of-61 and scored 60 points. At home against Florida State, five of Carolina's 14 turnovers took place during two spans that totaled a little over six minutes when Carolina was outscored by Florida State 21-3. The final margin was 10 points but the lead was as big as 23 points. Florida State shot 8-of-11 and 3-of-3 from three in those two runs while Carolina made 0-of-5 shots and just 3-of-4 foul shots. In the other 34 minutes, Carolina had 64 points and made 21-of-45 shots while Florida State had 56 points and hit 19-of-46 shots.
No team has had more three-pointers made against it in ACC play than North Carolina; teams have made 102-of-271 (37.6%), tenth-worst in the league. Only Florida State (95) and Miami (92) are worse. Of course, no team has had more three's attempted against it than North Carolina (271); the only closer team is Georgia Tech (267). Were this Miami team to come into the Smith Center on Tuesday night and shoot above 50%, it wouldn't be a huge surprise. The Hurricanes have not scored over 70 points on the road so far and have shot over 50% on the road just once (and over 40% just three times) but they have shot over 46% in eight of 14 ACC games. The Hurricanes have made just 29.2% of their three's on the road compared to 36.4% at home, but they have proven themselves more than capable of shooting them and are still averaging 5.4 three's on the road. Despite Miami's overall record, the Hurricanes are shooting 43.7% in the league. North Carolina and NC State, two teams tied with them for the worst record, are 9th and 12th, respectively.
Shaking off the pressure: It's hard to imagine a more pressure-packed Senior Night than last year's version when Tyler Hansbrough and company were trying to end their careers on good notes against an arch rival. This year, the team desperately needs a win to keep this momentum going. And this senior class has done so much for this program that they have earned the right to go out on a high note. Roy Williams has always placed a premium on this special night for his seniors. "I always just challenge everybody to make sure those seniors go out the right way. I think it's everybody else's responsibility. You think and hope that the seniors are going to be as enthused as they can possibly be. It's up to everybody else to take care and make sure that they do their part," Williams said. And many of his players echoed that sentiment, even the younger ones. "It's very important because we owe it to them to get a win that night, make them go out on a good note," John Henson said. "We're going to play as hard as we can. I'm going to try to play the best game I've ever played and hopefully we can come out with a win." It's a lot of pressure to place on a young, sometimes confidence-challenged team and the seniors will be playing with a lot of emotion. It could be a situation that backfires on a team like this, so they need to keep their focus directed the right way.
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.
Raycom coverage: The game will be available on Raycom.
Names To Know
Deon Thompson: Thompson's last statistic in the Wake Forest game was an assist to Leslie McDonald for three after an offensive rebound by Thompson to give Carolina a two-point lead. And Carolina did go small late to better match up with Wake Forest; Coach Williams admitted Thompson had a "tough day" to that point. The 22 minutes he had played were his fewest since the road loss at Virginia Tech, and his six points were the fewest since he had four at Clemson in the second ACC game of the year. Thompson had averaged 15 points in Carolina's first three ACC wins and 11.1 in ten losses, but he had just six points in the win over Wake Forest. Part of that is Thompson plays the best when he gets involved early. In four of Carolina's first five ACC games, Thompson scored within the first minute of the game. The one he didn't - at Clemson - he didn't score for 11 minutes. In the Duke loss, it took him four minutes to score but he had already been active with two shot attempts; he ended up with 19. Against NC State at home it took him 11 minutes to score but he already had two blocks. At BC, he had 17 points and he had two rebounds and a miss before scoring in the first two minutes. It took him three minutes to score at Wake and two against FSU, but he went seven minutes without any points. Miami's defense has been good against some of the elite big men in the league. It held Al-Farouq Aminu to a combined 4-of-17 shooting for 15 points in two games. Virginia's Mike Scott hit 0-of-7 shots in a loss to the Hurricanes. Derrick Favors had just seven points on 2-of-5 shooting and Gani Lawal had 17 points on 7-of-16 shooting. Tracy Smith of NC State had 19 points on 9-of-17 shooting in Coral Gables last weekend, Trevor Booker had 18 points and Jeff Allen of Virginia Tech had 19 and 14 in two games. But they are more than capable of making life tough on Thompson, particularly if Carolina's perimeter does not prove itself. This will be his senior day moment and if he can get involved, blocking a few shots or getting a few steals and rebounds early, he's likely to stay involved.
Larry Drew II: When Larry Drew II shot 33.3% from the floor and Carolina won, it was Carolina's first win when he shot less than 50% since December 28th against Rutgers. It's odd how many problems surrounding this team, and even Drew II, seem to be at least in part psychological. The sophomore point guard began ACC play shooting 14-of-17 from the foul line in the first seven games. Then in the last seven, starting with missing his only two attempts at Maryland, he has hit just 12-of-32 (37.5%). To put that in perspective, he has made 35.4% of his three's in league play. He had been in a slump from three as well, making 4-of-19 including the Maryland game, but he had made 11-of-25 before that and his three's against Wake were huge. It's sad that his 4-of-12 foul line performance at Wake Forest will overshadow his ten points and 2-of-4 shooting from three to go with eight assists, a steal, a block and three turnovers. And Roy Williams just hopes that his point guard won't lose his confidence. He had to take him out at one point because he had missed so many. "I had more confidence than he did. I did tell him, `You will get another chance.' I wanted him to know that he had a great chance of going back in and perhaps doing a better job," Williams said. Drew II has had enough to worry about, what with orchestrating the offense and setting up his teammates, but he has at times neglected his outside shot until it's too late in games. He's not the first Roy Williams point guard who took some time to learn to look for his shot, but if he could make a few, it would really help Carolina to open up the floor. Taking out his 1-of-8 performance against Duke when most of his attempts came late, he has made 16-of-40 (40.0%) in Carolina's 13 other ACC games.
James Dews: The 6-4 senior guard has found some consistency on an inconsistent and young team, averaging 12.2 points per game this year and reaching double figures in nine of 14 ACC games this year. He has been one of the more consistent Hurricanes on the road as well, averaging 10.7 points and shooting 35.5 percent. But in Miami's four wins, he has shot 53.1% from the floor and averaged 11.5 points compared to 11 points on 38.1% shooting in ten ACC losses. He has also made 14-of-16 two-point baskets in four wins compared to 29-of-64 in ten losses. In the NC State loss, Dews had nine points on 4-of-9 shooting. He has been in a slump from beyond the arc, making just 2-of-18 in the last five games after making 10-of-19 in a five-game stretch prior to that. Still, he had made 35-of-67 in non-conference play, so he has proven himself more than capable of making some. And as past opponents have shown, guards can suddenly find their stroke against Carolina. In his career against Carolina, Dews has averaged just four points on 8-of-24 shooting but has shot 6-of-10 from two-point range and has added 1.8 assists, 1.5 steals and just 0.8 turnovers in 21 minutes per game. Last year at Miami, he had no points in 20 minutes but added two assists, three steals and just one turnover.
Dwayne Collins: Miami's 6-8 senior forward has been so important in Miami's wins and losses, as a star forward would be expected to be. He is averaging 15.3 points on 62.5% shooting in Miami's four ACC wins compared to 60.3% shooting and 10.3 points in ten losses. He is also averaging eight rebounds in wins compared to 6.7 in losses. But the main difference is Collins has attempted 5.8 shots in ten losses compared to 10.0 shots in four wins; he has made more field goals in Miami's ACC wins (6.3) than he attempted in the losses. The Hurricanes have not been blown out in their last two losses and have beaten Virginia in between; in that three-game stretch, Collins has averaged 18 points on 17-of-23 shooting and 20-of-25 form the foul line, adding 7.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and one block per game in 33.3 minutes. In his career against Carolina, Collins has averaged just 7.7 points but in the only meeting in Coral Gables last year, he had 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting and added four rebounds (three offensive), two assists, a steal and just one foul in 27 minutes. Carolina has to make sure that Collins doesn't get going and get confidence early.
Lauren Brownlow is the executive editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
