After the buzzer: North Carolina

So that’s how this season is going to go, huh? A head-scratching loss to a team you feel like we should beat, and then following that up with a dominant road win over the 12^th ranked team in the country as a double-digit underdog. Well then, buckle up! After watching the game again, it got me fired up as if I were watching it for the first time. The Cards just played so well. Yes, UNC missed some shots they normally make, but that’s just the game. Louisville still outplayed them and got a lot of loose balls and had UNC making bad decisions with the ball. Such a good win, and doing these is a lot more fun after games like that.

Quick Hitters

-Dwayne Sutton, you are a bad man, my friend. You just go out and get 17 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals, and have 0 turnovers? A well-deserved ACC Player of the Week honor came your way after a performance like that. He set the tone early and played well all game with energy and aggressiveness.

-I don’t care if he starts or comes off the bench, but I am all for Steven Enoch getting the majority of the minutes at the five spot. In this game, he played 27 minutes and Malik Williams played 12. Some games may just be matchup based, but Enoch was dominant. He established position before he ever got the ball, which you will see in the film review, and he played like he knew he was the best big man on the floor. He started the season playing great, but we knew it was against weaker competition. He seemed to hit a lull when the opposition stepped up, but I think it’s safe to say that he is a legit player at this level. I think he is the second most important player on the team.

-Who is first? Christen Cunningham. I can’t say enough good things about him and what he means to this team. He plays with no fear, but has the poise to run the show. His experience he brings can not be overlooked. A head coach wants his point guard to be an extension of the coach on the floor, and he is that. He doesn’t play too fast for himself and you are never (or I wouldn’t think so) nervous when he has the ball.

-Darius Perry is struggling right now, and he seems to be trying to get out of it all too fast, rather than letting the game come to him. If you watch when UofL runs the pick and roll, Perry doesn’t drive his man into the screen. There is too much space between him and the screener, that his defender can just stay right with him, so the whole screen is pointless, and the defense does not have to rotate at all. Christen Cunningham does exactly what needs to be done. Just something to keep an eye on. Hopefully he fixes it and I sound way wrong, but for this game, that was definitely the case. It’s like he knows the pick is coming and he is just too excited to attack the basket, but he has to let the screen get there and then actually use it.

-Nice to see Jordan Nwora get his shot back. Shooters shoot, and we know he won’t stop doing that. There weren’t many glaring mishaps on defense this time. There were a couple, but I chose to leave him alone for this one.

-All in all, a very good effort by the Cards and it helped to get rid of the bad taste in our mouths from Pittsburgh. Just like the Pittsburgh loss did not have me thinking NIT, this UNC win doesn’t have me screaming National Championship. I just think it’s going to be like that in the ACC this season. Louisville will lose games we don’t think they should, and they will knock off some more big-time programs. Either way, it’s going to be exciting. The ceiling is the roof.

Film Review