I am not one of those fans.
I sat up to watch this game -- the final of a four-team tournament in Las Vegas that was not played on UNLV's home floor -- because Ken Pomeroy thought it would be close. (He had UNC winning 77-75). It turned out to be much better than I expected. Carolina was up 42-38 at the half, and then UNLV blitzed them with a 52-point second half. The Runnin' Rebels scored the first 14 points of the second half to build a 10-point lead, and then they held off every Carolina rally. Here are a few observations:
1. I have rarely seen a non-conference opponent who was better prepared to play UNC than UNLV was tonight. The Rebels understood what most teams don't: when you get ahead of Carolina, you have to keep scoring. Even when you're in the lead, you can get good shots against Carolina -- but you'll get them early in the shot clock, and they'll probably be jump shots. Most teams pass on those shots, and end up with nothing. UNLV kept taking the shots, and made enough of them to win.
2. UNLV also understood that you have to beat UNC from the outside. We hit 12 three's against them when we knocked them out of the tournament in March; UNLV went 13-33 from three-point range tonight.
3. UNLV battled UNC on the boards and played tough interior defense -- despite incurring a huge number of fouls. The Rebels out-rebounded UNC 45-39. They did have two guys foul out, and UNC took 33 free throws -- to only 18 for UNLV. But the Heels only went 20-33 from the line, which really hurt them. And the interior defense worked: UNC's two big guys, Tyler Zeller and John Henson, combined for only 16 points.
4. UNLV did a great job of handling the pressure. UNC ramps up its pressure defense when it falls behind, and usually they force a lot of turnovers. But UNLV committed only 11 turnovers for the game, which was amazing given the pace of play.
5. The fact that UNLV made so few turnovers, and out-rebounded the Heels, limited UNC's chances in transition. Forced to play most of the game in the half court, UNC shot only 42 percent from the field, and took a lot of questionable shots.
6. It was great to see the old Runnin' Rebels going again. I always enjoyed the old Tarkanian teams, back in the days when UNLV was the Oakland Raiders of basketball. For years, UNLV has only been a pale, plodding imitation of itself -- as the school seemed ashamed of its basketball heritage. But their new coach (Dave Rice) played for Tark, he has Stacy Augmon as one of his assistants, and the Rebs were running up and down the floor with abandon. They looked really, really good.
While I am always glad to see Carolina lose, I don't think UK fans should take much comfort from this game. We always knew that if you shot really well from the outside, didn't make turnovers, and kept Carolina's big guys under control, you could beat them. The hard part is doing it. UNLV played an almost perfect game tonight, and Carolina still hung with them until the last minute or so. It would be a mistake to think that because folks like Dick Vitale over-estimate Carolina's abilities, that those abilities are not extremely formidable. And I think Roy Williams will be happy to have the chance to silence all the hype, and to encourage his guys to improve. Which they will. Meanwhile, our young guys will probably get to see what it's like to be the Number 1 team in America.
No. 1!
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