RebKell's Junkie Boards

[bbsamjj]

A few comments/observations:

1. UNC deserves a lot more fans. The ones that were there were really loud, but there's no reason that place shouldn't have been full. On the plus side, for the first time ever, the athletic department is doing a ticket distribution sort of thing for the UNC-Duke game. This basically means that students have to get all their tickets in advance of game day, meaning they're anticipating it to be a really hot ticket.

2. One of the most physical games I've ever seen. Rarely did a play go by that there weren't 2 bodies on the floor. Lots of fouls, lots of missed fts (more on that later).

3. Coleman's game reminds me a lot of Currie's. She has a strong body, a nice shot (minus the 1-5 ft shooting night) and is pretty steady. Tolliver has a beautiful shot, complained a lot to the refs.

4. UNC has ridiculous depth. You might say "duh" but it wasn't apparent to me until Latta went out with 3 fouls early in the first half. With Miller at the point, that's when the team actually built up the lead. There's no true 2 guard on the team that plays meaningful minutes, but Latta and Miller can get it done. The problem for UNC came in the second half when Latta picked up her fourth foul. I feel like UNC would have been fine had Miller been available, but she had been carried off to the hospital on a stretcher. Hatchell watched the offense stutter with Atkinson at point for two possessions before putting Latta back in. Obviously Latta had to be less aggressive.

5. Latta did not have a good game until OT, where she almost singlehandedly beat MD. She missed shots, had offensive fouls, and had a few costly to's. Little on the other hand, minus missed ft's, was absolutely incredible.

6. MD, though really good, also got really lucky in this one. Doran missed a 3 to tie the game in regulation, and Larkins was all of the rebound, but something happened when she came down (pushed out of bounds, started cramping) and she fell out of bounds and threw the ball under the basket, where it rolled for like 6 seconds. Newman picked it up and launched a prayer that dropped. Larkins was really cramping and did not play until the last possession of OT. I'm not saying UNC would have won had Larkins played in OT, but she would have obviously made a difference. Coleman also made a prayer of a bank-shot 3 in OT that put MD up 5.

7. These teams pushed and pushed and pushed. There were times when both looked absolutely winded.

[dukemayo]

Excellent post, bbsamjj.

Any observations on how Maryland slowed Little down in the second half? She was incredible in the first half, scoring from everywhere on the court when Langhorne was guarding her. Did Coleman have primary responsibility in the second half?

[bbsamjj]

To be honest, I wasn't paying extremely close attention to Little in the second half. I knew she was having a great game, but there's no way individual player pt tracker in Carmichael, so I'm not sure how many points she had before and after half. I do know she missed a number of ft's in the second half. I think in general UNC's offense just broke down more in the second half due to the loss of Miller and Latta's 4 fouls.

[RedEqualsLuck]

Thanks for the details.

I must say, a personal peeve of mine is the lack of good stat info in bball arenas.....

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[SportsPageMike]

This should be great game. Maryland is a sleeping giant. The ACC has some very good teams.

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