NFL Tickets
By Adam McGill
Before the 2012 NCAA Tournament started, millions of fans picked the one-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels to make it to the finals, if not win the entire tournament. The team has always been heavily favored around tournament time, which is probably due to their five NCAA Titles in the school’s history. However, with their humiliating 80-67 loss to Kansas last round, UNC will join the other 63 teams that received an early plane ticket home from the 2012 tournament. There are several reasons why the Tar Heels were upset by the Jayhawks and they might be a little more obvious than expected.
Firstly, North Carolina put all their faith in their sophomore point guard, Kendall Marshall, but the team did not groom anyone else to be his primary replacement for substation purposes or heaven forbid an injury. Marshall was averaging 9.7 assists per game before his ill-timed wrist injury and helped the team finish in the top four in nearly every offensive category. The injury left the team scrambling to fill his spot, as they ended up going with freshman Stilman White down the stretch. The kid respectably had 13 assists with zero turnovers in his two starts filling in for Marshall, but his inability to score points crippled UNC. White went an embarrassing 1-9 from the floor with only 6 points and the Kansas defense wisely focused on cutting off his passing lanes.
The absence of Marshall also left the team vulnerable defensively at the point guard position, as North Carolina had absolutely no answer for Kansas point guard, Tyshawn “TNT” Taylor. Taylor ended up having a career game in the Elite 8 upset with 22 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 steals. He was hitting every shot from the floor and kept Roy Williams and company from catching their breath time and time again. The game would have been completely different with Marshall running the offense, but it is too late to think of what-ifs.
However, the main reason that UNC lost to Kansas was that they were completely out-muscled in the paint. Kansas relied on Thomas Robinson and Jeff Withey to rule the low-post and the duo did exactly that, combining for 33 points, 17 rebounds, and shooting an amazing 11-21 from the field. North Carolina’s star forward, Tyler Zeller, only managed 12 points with 6 rebounds and seemed to be outworked from the first tip of the game. Fellow UNC forward, John Henson, also looked winded at times and appeared to not be mentally in the game. Henson was not moving off the ball offensively and was caught on his heels several times on the defensive side of the floor. Everyone was talking about how dominant the two UNC forwards were before the game, but quickly bit their tongue as they were man-handled on the court.
It will be another long off season for the boys at Chapel Hill, but you can bet that they will be back next year. North Carolina is always among the top in every recruiting class, so expect nothing less from them in 2012-13.
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