Game Blog: Heels beat Radford, 101-58
Danny Green slams one home during the UNC vs. Radford round one game of the NCAA tournament in Greensboro, Thursday, March 19, 2009. Photo by Todd Melet
Mar 19, 2009
Tags: ACC
WRAL's Dane Huffman is at the Greensboro Coliseum and will be writing live today through the North Carolina game in the NCAA Tournament. Adam Harris of The Fan will write live from the Duke game tonight.
4:48 p.m.: Game over, Carolina wins, 101-58
4:50 p.m., Heels in command: It's 98-56 in this one and Carolina is dunking away for easy baskets. Big cheer from the crowd when Tyler Zeller had one. The Coliseum is half empty now, with the Tar Heels largely playing backups.
4:38 p.m., Heels up 87-50: Carolina just took Tyler Hansbrough out of the game and you wonder if he'll return. He's sitting next to the coaches and might as well put on his iPod.
Ellington is on the floor and has 25 points for Carolina. He's really had a phenomenal game. Ed Davis has 14 points and Danny Green has another 15 after hitting two free throws.
Overall, this has been an overwhelming performance against an undermanned, but scrappy, team.
Carolina should win today, and will, and what's interesting is the gap between UNC and LSU appears to be pretty large. I'll be stunned if the Tar Heels don't advance to Memphis.
4:26 p.m., UNC up 81-44: This isn't much of a game in the second half. Carolina is already up 81-44 with 12:20 left in the second half and Radford doesn't look like it will make this close at all.
4:07 p.m., halftime stats: With UNC up 53-34 at halftime, here's quick look at the halftime stats:
Wayne Ellington and Tyler Hansbrough each have 14 points, although Hansbrough is 4 for 10 in a physical game.
Frasor is 2 for 2 and has four points. He has two assists and no turnovers and looks pretty quick and confident running the team.
3:42 p.m.: It's halftime - UNC leads, 53-34.
3:40 p.m., UNC on the break: Hey, a fast break! Radford just had a turnover, Carolina got the ball to Frasor and he threw a beautiful two-handed pass up the court to Ellington that hit Ellington perfectly in stride.
Ellington roared in scored, and got fouled (but missed the free throw).
Frasor's outlet pass was tremendous but it was also a reminder that Carolina hasn't had a lot of run-outs in this game. At the same time, you look up and Carolina is leading 51-34. So the Heels aren't hurting for scoring.
3:37 p.m., Heels lead 44-30: Don't know if you can tell on television, but this is a really rough game. Radford has a tough, spunky team and there a lot of bumping and grinding going on out there.Radford certainly isn't letting Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough get anything easy inside. Nothing dirty, but just some hard-nosed tournament basketball right now.
One other note: Danny Green just scored inside and I thought, Oh, Danny Green, how he is doing? I looked up and he had six points. Green had a poor ACC Tournament and how he plays in Greensboro will be interesting to see.
Two minutes, 59 seconds left in the first half right now.
3:26 p.m., Heels up, 34-22: Tyler Zeller is in the game for Carolina, and just blocked a shot. But he looks really thin out there in what is a pretty physical game.
3:20 p.m., Heels up 26-16: About what you'd expect from this game so far. But one player who is particularly sharp is Ellington. Driving in, I noticed that you turn on Ellington Drive to get to the Coliseum. And Ellington is playing like the road to the arena is named for him.
So far, he has 10 points, and he just made a crisp entry pass to Tyler Hansbrough.
3:15 p.m., Hansbrough gets ACC record: Huge cheer for Tyler Hansbrough here at the Greensboro Coliseum. He had a basket early in the game and just hit a pair of free throws that moved him past Duke's J.J. Redick as the ACC's all-time leading scorer.
The crowd was quite aware of the record and rose to cheer as Hansbrough went to the line. Very cool moment.
Hansbrough came into the game with 2,767 points.
3:05 p.m., UNC up 11-5: OK, just back from the LSU locker room. Wow, their center is skinny. More on that later.
The atmosphere in the Greensboro Coliseum is totally different now with Carolina on the floor. Seems like every seat changed to light blue at the break. Carolina is up 11-5 and just up and down the floor on Radford.
Lawson did not start and a Carolina spokesman said it's highly unlikely he will play. Lawson is dressed and on the bench and wearing a shoe.
2:27 p.m.: LSU wins, 75-71: OK, not a classic here, but a close game. LSU advances and will face the winner of the North Carolina-Radford game on Saturday night.
2:17 p.m.: LSU leads, 67-61: OK, it's 67-61 LSU with 1:45 to play. ... The UNC assistant coaches who were watching from press row just headed out to go to the Carolina locker room.
2:11 p.m., LSU up 63-58: LSU fans are screaming "LSU! LSU!" and the Tigers have a 63-58 lead now, but I tell ya, the Tigers aren't that impressive. You find yourself thinking, this team was one of the best in the SEC? LSU won the league's regular-season title.
You really do get spoiled around here watching ACC basketball.
I mean, Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg is sitting 10 seats away from me and he's got to be thinking, Gosh, my team was as good as that one.
Anyone out there watch a lot of SEC basketball? Any thoughts on how it compares?
I'm not sure LSU would have gone nine games in the ACC this year.
2:03 p.m., Lawson won't start; No surprise here, but they just passed out the starting lineups for the UNC-Radford game, and Carolina point guard Ty Lawson is not listed in the starting lineup.
2:01 p.m., LSU leads 56-54: This game has turned into a dogfight on both sides. LSU is just sort of hanging on against Butler, now leading by 2 with 7:15 to play.
It's hard to imagine either of these teams handling Carolina in the second round.
1:49 p.m.: Hey, John Clougherty, the ACC's head of officials, is located three seats down from me. He has a TV on and is watching other games in addition to this one. Just saw him fire off an email to someone, too.
Wonder if that email said, Hey, you missed that block-charge!
In case you're new to the area, Clougherty was one of college basketball's all-time great officials - always calm in the toughest games - and is now the head of officials for the league. He lives in Raleigh.
1:40 p.m., LSU up 41-40: OK, here courtside for the second half with Barry Jacobs. So, what did you think of LSU? I asked.
Not overly quick or impressive, he said. For a team with a size advantage at every position, Jacobs is underwhelmed. Should have put Butler away early, Jacobs said.
1:20 p.m., LSU up 35-29 at the half: LSU bolted to a big start in the first game here and leads 35-29 at halftime. Center Marcus Thornton has 13 points for the Tigers. Winner here plays the UNC-Radford winner Saturday.
12:45 p.m.: Tickets look like they will be easy to get if you are thinking about a late run to the NCAA Tournament. There were plenty of people outside the Greensboro Coliseum trying to unload tickets this morning, many with six or more in hand.
Of course, fans of teams that lose often sell their tickets on the way out, too, so UNC and Duke fans who want to see their teams play won't have a problem.
Parking is $15, so be sure to have that cash ready. ...
One man making an interesting return to the Greensboro Coliseum is former Duke athletics director Joe Alleva. Alleva is now at LSU and had to hire a basketball coach right away. He landed Trent Johnson from Stanford (opening the Cardinal job for Johnny Dawkins) and Johnson has been a tremendous hire so far.
LSU went 26-7 this season and Johnson was SEC coach of the year.
Right now, the Tigers are leading Butler, 15-11.
Guess who the winner of this game plays? North Carolina. Well ... assuming UNC beats Radford, of course. ...
Alleva, by the way, said in a brief chat outside the Coliseium that he and his wife love living in Baton Rouge and the move has been a good one for him.
