The IronDog Chronicles

Buzz this…Great W.

I have to admit that as a Tar Heel fan that I felt guilty for that win at Littlejohn…This one was earned.  Here are my takeaways:

** Wow Tyler Hansbrough is dominating right now! That was as memorable of a performance that I’ve seen from the guy.  I’m speechless.

No…wait.  The kid is a beast.  13-15 FT/FTA, 11 Rebs…Another double-double and another night’s work.  Beaaa-st.

Also, as hard as he and Jeremis Smith played against each other, they both had a lot of respect and didn’t woof at one another on the floor..Just classy, old-school bangin’.  You could tell that both of those guys had a lot of respect for one another…Thanks for a great match-up.

** Kudos to Wayne - Wayne goes cold and a dismal floor game.  Yet, he’s still launching his ‘J’ in crunch time.  The bucket that he hit under the five minute mark was huge.  I’m glad to see that he didn’t buck down.  Big ups…That shot says a lot more.

Two big games versus Maryland and another one on the road, and he’ll be back on track.

** Game Ball - Where’s the love for Marcus Ginyard?  Geezus!  That kid played a great ball game.

At this point, I believe that Ginyard is playing at a full-tilt level on ‘D.’  People can be stuck on Jackie Manuel or Dudley Bradley…In my belief, the comparison is not even close…Give me Ginyard.  I love the way he is starting to play.

He’s playing great man-on-man.  He’s seeing the whole court on ‘D’, which lead to a couple of great steals, and he’s starting to find himself in the right spots for boards.  More importantly, he’s sticking his nose in plays that he seemed to shy away from in his early years.  This is the guy that I was hoping would emerge by February…The Heels got him a couple of weeks early.

By the way, he is going right to the cup over the last few weeks…Damn, bring it home!

** Hew-quit-it - Tar Heel fans bang on Coach Krzyzewski as a whiner…I’ll agree that all coaches are at times, but I feel Coach Krzyzewski is more of a politco than a ‘whiner’  Yet, watching Coach Hewitt last night led me to believe that he had a bad case of the whines.

Coach Hewitt is one helluva coach, but his bitching throughout the end of the game was bewildering.  During the last five minutes of the game, he was working the refs more than his own team on the floor.  Here you have a young team on national TV with a helluva shot at beating the number one team in the country and you’re still moaning about a hip check with your kid taking a free throw two possessions later with less than a minute on the clock…C’mon.

If you have the game on tape, check the last confrontation that he has with the ref.  You can hear that he’s banging on “Hansbrough” with .5 on the clock.  Then, look at Hewitt’s handshake with Hansbrough at the end of the game…Geezus, Jeremis Smith and Hansbrough had a great match-up with a lot of good solid play and respect…Give respect to the kid, and let it go.  You’re a helluva coach, and you’re bigger than that.

Hewitt is getting close to submering past Leonard Hamilton on my list…That’s deep.

** Tough Chin - I’m more impressed by this game because we won even with Green and Ellington having dismal performances on the offensive end.  Tech played at a high level of intensity, and the Heels didn’t buckle.  In terms of how big of an advantage we have now with experience, that performance says a lot.

On my end, that game showed me a lot because I had serious doubts about how we would perform in a tight situation.  I still don’t consider Tech as a powerhouse, but Tech is the type of team that will give us trouble.  They matched up well with our athletic wings.  They played tough ‘D’, banged, and can run with us.  We also didn’t moan and whine when we were down…Very impressive.

** ‘Tywon at 35 - I’m fine with Tywon at 33-35 minutes a game from now on…This blogga says that the back-up support is not even a threat on offense.   A lot of people think that Tywon will tire out at 35-36 minutes.  Yet, people don’t consider that a lot of these guys are both young enough and in-shape enough to probably run another one two hours later.

For this blogga, I’m fine with the perceived ‘lack of depth.’

Great W…Where’s James Gist?

P.S.  The new Air Jordan Jumpman commercial is the heat…Number One in the Hill…So nice that I may have to make an appearance at Player’s this weekend.

1 to 1…Cha, Cha, cha,
BD