The IronDog Chronicles

Game Night, baby…Game Night.

I’m up for this one, but I have to admit that I am nervous for the Heels this weekend.

With tonight’s game, our persistent nightmare that occurs when we are forced into halfcourt play will be facing us. Over the past three years, the Heels have had tremendous trouble when they’re forced to play halfcourt in the NCAA. Tom Izzo, Tim Floyd, Jay Wright, and John Thompson Jr. have given Roy Williams fits with halfcourt play. Talent usually wins out in the long run, but Washington State and a potential Louisville match-up could be troublesome.

Although the Heels are coming off a great weekend in Raleigh, if there is a game that the Heels are going to need Wayne Ellington to have a career game and to live up to gargantuan expectations, the Washington State game is the one. Ellington not only has to be the guy who bangs down shots, but also pulls their defense out from doubling down on Tyler Hansbrough.

A lot of pundits of Washington State coach, Tony Bennett, rave about his “Pack-Line D.” Here’s a scoop from Luke Winn of SI and Bruno Chu of “The Xs and Os of Basketball” blog.

On my end, I’ve seen WAZU play a couple of times this season, and other than their victory over Notre Dame last weekend, I’ve been more than disappointed with them.

I thought after the Pan-Am Games that Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver would be the second coming of the ‘Ernie and Bernie Show’, but their tandem has been disappointing throughout most of the year. In the games that I saw, they were blown away by USC, stunned by Arizona, and they fizzled against Stanford.

Despite those tanks, if they can get back downcourt to set up a ‘D’ that will force us to
play halfcourt, the Heels could be in for a long night. However, I don’t think that they have the guns to match the Heels’s speed and Hansbrough down low.

On the second game tonight and if the Heels do get by tonight, I am praying, hoping, and burning sage for a Louisville loss. Last season, the one team that I did not want the Heels to face was Georgetown. This year that team is Louisville. I hate that match-up for us. Their frontline is far more athletic and gritty with Padgett, Caracter, Palacios, and Earl Clark. Along with them, Edgar Sosa has finally bought into Coach Pitino’s system and methods. I don’t know if a Tywon Lawson at full speed holds a vast difference over Sosa enough to outweigh their athleticism…I hate that potential match-up for the Heels.

More on that one later. Let’s just get through tonight…

Beat WAZU,
BD