The Fundementals

As good as UNC looked last night, and believe me they looked good, they still haven't solved the main offensive problems that led to their ouster last year in the elite eight. Mainly reversing the ball when teams over-play one side, and passing out of the double team.

Georgetown killed UNC in the second half of last years regional final game, by double teaming the post and pressuring the outside by dropping off the weak side of Carolina's offense. This is a textbook defense which has a textbook counter tactic: reverse the ball around to the opposite/weak side from where the overload of pressure is with quick passes and as few dribbles as possible.

Unfortunately for Carolina, one of Tyler Hansbrough's two main weakness is passing out of the double team ( the other being an inability to counter the force of gravity). So after getting ousted by an inferior team last year who doggedly used this overplaying defense to get back in the game and win in over-time, you would think Carolina would fix this fatal flaw. You might also think that the Pentagon could find somebody besides a 22 year old to supply our troops in Afghanistan with Ammo ( you'd be wrong on that too). Tyler still seems surprised, and overwhelmed every time the double team comes his way. He misses cutters so much, that his teammates have stopped trying to roll to the basket. Instead they circle out to the three point line on his same side; the side with all the defensive pressure.

But even when the Tar Heels get the ball back out of the post, rarely do you see the quick swing passes that would find a shooter open an the weak side for an uncontested jumper. or a pump-fake followed by an open lane to the basket. Too much dribbling on the perimeter, and too much forcing of the ball into the post on one side of the defense, characterizes UNC's offense.

Granted on most nights, the Heels have too many horses for most teams to match up with. But prime-time starts Saturday with the match-up against Louisville, and won't get any easier after that. For a team with this much talent, it would be a shame to see them lose because of something as controllable as the fundamentals.