Nov. 14, 2009

By Lauren Brownlow

The Basics

No. 4/6 North Carolina (2-0) will face Valparaiso (0-1) in its last home game before a two-game stretch at Madison Square Garden to finish out the Coaches v. Cancer Classic. On Wednesday, Carolina beat NC Central 89-42. Valparaiso is coming off of an 88-78 loss at Ball State in its season opener.

Game Time: Valparaiso at North Carolina, 4:00 PM.

Last Time: Carolina beat Valparaiso 85-63 in the United Center on December 20, 2008. Carolina was down 12-3 early and staged a 9-0 run to get back in the game. It was a sloppy game for Carolina, which had 20 turnovers and shot 46.4 percent, but Valparaiso shot 45.7% and had 25 turnovers of its own. Tyler Hansbrough led the way with 25 points; Deon Thompson added 12 (and a team-high six rebounds) and Wayne Ellington had 11 points. Ty Lawson had ten points and was the only other Tar Heel in double figures. Urule Igbavboa and Michael Rogers led Valparaiso with 16 points each.

Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage will begin at 3:00 PM.

Storylines

Fine-tuning what Carolina does well on offense: This team is not going to be a great three-point shooting team and it remains to be seen what it will look like in a halfcourt offense. But what this team does well in theory is run the break and get offensive rebounds. Another thing Carolina has control over, but hasn't done consistently yet, is take good shots. The Tar Heels did a much better job of that against NC Central but if they can't make those shots, they will have to be able to get the rebound and get putbacks. "We missed a lot of shots. You look at the shot chart, we had a lot of shots in the lane that we didn't make, but we moved and then we went and got it. I've said all along, part of our zone offense has got to be our offensive rebounding and that was really big for us tonight," Roy Williams said. Carolina will see a lot of zone this season and there are ways that Carolina can exploit that. "When you're playing a zone, it's hard to get to the weak side when shots go up. It definitely made it easier for guys like John (Henson) and Marcus (Ginyard) to get to the glass on the offensive end," Deon Thompson said.

Carolina has 25 offensive rebounds this season and has turned those into 27 points, but Carolina has also wasted three on turnovers and missed nine shots. Carolina has also had quite a few turnovers on the fast break in its first two games. This is to be expected, but considering how much Carolina's offense relies on its defense and ability to convert, it needs to get smoother quickly. It was easy for fans to take for granted how seamlessly the 2009 Tar Heels ran the break, but there's a reason it ran that way - the team had been together for quite awhile. This team is still getting to know each other, and it shows at times. But there are some great floor-runners on this team, including Tyler Zeller and the Wear twins. "We've got to do a better job on the break. I think this will be a really good team on the break, but right now we're not doing a good job of getting spacing and some of those turnovers are because we're so tight to each other," Williams said.

Shaking out remaining jitters: Carolina is getting ready to start a stretch in which it will play five ranked teams in its next eight games. While the team appears to be improving from game to game, there will soon be no time left for nerve-induced mistakes. Last year's team knew better than to look at the scoreboard or celebrate too much after a big play. The freshmen are still learning that Coach Williams does not want them to do anything other than concentrate on playing the game, which is of course easier said than done. "It was tough to maintain the concentration for the kids. They kept on looking at the score because they're young. I keep trying to tell them not to look at the score, just play the game," Williams said.

Williams has said repeatedly that he wished he had a few more practices with this team before the season started. He will spend the off days he has in the rest of this busy month, which includes four games in the next nine days, trying to continue to teach his young team. "Friday night, Monday and (Thursday) is trying to get everybody to relax a little bit and be basketball players. Don't be so scared that they can't make a play. Now, we've got some of the game under our belt and some game experience," Williams said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to go to practice and show them some tape, show them some of the things that we're talking about as a staff and they can see themselves doing it. Every kid believes us, but they don't believe you nearly as much as they do if they see it themselves. So we'll have a chance to watch some tape and go back out there and know that we've got to elevate our level of play each and every time we go out."

At The Game

Listening to the Tar Heel Sports network at the game: The in-stadium frequency in the Smith Center will be FM 92.7. That station will have a non-delayed feed of WCHL 1360, the local affiliate.

Watching At Home

Turn down the sound: If you're watching at home while listening to the radio or over the computer via Carolina All-Access, there will inevitably be some delay. For the reason - and a possible solution - click here.

A full list of THSN affiliates can be found here.

Fox Sports South coverage: The game will be available on Fox Sports South.

Names To Know

Tyler Zeller: If the sophomore looks different this season, it's because he's gained quite a bit of muscle mass and bulk. He still isn't quite fully aware of his newfound strength, and players have often had trouble adjusting to changes in weight. But Zeller still runs the floor like a gazelle and now has the power to finish in the post. "Especially on the and-one, I would have never gotten up like that last year. So it's one of those things where sometimes I forget how strong I am," Zeller said. "I'll get a foul here or I'll throw a pass too hard or something. It's one of those things I'm still trying to get used to."

Zeller leads the team in field-goal percentage; he has made 10-of-13 field goals (76.9%) and is averaging 12.0 points (third on the team). He's also third in rebounds with 5.0 per game and second in offensive rebounds (2.5 per game). He has added 1.5 assists, one steal and one block in just 18 minutes. He wasn't happy with his performance in the first game and responded by hitting all six of his shots.

"Last game, he wasn't too happy with himself personally, saying he just didn't feel comfortable out there, he didn't feel like himself. But tonight after I talked to him he said he felt more comfortable and that was his game," Deon Thompson said after the Central game. "He looks good running up and down the court, blocking shots, dunking and his quick little right-hand hook. And the fact that he's seven feet tall doing that as well, so he's a big target to find and he's aggressive on the boards. He plays aggressive so he's definitely someone fun to watch."

Zeller is often out ahead of his teammates on the break and they haven't quite adjusted to finding him consistently. "We should have gotten him the ball a couple of other times. He's running and we've got to be able to get him the ball at that scenario because it's going to stretch the defense," Williams said.

"Z is going to give us a great threat coming off the bench. Right now, that's the plan is to have him come off the bench, similar to what Danny Green did, come in and give us some firepower offensively and let us run the floor and give us another big guy to rebound the ball."

This is a team where people are still trying to carve out their roles offensively. Zeller is just trying to go into each game and contribute in his own unique way. "When you go in, you've got to add something to the team, add something to the court, but at the same time, you've got to play within yourself. You can't go out and try to do things you can't do. You've got to find your role and play that role," Zeller said.

The Wear Twins: It's unfair to group these two together, and eventually they will separate themselves more. But so far in their Carolina careers, they have proven to be the types of solid role players who can come off the bench and give Carolina steady play. They don't try to force anything like most freshmen do and they're very good at starting the fast break and finding open teammates. The two have combined for five assists, three turnovers (David Wear has four assists to one turnover) and eight rebounds (four each). They have made 3-of-7 shots between them (2-of-5 by David) and David has played one more minute than his brother. But it's uncertain that both will end up being in the permanent rotation this year and they will need to separate themselves individually or together as players indispensible to the normal rotation.

Brandon McPherson: The 6-2 senior guard is in his fifth season after missing most of last season due to injury. He did play in five games last season, starting with the eight minutes he saw against North Carolina. In that time, he scored two points but had one assist to three turnovers. Still, he is a career 41% three-point shooter who Valparaiso desperately could have used last year. As a junior, he hit 48.6% of his field-goal attempts and 44.4% behind the arc. He is an experienced guard, something Carolina doesn't have. Against Ball State, McPherson had 11 points on 2-of-7 shooting and added three rebounds, six assists and just one turnover in 29 minutes.

Cory Johnson: The 6-7 junior sat out last season after transferring from Iowa State but spent last season practicing with the team and he started the season very well. He was the No. 78 recruit in the class of 2006 and has two seasons of eligibility remaining. In his debut against Ball State, he had 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting (but just 3-of-8 from the foul line), adding nine rebounds (four offensive) and three steals in 35 minutes.

Quotables

I told him and I don't know if he laughed or cried, but the first time I played my high school coach, I went back and coached in the same conference and he beat me by 55. So it all comes around. -Roy Williams, on the head coach of NC Central

He's a little bigger than I am. He has facial hair. I'm a little taller. Our personalities are a little different too. In high school, we used to switch jerseys but we haven't done that to Coach Williams yet. We'll wait a little while longer for that. -David Wear

Lauren Brownlow is the executive editor of Tar Heel Monthly.