Nov. 21, 2008

By Lauren Brownlow

The Basics

No. 1/1 North Carolina (2-0) will travel to the Thunderdome to face UC-Santa Barbara (1-1). Carolina is coming off of a 77-58 win over Kentucky. UC-Santa Barbara (1-1) is coming off of a 61-59 loss to Utah State at home; a putback with three seconds left by Utah State sealed the loss. The Gauchos were picked to finish second in the Big West conference. Carolina will be putting its 13-game true road winning streak on the line. The longest such streak in school history is 14 games; it stretched from March 2, 1983 until January 30, 1985. Carolina and UC-Santa Barbara have played twice and Carolina has won both meetings. Carolina won a year ago in Chapel Hill and beat the Gauchos 83-66 in November of 2005. This game will mark the third regular-season game played in California in Roy Williams' tenure; Carolina played just two games in the prior 14 seasons.

Game Time: North Carolina at UC-Santa Barbara, 10:00 PM.

Last Time: Carolina beat UC-Santa Barbara at home on December 22, 2007 by a score of 105-70. Carolina held UCSB to 31.9% shooting in the second half and for the game, out-rebounded the Gauchos 57-30. Carolina shot 57.1% for the game and 60% in the second half. Tyler Hansbrough led Carolina with 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting and added nine rebounds and four steals. But it was Deon Thompson who led Carolina with 12 boards, adding seven points, three assists and three blocks. Marcus Ginyard tied his career high with 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Wayne Ellington also had 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Ty Lawson had 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting and added six assists and four steals. Danny Green rounded out the Tar Heels in double figures with 11 points, adding three assists, two steals and a block. James Powell had 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting (3-of-7 from beyond the arc). Alex Harris also had 17 points and made 3-of-4 three-pointers. Nedim Pajevic was the other Gaucho in double figures with 12 points.

Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage begins at 9:00 PM. Jones Angell and Eric Montross have the call.

Injury Report: Tyler Zeller broke his wrist against Kentucky. He had surgery and will likely miss the rest of the season. Tyler Hansbrough has been held out of practice with a stress reaction and is questionable. Marcus Ginyard will be out until mid-December after undergoing surgery on October 8th to repair a stress fracture in his left foot. Michael Copeland tore his ACL in a pickup game in May and had surgery in June. He will be out until sometime midseason.

Storylines

Finishing: Carolina got off to a big lead early against Kentucky, coming out with fire and intensity. Kentucky began the game with ten turnovers at the 11:33 mark while Carolina got off to a 25-6 lead. The Wildcats were held to 2-of-10 shooting. Carolina scored 12 points off of those turnovers. The rest of the game, Carolina would score 14 points off of 18 more turnovers, including turning seven Kentucky turnovers to end the first half into only three more points. After holding Kentucky to 2-of-10 shooting in the beginning, Carolina allowed it to shoot 18-of-35 (51.4%) the rest of the way.

"We got excited. We had a lot of adrenaline and a lot of excitement coming out of the locker room. In the second half, we didn't have as much," Wayne Ellington said. "We just have to keep the same mindset. We jumped on them hard and we just have to keep executing. We know the whole game is not going to go like that. We came out pretty much perfect. We know the whole game is not going to go like that but we just know we've got to at least have some intensity and keep fighting."

The first eight minutes weren't as great offensively, though. Carolina started out 4-of-11 from the floor and finished out a run that lasted from 16:13 until 11:33 by shooting 7-of-9 from the floor and 2-of-2 from beyond the arc to take a 25-6 lead. Carolina shot 11-of-20 to that point in the game. For the remaining 30 minutes, it shot 18-of-50 (36%), including 13-of-34 (38.2%) in the second half.

Carolina has had two stretches of over three minutes - 6:07 against Penn and 3:40 against Kentucky - without field goals. Carolina also allowed Penn to go on three runs of eight or more unanswered points in the second half while Carolina had none. In the second half of its last two games, Carolina has had only an 11-3 run; opponents have had runs of 24-14, 14-5, 8-0 and 20-12 in the second half after neither opponent had a significant first-half run.

"We had a fantastic first 10-12 minutes and then after I didn't think our defense was nearly as aggressive with the intensity that we had opened the game with," Williams said. "I thought our defense forcing the turnovers was a key in the game early, and then after that, we more or less meandered around a little bit like we did against Penn, where it was 15 or 18 (point lead) or whatever it was, and it basically stayed that way most of the game."

Turning around the shooting: Carolina has been able to win its last two games, particularly the second game, because of solid defense and getting out to a big lead. But it hasn't shot particularly well in either game. The good news is that many of these shots have been close to falling or have at least been good shots that have come within the flow of the offense. Carolina has moved the ball around very well and for the most part has been very patient in its shot selection. Lawson, Ellington and Frasor are such good shooters that it's bound to turn around.

Carolina is a team that shot close to 50 percent last season; it's Roy Williams' goal to be at or around that every year. Well, this season Carolina is shooting 43.8% from the field and 40% from the three-point line. Carolina's post players are actually shooting fairly well from the field but Carolina's three guards that see more than ten minutes a game - Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Bobby Frasor - are shooting 17-of-60 from the field (28.3%) and 9-of-36 (25%) from two-point range. Frasor has shot 2-of-9 but Ellington and Lawson have combined to shoot 15-of-51 (29.4%).

In two games so far, Carolina has actually shot well in the first half, making 35-of-69 shots (50.7%) and 8-of-19 from beyond the arc (42.1%), averaging 44.5 points per half. But in the second half, that has dipped to 22-of-61 (36.1%) and 6-of-16 from beyond the arc (37.5%). Carolina has averaged 32 points in the second half. Maybe shooters are losing their legs or losing the early intensity, but those kinds of poor second-half performances will come back to haunt the Tar Heels at some point.

At The Game

Listening to the Tar Heel Sports Network at the game: The in-stadium frequency at the Thunderdome is not yet available.

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.

ESPNU coverage: The game will be available on ESPNU.

Names To Know

Wayne Ellington: The junior guard has not been shooting as well as he would like to this season; he has made just 34.5% of his shots (although he has made 41.7% from the three-point line). He is Carolina's second-leading scorer, averaging 14.5 points per game. Counting the last three games of last season, Ellington has now shot 27-of-77 from the floor (35.1%). He shot 3-of-17 to end last season (1-of-9 against Kansas) from beyond the arc but he has shot 5-of-12 (41.7%) so far this season. He missed ten shots against Penn and at least seven were ill-advised. But against Kentucky, two were blocked and another two were bad but the rest were good looks that just didn't fall. He also had his best half of the season in the second half, making 3-of-6 shots and 2-of-3 from beyond the arc, scoring 10 points in 16 minutes.

He has been much more active in the passing lanes this season and his defense has been very good. He has become very adept at knocking away passes to the wing and he is denying those passes very well. He drew seven of Penn's 30 fouls himself; he shot only three free throws but many were on the floor fouls that gave Carolina a new shot clock. He also drew three offensive fouls that resulted in three of Penn's 16 turnovers. With his two steals, he was involved in five Penn turnovers. He drew three fouls against Kentucky. He also had quite a few deflections, one of which led to a Danny Green. Certainly is athletic alley-oop dunk was memorable but the Wayne Ellington Tar Heel fans know and love showed up when he got the ball on the wing inside the arc, gave a beautiful fake that got his defender off his feet, squared his body and drained a jumper.

Ed Davis: Fellow freshman Tyler Zeller had been holding down Tyler Hansbrough's starting spot in his absence. If the senior Player of the Year can't start, which he likely won't, it will probably be Davis in that role. The freshman has begun has Carolina with a double-double in the first game and ten or more rebounds in each of his first two games. He is averaging 0.5 rebounds per minute. He's not scoring as much but has made 7-of-10 shots from the field (70%), a figure that leads the team. He has nearly a third of Carolina's rebounds (24 out of 77) on his own and over a third of its defensive rebounds (16 out of 47).

The 6-10 Davis has long arms, nice leaping ability and all of the physical tools to be a good rebounder. But what has made him so effective so far is that little something extra that all great rebounders have. "I was not a bridge player but they say people bid on every hand. Well, he bids on every shot," Williams said. "He goes to rebound it. I think with Ed, he does have good timing. He does have an ability to jump. He does get to the backboards. You add all those things together and that's how you get 14 (rebounds)."

Davis also showed something surprising for a freshman - the ability to defend a tough player. Carolina's strategy against Patrick Patterson was to have Thompson guard the high post player and either Davis or Zeller fronting Patterson, hoping to pick off the post feed. Davis played very nice defense on Patterson but he was not afraid offensively, either. He got the ball down low at one point, drop-stepped and dunked confidently right on Patterson. He also made a great hustle play to save an offensive rebound that was going out-of-bounds; Carolina ended up getting a three-pointer on the play. With Hansbrough, Ginyard and Zeller out, Davis will likely see more time than he did before and if he rebounds at the pace that he has so far, he can help pick up that slack on the backboards.

Chris Devine: The 6-8, 230-pound senior forward has been a team leader; he is one of two Gauchos to have attempted more than ten field goals and has shot 11-of-22 (50%) from the field. He opened the season with a double-double but in the loss to Utah State, he had just two rebounds and 14 points but shot 5-of-13 from the floor. He also has a team-high ten turnovers against no assists. He averaged 12.3 points per game last season and is leading his team in scoring with 15.5 points per game and is shooting 50% from the floor. His 6.5 rebounds per game also lead the team. Last year against Carolina, Devine had just six points on 3-of-9 shooting and added three blocks, four steals but also no assists and six turnovers.

James Powell: The 6-2 junior guard is the second-leading scorer for the Gauchos, averaging 15.0 points per game. Last season, the sharp-shooter set a school record by making 46.7% of his three's last season but is just 3-of-14 this season (21.4%). He did make one with 30 seconds left to tie the game against Utah State at 59. His 120 career three-pointers are eighth in UCSB history. He is shooting just 33.3% from the floor and is averaging a team-high 33.0 minutes per game. Last year against Carolina, Powell was one of the leading scorers on the team, making 6-of-12 shots (3-of-7 from beyond the arc).

Quotables

"You know what they call a guy who finishes last in medical school? Doctor. That's what I tell Tim Taft all the time. He says there's also a reason they call it medical `practice.' You know what they call a guy who finishes last in coaching? Ex-coach." -Roy Williams

"You guys could have them (future Tar Heel twins David and Travis Wear) sit up here and they could say, `I'm David,' `I'm Travis,' and you have no hope of telling which one is which. They could walk out the door and they could come back in here and change seats and you would have no idea. Their high school coach, Gary McKnight, is a great coach. Supposedly, he was chewing one of them out. At halftime of the practice, the other one said, `Hey, you shouldn't have to go through that a whole practice.' So they switched jerseys and Gary stayed after the one that he thought was the same one and it was the other one." -Roy Williams

Lauren Brownlow is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.