<div align="center"> <font color=""DeepSkyBlue"">UNC Tar Heels</font> @ <font color=""red"">USC Trojans</font> Date: December 21, 2005 When: 10:30 PM EST Where: FSN <font color=""DeepSkyBlue"">North Carolina Tar Heels Starters:</font> (Tyler Hansbrough, Reyshawn Terry, David Noel, Marcus Ginyard, Bobby Frasor)</div> North Carolina needs to survive the first 10 minutes of the game against USC and don't let them get the crowd into it. If they can survive that opening run and don't let the crowd into it, they'll be okay, but if the crowd gets into it those young players might get shaken up. They need to establish Hansbrough early and get USC bigs in foul trouble. UNC can't afford to get in foul trouble with their little depth they have. UNC needs to push the ball up court and make USC run, USC doesn't like to get in a Run n' Gun type game. Mentally this will be a big game for UNC because they're almost in ACC play and need to keep building up their momentum they have right now. <div align="center"><font color=""red"">USC Trojans Starters:</font> (Ryan Francis, Lodrick Stewart, Nick Young, Gabe Pruitt, Abdoulaye N'diaye)</div> USC has to play like their potential says they can. If they play like a mediocre team like they were last year, UNC will get their confidence going and they'll run USC out of their own house. Pruitt, Young, and Steward need to score early and get the crowd into the game, when the crowd gets in games, it often to helps young teams like USC is, and it will hurt UNC's young team morale. USC also needs a inside presences with Hansbrough around, don't let the freshman get going, stop him couple times, get him frustrated. If they get UNC's prized freshman down, that will force them to find another scorer, that should be interesting. Prediction: USC gets up big with the opening rush and UNC gets tired due to it being late on their internal clock and USC is playing a game at a time they're used to. USC pulls off the upset 80-67 and the fans rush the court as UNC gets ready for a long trip back to the east coast.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting J_Ray:</div><div class="quote_post">I sure hope people watch this game, I hope I didn't do this for nothing......</div> It's not on here, but I'll follow it on yahoo gamecast. I just can't see USC pulling an upset in this one; they've played absolutely no one and their two losses have come to Oral Roberts and CSU Northridge. I think UNC has solid depth; guys like Danny Green, Wes Miller, and Quentin Thomas should provide a spark off the bench. Honestly, I think the score will be vice versa with UNC winning by 10+...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting UKOwnstheSEC:</div><div class="quote_post">It's not on here, but I'll follow it on yahoo gamecast. I just can't see USC pulling an upset in this one; they've played absolutely no one and their two losses have come to Oral Roberts and CSU Northridge. I think UNC has solid depth; guys like Danny Green, Wes Miller, and Quentin Thomas should provide a spark off the bench. Honestly, I think the score will be vice versa with UNC winning by 10+...</div> It's suppose to be on all the FSN's, you must not get FSN I guess, Illinois Missouri just started!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting J_Ray:</div><div class="quote_post">It's suppose to be on all the FSN's, you must not get FSN I guess, Illinois Missouri just started!</div> Oh, I didn't know that it was one Fox Sports Net. I'll probably be watching Arkansas-Texas Tech anyways...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting UKOwnstheSEC:</div><div class="quote_post">Oh, I didn't know that it was one Fox Sports Net. I'll probably be watching Arkansas-Texas Tech anyways...</div> See, that's why no one knows Pac-10 B-Ball, watch USC will own UNC. Pac-10 owns SEC!
I got USC pulling the upset over us with Nick Young and Gabe Pruitt having big games. UNC has to go cross country with a very young lineup to go up against an half decent team in Southern Cal, I just don't see it happening.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting C.K.:</div><div class="quote_post">I got USC pulling the upset over us with Nick Young and Gabe Pruitt having big games. UNC has to go cross country with a very young lineup to go up against an half decent team in Southern Cal, I just don't see it happening.</div> Their internal clocks have to be off too, they're starting this game way past their bed time!
So far this game is as ugly as Nick Young's mohawk. These look like two high school teams going at it. The spacing is terrible, UNC keeps turning the ball over, and neither team can make a layup. Any of the players in this game hoping to declare for the 2006 draft have to be dellusional.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">So far this game is as ugly as Nick Young's mohawk.</div> Yeah, this has been one sloppy game so far. Gabriel Pruitt has looked good for the Trojans so far with 9 pts. UNC needs to get the ball to Hansbrough because I don't see anyone on USC who can take him in the paint. It looks like both teams just want to shoot three's though.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting UKOwnstheSEC:</div><div class="quote_post"> Yeah, this has been one sloppy game so far. Gabriel Pruitt has looked good for the Trojans so far with 9 pts. UNC needs to get the ball to Hansbrough because I don't see anyone on USC who can take him in the paint. It looks like both teams just want to shoot three's though. </div> Ya, I got bored of this game and I'm watching Georgia @ Nevada! Go Nevada! Edit: Ryan Francis is a spark for USC, he's going to be something special!
It looks like USC is going to put this game away, up 63-51 now. Not really a good loss for UNC, it looks like it might have been premature for pollsters to surge them into the top 25. Is USC a very good team? I don't know much about them but I do see that they started off the season losing to CSU Northridge and Oral Roberts (by 20), they only beat Alaska-Anchorage by 1 Loyola Marymount by 2, and no stand out wins before this. So I think no.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Fast Luck:</div><div class="quote_post">It looks like USC is going to put this game away, up 63-51 now. Not really a good loss for UNC, it looks like it might have been premature for pollsters to surge them into the top 25. Is USC a very good team? I don't know much about them but I do see that they started off the season losing to CSU Northridge and Oral Roberts (by 20), they only beat Alaska-Anchorage by 1 Loyola Marymount by 2, and no stand out wins before this. So I think no.</div> Yeah, USC was a pretty bad basketball team earlier in the year, but they look like a much different team. Gabe Pruitt is still jacking up a lot of shots, but guys like Lodrick Stewart, Nick Young, and Abdoulaye Ndiaye are looking pretty solid. While Ndiaye hasn't been a scoring threat, he has been a force in the paint on the defensive side of the ball with 6 boards a few blocks.
I think the only reason USC won this game was because of Ryan Francis. He's only a Frosh, but he owning when he was in. If you noticed, UNC made all their runs when he was on the bench. I think Nick Young is going to have a good year this year. You see his haircut? Your going to do well whenever your looking good on the court He brings the spirit of the last of the Mohicans. That block by Lodrick Stewart was like "OOOOOOHHHHHH!!!" That has to hurt when your losing and you get swatted like a fly!
Ryan Francis wasn't owning anything, except the turnover category. He kept making the same mistake when UNC put the full court press on him. Instead of staying in the middle of the court, he kept dribbling to the sideline and getting trapped in the corner. You can just see he doesn't have the instincts of a point guard and relies 100% on his quickness. I thought Gabriel Pruitt was the most impressive player for the Trojans. He's a very good on the ball defender and has some quick hands. Right now I'd say his defensive skills are ahead of his offense. He's not the decision maker you'd expect him to be as a big point guard. Pruitt has to work on getting stronger, he cannot take a bump at all, and is reluctant to go to the rim. Lodderick Stewart had a nice second half, he had a highlight block and was on fire from behind the arc. Nick Young had the bonehead play of the night after getting called for a foul and then T'd up for taunting, leading to him fouling out. I wasn't impressed with him, he's reckless with the basketball and is a showboat. I expect him to make the mistake and leave early. I felt really bad for Abdoulaye N'diaye. He works so hard on defense and then fights for position on offense, but they refuse to give him any touches. The only player worth mentioning from UNC is Hansborough. He's solid and played an efficient game. One thing I kept noticing is the lack of vertical he gets going after rebounds. He's going to have to use position and leverage to be a factor on the glass. When he actually had to jump and fight for a rebound, shorter players were getting to the ball faster than him everytime. Fast Luck - As for your question about USC. They have a lot of talented players and athletes. Defensively the team is solid because Abdoulaye N'diaye does a great job of anchoring the middle. It allows the guards to gamble more and shoot the gaps. Offensively they are very raw and rely on one-on-one ability instead of playing within the flow of the offense. I think if this team stayed together for another season and worked hard they could be a contender next year. Right now they are an NIT team at best.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Ryan Francis wasn't owning anything, except the turnover category. He kept making the same mistake when UNC put the full court press on him. Instead of staying in the middle of the court, he kept dribbling to the sideline and getting trapped in the corner. You can just see he doesn't have the instincts of a point guard and relies 100% on his quickness. I thought Gabriel Pruitt was the most impressive player for the Trojans. He's a very good on the ball defender and has some quick hands. Right now I'd say his defensive skills are ahead of his offense. He's not the decision maker you'd expect him to be as a big point guard. Pruitt has to work on getting stronger, he cannot take a bump at all, and is reluctant to go to the rim. Lodderick Stewart had a nice second half, he had a highlight block and was on fire from behind the arc. Nick Young had the bonehead play of the night after getting called for a foul and then T'd up for taunting, leading to him fouling out. I wasn't impressed with him, he's reckless with the basketball and is a showboat. I expect him to make the mistake and leave early. I felt really bad for Abdoulaye N'diaye. He works so hard on defense and then fights for position on offense, but they refuse to give him any touches. The only player worth mentioning from UNC is Hansborough. He's solid and played an efficient game. One thing I kept noticing is the lack of vertical he gets going after rebounds. He's going to have to use position and leverage to be a factor on the glass. When he actually had to jump and fight for a rebound, shorter players were getting to the ball faster than him everytime.</div> Ryan Francis got USC some momentum going into half, if they didn't get that little momentum, I believe UNC would of ran away with this game. When he got in foul trouble early, that's when UNC made their run. Whenever he was on the bench they made a run. I don't really like Pruitt much, he just jacks up all these contested shots and misses more than half of them. Nick Young did do a bone head move, and I think he'll go to the draft early. He's a cocky player that needs to play someone like Hassan Adams and get facial to see how athletic Frasor was when he swatted him yesterday. Out of all the players I think Stewart has the most potential for USC, what happen to his brother btw? I didn't see him at all yesterday, it may just been I was watching Nevada-Georgia game. I feel bad for N'diaye too, he is probably the only one on the team that isn't full of himself. N'diaye has a promising future IMO.
UNC just didn't have a speed guard to chase Ryan Francis around. However, once Roy Williams made the defensive adjustment to pressure him full court, Francis really struggled. I agree, he was a spark for the Trojans, but he won't be able to do that against a veteran team, or a team with a quick guard to stay in front of him. Loderick Stewart's brother, Roderick transferred to Kansas.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Nick Young had the bonehead play of the night after getting called for a foul and then T'd up for taunting, leading to him fouling out. I wasn't impressed with him, he's reckless with the basketball and is a showboat. I expect him to make the mistake and leave early.</div> Yet according to NBADraft.Net, his stock, as well as the stock of every player on the team, has risen after the UNC game. Not only do they expect him to stay another year, they expect him to be a top ten pick as well. They really seem to have an obvious bias for southern California players (Slaughter, Young, Pruitt, Heath, etc.).
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Voodoo Child:</div><div class="quote_post">Yet according to NBADraft.Net, his stock, as well as the stock of every player on the team, has risen after the UNC game. Not only do they expect him to stay another year, they expect him to be a top ten pick as well. They really seem to have an obvious bias for southern California players (Slaughter, Young, Pruitt, Heath, etc.).</div> Yet they completely overlook the best player coming out of Southern Cal .. Jordan Farmar.
