We play Miami this Wednesday. It will be interesting to see what state of mind our guys and coaches have. When I think of Miami, all I remember is losing last year due to Darius Rice, and then I remember Doherty complaining because no foul was called. Thank goodness we have Roy.

I'm not one to usually get ahead of myself, but we should beat Miami. I don't think Roy will have any trouble motivating them -- last year's stinging defeat should be enough to do that. Add the fact that these guys are gonna have something to prove after Saturday, and I think we should come out focused.

I'm not sure how good Miami is this year in comparison to last year. I do know that we played down there -- without May -- last year, had one of the biggest scoring droughts I can remember in recent history (only to be rivaled by Saturday), missed so many free throws that you could only laugh about it... and we still almost pulled out the game at the end.

We definitely need this game, though. The next three after that won't be kind.

-JD

The next few games are gonna be very tough. This team is definetly a work in progress. It is going to be awesome what Roy molds us to be when tourney times rolls around.

Tonight we bounced back from a tough loss in nice fashion. I liked what I saw. The guys pushed out into the passings lanes, and overall the defensive intensity was more consistent. In addition, our players looked like they were getting out on the break and getting back on transition defense faster than they have in the past few games. While there was still a handful of lapses and poor decisions, I liked the attitude of our team today, and it was good to see some smiles and chuckles from the guys. It makes me grin when I think of our team in March if we continue to learn and improve a tad each and every game.

I liked what I saw tonight:

- We were determined to get the ball inside to May, and the big man answered in huge fashion.

- Like hoops said, transition defense was awesome. Considering points-off-turnovers were supposed to be Miami's bread and butter, we had a great gameplan to put the clamps on that.

- Our own transition game was in full force. That blew the game wide open in the second half.

- I saw a lot of unselfish play, and a lot of guys giving each other "five" during stoppages of play. That's the kind of team chemistry I love to see.

Great win, and I hope it gives us some momentum going into the Tech game.

-JD

ummm did you guys see the transition points stat??

UNC - around 10
Miami - 30 +

Half of Miami points were scored in transition, I don't know if I would call that great transition defense.

I liked what I saw when our team got out and ran, making the extra pass never hurts.

I saw Rahad playing some pretty good defense too, In the first half when one of the Miami players picked up the dribble, McCants was up in his face. He also made a couple of other good defensive plays, not as much as, I assume, we all like, but I hope he continues to play harder and get better on defense. That will only help! He did make a great pass when he got doubl teamed in the corner, which led to a wide open layup.

Once we got the ball inside and May found his touch that wasn't there at the beginning of the game, we really got going.

I don't know about Melvin Scott yet, I don't like seeing him bring the ball down for some reason, he made a couple of show boat no-look passes, and they got stolen because they stepped in the lane. His shot isn't that consistent, but once he catches it, the 3 balls start falling pretty easy. I like him taking the 3 ball early, hoping maybe he can find that rhythm, and that gives us a very good inside and outside game, which would make us virtually unstoppable. (if our defense shows up too..)

I hope this team continues to get better as the season progresses. I like what I've seen so far. I'm not sure if we're ready for Tech this weekend though. I hope I'm wrong, really wrong, but we'll see....

How many players do you all see leaving next year with the seniors?? Anyone see Jawad leaving early??

Len Elmore said a couple of minutes later that the transition stat was inverted (as I suspected). I knew there was something screwy about those numbers....

-JD

oh ok... sorry about then guys.... I didn't hear that. I thought something looked weird, but I thought it was just me. Thanks JD!

Our transition offense and defense looked stellar then... haha!!

I liked what I saw last night. They played as a team and picked up each other when needed. I think Roy spread the floor last night to try and open the middle. Rashad could score at will and Sean had tons of open looks. Rashad had a great game. Only ***** I had was his NBA 3 pointer. He looked confident and as though he wanted to look to pass. He played acceptable D too!
Melvin needs to shoot the 3 from the top of the key. When he is on the wing he drifts and so does his shot. All in all, an excellent effort by all!

No problem, jr -- I knew the stat was wrong, so I was waiting to hear them correct it. I had actually almost given up hope when Elmore made a vague reference to it and mentioned that it had been inverted. Until then, it had me scratching my head as well....

Rashad can play defense if he sets his mind to it. I saw him play some stretches of stellar D in the one game I've seen in person this year: the Davidson game. There are times when he decides to just do it, and he moves his feet and causes all kinds of havoc. That Davidson game was one of those -- I think he caused two five-second violations that game.

Then, there are times that Rashad gets lazy and tries to do it all with his hands (i.e., reaching in, slapping at the ball, etc.). It's the same way he can be a monster on offense if his shot's on, or if he posts up down low and uses his strong position to get easy buckets (dook game last year)... but, then he'll get lazy and try to shoot 25-foot threes.

I agree about Melvin -- he got a little too showy and caused some turnovers trying to force some passes. Sometimes I think we try to force things a little too much, which I guess is a product of Roy's secondary break. I suppose it's a necessary evil, but I would still like to see us cut down on that. If we don't have the numbers, we shouldn't try to force a bad pass or shot.

-JD