North Carolina at Rutgers

"THE TARHEELS WERE AS GOOD AS WE THOUGHT THEY WOULD BE!", Denny Green would have said if he was the Rutgers college basketball coach.

The game was exactly as Denny Green's "trademark" phrase suggests, with Tywon Lawson getting a new career high with 26 (or so) including a healthy number of three-pointers made. Tyler Hansbrough hit his head on a camera man's knee and left the game with a few minutes left, and Rutgers saw a glimmer of hope, but that was quickly squashed by the rest of the Tar Heels - something that perhaps can make the Carolina fans feel less uneasy - at least they didn't have a Georgetown meltdown without Hansbro.

Convincing players to come off the bench became easier for Roy Williams (and other coaches to a lesser extend) after #3 NBA Draft pick Marvelous Marvin Williams came off the bench of the 2005 NCAA college basketball national championship team. And that's perhaps the role that Danny Green (no relation to the trademark/football coach) could play in this season's squad if it hopes for a national championship.

Ole Roy was not happy with a 9-man rotation so he mixxed in a little bit of William Graves and Copeland. Some people (read: Doug Gottleib) have a problem with that, I do not. If you have the players, play them! If you can mix it up and win, just do it!

There was once again an awkward offensive moment where Q. Thomas, Ginyard and Stephenson were on the floor at the same time. But this time it was quickly corrected as they made a quick substitution to add more offense to the line-up.

Rutgers on the other hand is on a long and winding rebuilding road. But the good news is that they have the right man for the job, Mr Jersey Fred Hill. He already brought in (read: kept in-state) a touted guard in Corey Chandler, with more talent in the pipeline. His current roster has a relatively low ceiling, especially playing in the 16-team Big East team, however the bottom of the Big East is "competitive" the wrong way at the moment, so they do have a chance of ...making the Big East tourney this year (last year only 12 make it in).

Meanwhile JR Inman has probably learned his lesson the hard way as his "statements" were empty, both scoreboard-wise and personal statline-wise. Win some games first JR Inman, and then run your mouth :-)

More on this game from the Tar Hell Times and Ball Hype. Meanwhile the Basketball Predictions blog projects North Carolina as their overall #1 in their latest Bracketology projections as of today (12/16/07).