Saturday, March 19, 2011

Washington a dangerous matchup for UNC Sunday

Washington will pose a serious “round of 32” threat to North Carolina Sunday when the two teams square off at 12:15 p.m. And one Georgia player came just short of predicting a Huskie victory early Saturday morning.

Georgia’s Trey Thompkins, who had 26 points in Washington’s 68-65 win over the Bulldogs Friday night, was asked after the game how far he expected Washington to go in the tournament.

“I feel this Washington team will go deep into the tournament,” Thompkins said. And although he didn’t explain that by further, I wouldn’t think one victory would be considered “deep” by anyone.

Washington, a No.7 seed, has far more NCAA tournament experience than the current crop of Tar Heel players. The Huskies made it to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2010 before losing to West Virginia.

They have a 5-9 junior guard in Isaiah Thomas (no relation to the original Isaiah Thomas) who makes them go, and a couple of seniors in the post (6-9 Matthew Bryan-Amaning and 6-6 Justin Holiday) who are very respectable players.

Said Georgia coach Mark Fox, who is a longtime friend of Roy Williams, shortly after his team had lost to the Huskies Friday night in Charlotte: “Washington scores it from so many places…. It should be a heckuva ballgame.”

For the second game in a row, the Tar Heels have also found a team that wants to run with them. Long Island was the nation’s No.4 scoring team (UNC beat the Blackbirds, 102-87 Friday night).

Washington? It’s the nation’s No.3 scoring team, averaging 83.5 points per game.
The Huskies won the Pac-10 tournament this season (but finished only third in the Pac-10 regular season).

In the game vs. Georgia Friday, Washington was slowed considerably by the Bulldogs’ insistence on playing at a leisurely tempo. But the Huskies had a nice run early in the second half and held a lead of around 10 points most of the way until Georgia made a furious comeback at the end. A missed Bulldogs’ three-pointer from about 25 feet was all that kept the game from going into overtime.

One other note: attendance for the night session at Charlotte’s Time Warner Cable Arena was announced at 16,852, which is a couple of thousand people short of a sellout. That's something, isn't it? Duke and North Carolina can't sell out in Charlotte?!

12 comments:

Unknown said...

I think UNC better be scared. Washington played good tonight and has a lot of potential with Isaiah Thomas at the point. That kid is fun to watch.

Anonymous said...

Isaiah Thomas plays for Washington. Isiah Thomas is the former NBA All-Star.

Anonymous said...

It's not a sellout because everyone has finally realized that you pay the same ticket price for the worst seat in the house as you do for seats in the 10th row.

The NCAA needs to look at adjusting their ticket prices if they want to sell out the second/third round games now - charge more for good seats and less for the crappy ones.

Anonymous said...

Scott, the place will be rocking tomorrow. In this economy, this was a tough ticket to commit to because you had to buy for all three sessions. And the tickets that remained where WAAAAAY upstairs. A $240 commitment for those seats? No thanks. But again, Heel fans will have the place rocking tomorrow at 12:15.

I was there all day but I can certainly understand why the place wasn't a sellout. ALL sports are feeling effects of the Depression and unemployment.

Anonymous said...

So what does Mr "credibility" Tom Soreheadsen think? He is the official self appointed self proclaimed self absorbed omnipotent omniscient guru god of the sportsworld, right?

He has never been wrong about anything or so he claims?

Forget his aimless meanderings. The real question is when has the idiot ever been right about anything?

Roy and his Blueboyz skate on thin ice every game. It aint clickin erratic & lost credibility ... kind of like Soreheadsen.

Anonymous said...

A HUSKY win against CAROLINA will be more devastating than an duke lost...spoken like a dedicated UNC alumni, residing in Seattle...but if this happens, finally the PAC-10 will get some RESPECT!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Wes, actually, Washington did not play that well. They are a much better shooting team than they showed tonight. CJ Wilcox is a monster, but has the flu Thursday and wasn't even sure he was going to play. If UW is shooting like they are capable of, the score could be in the 110's for both teams. Should be a fun run and gun game.

Unknown said...

the ncaa has taken a fast pace, exciting game and turned it into a boring nascar race with all the LONG and needless timeouts

Anonymous said...

The worse part is the Bluez have the talent to take it all but slipping in the coach and mojo dept. RW was an idiot for his dumb book plus endless whines. Spoiled brat syndrone.

If Williams would lose the mental block & pretend he were back at Kansas when he had to vastly overachieve with much less talent to succeed he could turn it around. Its called hustleball not screwoff ball.

Anonymous said...

Bring on Kentucky !!!

Anonymous said...

U Got Em !!!!!!!!

Da Heelz R back ...

xl pharmacy said...

NCAA is so important because it organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana., I have watched the highlights of this game!