Possibly Sweet 16 if they can control the boards against the Cougs, but neither the Cougs, nor the Irish have a prayer at making the Elite 8 if they have to face Carolina.
Yeah, Cougs have had a problem with the boards this year, so if you limit them on the glass, they are beatable. Of course, if you can manage to shot over 60% from the field, you don't need to dominate the glass. But shooting 60%+ FGs is a tall order.
I have ND out in the 1st in an upset, but I can't see them getting past WSU in the 2nd round.
I am not so sure about the comment, "neither team will have a prayer against North Carolina." I can see ND really struggling against that playing style, but I think the Cougs style of play figures to be a real problem for NC. NC plays very poor defense and relies on the fast break to outscore opponents; think USC with a better break and weaker defense. We take the fast break away better than anyone. Because of that, I would bet this game is going to be close. If we can get NC frustrated a little bit, we can control them and come out on top. But my-o-my, if we get treated to this match-up get the richter scale ready cause Baynes and Psycho-T are big bodies who love contact.
"I am not so sure about the comment, "neither team will have a prayer against North Carolina." I can see ND really struggling against that playing style, but I think the Cougs style of play figures to be a real problem for NC. NC plays very poor defense and relies on the fast break to outscore opponents; think USC with a better break and weaker defense. We take the fast break away better than anyone. Because of that, I would bet this game is going to be close. If we can get NC frustrated a little bit, we can control them and come out on top. But my-o-my, if we get treated to this match-up get the richter scale ready cause Baynes and Psycho-T are big bodies who love contact."
Anything is possible my friend, but the Cougars have proven very susceptible to great rebounding teams, especially those with athleticism. UCLA outrebounded the Cougs 32-16 in the game 1 blowout and 27-16 in the much closer 2nd game. In the three Stanford losses, all within the last 7 weeks, they got outrebounded 42-27 at home, 30-25 on the road at Maples(when they gave away the game in the 2nd half), and 35-27 in the conference tourney. In fact, the loss at home to Cal was the only loss all season in which they outrebounded their opponent, but that was only by a whopping 3 boards.
That leads us to Carolina, who just so happened to lead the entire nation in rebounding with a 48 rebound per game AVERAGE!!!! WSU isn't even in the top 300 with their 32 rebound per game average. And....NC is likely the most athletic team in the nation. The only way I see the Cougs keeping this close is by 1) shooting 50+% from the field and 40+% from beyond the arc, 2) somehow controlling tempo the vast majority of the game, and 3) finding a way to keep guys like Hansbrough, Stepheson, Green, etc. from getting 2nd chance points from their complete and total domination on the boards. If they don't do all three things, this game is going to be a double digit blowout by Carolina.
Regardless, I'd love to see them reach that game and prove that they can compete at that level on the national stage. It'll be fun to watch no matter the outcome.
Our rebounding woes are partially a paper tiger. I agree were not the best rebounding squad, but the stats are not a great indicator of our rebounding prowless. This is because instead of leaving 2 or more guys back to fight for offensive rebounds (like most squads) we leave one, and the rest of the guys get back on defense.
I'm not trying to underplay NC, they are one hell of a basketball team. Psycho T is the national player of the year. I'm only saying, of all the #1 seeds I think we have the best against them, simply because our style of play tends to frustrate the type NC favors. I don't think there will be any blowouts in this potential matchup.
I'm getting really jacked up for tonight v. Winthrop already.
