From: wgr@rti.rti.org
Subject: Re: The 30-4 run
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, RTP, NC
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 93 15:16:27 GMT

In article <1993Jan28.141044.6513@mlb.semi.harris.com> dhead@comanche.ess.harris.com writes:
>The only
>reason FSU had that big lead in the first place is because Carolina couldn't
>hit the outside shot and FSU was able to concentrate on the inside and shut
>it down.  If that had continued, FSU wins in a rout.  But it didn't.

Another big reason FSU dominated the first half was Montross' foul trouble.
He only played a little over four minutes in the first half before sitting
down with three fouls.  At that point the score was something like 7-5 and
Eric had all 5 of Carolina's points.  FSU really doesn't have anyone who
can guard him, and even Wenstrom was able to take advantage of his size
against the smaller FSU front line.  Dobard is a great shot blocker, but
a 250-pound 7-footer who takes the ball right at him can give him trouble.
When the Carolina little guys tried to drive, Rodney was smacking away
shots left and right.

>Five
>straight three pointers by the home team is enough to shake even the toughest
>tournament team.  I'm not saying there wasn't some element of choke in it for
>FSU, but they proved themselves on the road in the ACC last season and aren't
>doing that badly this season either.

Hey, George Lynch hitting just one 3-pointer should be enough to convince
an opponent that the gods are against them.

Florida State took a couple of ill-advised (IMHO) 3-pointers down the
stretch, and appeared to be rattled.  They were also tired, and it's
sometimes hard to distinguish the two ("fatigue makes cowards of us all").
I think Carolina's depth eventually wore them down a little bit.

I was at the game, and at halftime I thought UNC would come back and win
it.  At the TV timeout with under 12 minutes to play and Carolina down by
21, I started having some doubts.  When they were still behind by 20 with
9:30 left I figured they weren't going to do it.  They had shown very few
signs of life and FSU's quickness, penetrating and dishing for open shots
were still killing them.  Then UNC suddenly cut the lead to 73-65 with 7:37
to play, and it was a ballgame again.  At that point the momentum was so
strongly with Carolina that I was pretty sure they would win it.

I saw a couple of stats in the paper this morning that I could hardly
believe.  Sam Cassell was 3-12 on 3-pointers.  It seemed like he was
hitting everything he threw up, in spite of questionable shot selection.
I guess it just seemed that way to me because my team was behind by 20
points.  Also, they said Charlie Ward had 15 turnovers.  I would never
have thought he would *ever* have that many turnovers in a game.

One last thing:  did anyone else think the referees helped a bit with UNC's
comeback?  FSU couldn't seem to get a single break in the second half.
There were at least three charging calls against them, pretty much in the
open court, that looked very questionable to me.  What did the replays show?
And what was the technical foul on the FSU bench all about?  All I saw was
Kennedy motioning that he thought Montross had traveled.  I think sometimes
when the home team is making a big comeback and the crowd is going crazy,
the refs get caught up in the enthusiasm too.