Deja Vu: Heels beat Terps in ACC Tournament again, 78-72

For the second straight year, North Carolina ended our run at the ACC Tournament. It was a well played game and we just couldn't get over the hump when we needed it the most. We had our chances, but we either had a mental mistake or UNC had a key stop.

After this weekend, I have more confidence that we will have a pretty strong chance of being in Cleveland. The team showed more emotion in two days than they had during the entire ACC season. I hope the loss makes them even hungrier and ready to defend our title.


Positives

Emotion. The team was fired up and never let UNC get too far away. Every big basket was met with a scream and excitement.

Shay. She played like she isn't ready to go home yet. I hope that passion lasts until April 3.

Marissa. Another solid effort out of her, 18 points and 8 rebounds. Her defense was solid and we were close to seeing the high-knee dance that she did last year. I just would like her to demand the ball even more when things aren't going well.

Crystal. When she was in there, she picked her spots and scored. More impressive was that she drilled both her free throws with 4 minutes to go.

Sa'de. She looks to be regaining her confidence out there and will be a force come tournament time.

Jade. played solid defense when forced into action due to foul trouble.

Negatives

Rebounding. We didn't box out and let UNC grab too many crucial rebounds.

Toliver. her body language was awful for the first 30+ minutes. She again let her miss shots get the best of her. Once her shot started falling she smiled again and was playing in rhythm. She needs to move past that.

Officiating. This is I think the third time I have complained about officiating and twice one of the refs involved was Dee Kantner. Numerous calls were missed and somehow after Larkins picked up her second offensive foul we suddenly never got a call for us. Langhorne and Harper were suddenly getting called for touch fouls and Jade was getting called for illegal screens. How the ACC can continue to employ refs that suck is ridiculous.


As we wait two weeks to find out where we are going next, I hope the team works on a few things:
1. Have practices where Langhorne and Harper switch roles. Lang needs to work on her outside shot and Harper needs to work on her post moves. If Lang is forced to not take lay ups for two weeks she may be more comfortable hitting that outside jumper.
2. Restore Newman's confidence. She seems afraid to drive to the hoop and now doesnt give us much on the offensive end.
3. Practices where the team attacks the lane and doesn't settle for outside jumpers. We seem too afraid to attack the paint at certain times.
4. Limiting the dumb passes. They team needs to work on thinking before certain passes.