Duke v. UNC

[FuManShoes]

These teams play hard. They just do. UNC is lax on D and takes dumb shots, but dammit they push the tempo and crash the boards and Hansborough just puts his head down and goes to the hole. Duke is tireless. I hate them. Their goofball floor-slappers are covered in sweat, huffing and puffing (probably because Cameron Indoor is a humidor), and pester the hell out of opponents. God I would love to see the Zags play with this energy. And don't tell me they do. We know better.

[brosco13]

YES the zags definitely need to play with more energy. i think they should use their full court press more often

[MDABE80]

We play some teams with good national names in the OOC for the most part. Maybe 8,9 or so. ACC teams go hard it it every game. That said, it's a must that the kids are tough, dedicated and don't play if they don't work hard, sweat like crazy and do exactly what the coaches say. It's a level of competition and dedication we don't have. Not sure we're designed for it either.

We win some great games once in a while but we don't face the "terror" every night. Our mission is a bit different. But Fu....it's a killer game and killer teams. Not sure we could keep the intensity up for a full season. We haven't yet..even when ranked. It's not a criticism of our program....but we're not built like those programs. I suppose few teams/leagues do. UNK, Duke, etc are at the highest level of college basketball.

[brosco13]

coach K is one of the best and UNC is like the yankees, pretty hard to be like those programs, but the zags should still be playing with the same effort as those teams. I like the effort we put out when we are playing aggressively and trapping and pressing on D.

[Pleasant Peninsula]

UNC is incredibly good; the way they dominate great teams (Duke, MSU, etc) for very long stretches on both sides of the floor is astonishing. They have been prone to (momentary) lapses, but this team is as good a college crew as we have seen in years.

Unfortunately, as good as GU is this year (and they are good, top 20 good, which is very good) any comparison with UNC is apples to kumquats....

[g-ride]

As much as I love the Zags, UNC is my team to win it all.

[208Zag]

My thoughts exactly

i think they should use their full court press more often

YES! Almost every game I wonder why we don't use the press more often, we have the PERFECT team for the full court press and/or the 1-2-2 trap. This would also help our offense by creating more turnovers, allowing them to get out and RUN, which we tend do very well because every single one of players can run the floor! Josh isn't a back to the basket big man but find me a more athletic 6'11" player who can run the floor like Josh?

[gamagin]

hustle

and risk taking and not giving up fill in the gaps.

UNC hustles the whole game. every game. They have the talent and make up for everything else that goes wrong, just like real life, not by pitching a tent over it and forming a support group, but by working their arses off.

Something to learn for us.

[BobZag]

They do play all-out and I, too, wish the Zags would way more often. Both UNC and Duke, however, gave up over 50 points in a half.

[FuManShoes]

Yeah, it's funny, for as hard as both UNC and Duke appeared to be working, it wasn't exactly a defensive battle. That said, both teams seem to create so many more opportunities for themselves just by hustling. I really can't recall seeing the Zags look that frenzied for 40 minutes, though I hear that's what happened late in the Memphis game when it was way too late. There's a certain beauty to the "smoothness" the Zags exhibit but if you aren't a team full of NBA level athletes, you better be busting your ass every possession, and if you are a team full of NBA athletes and hustle all the time, you will be nearly unstoppable.