The end of UNC's season

Have you ever noticed that there is no D in North Carolina?  That is appropriate since this year's team was an excellent offensive team that sometimes struggled on D.  There was the reason why Grant Wahl wrote that UNC couldn't win the title in his annual Magic Eight column.  The end of UNC's season was marked by especially poor defense in the beginning (resulting in a 40-12 Kansas lead) and at the end.   They made a valiant comeback, but couldn't get the stops when they needed.  

The player that best exemplified UNC was the cover boy and the player of the year.  Tyler Hansbrough is known for his ability to score and rebound, but I don't think anyone would ever confuse him with Shane Battier on the defensive end.  In the Kansas game Tyler Hansbrough and UNC's post players gave up 30 points on 52% from the Jayhawk post players.  Tyler Hansbrough and UNC proved that the old adage that defense wins championships was in fact correct in San Antonio.

The Kansas win helped show the nation how over-hyped and over-rated UNC was this year. UNC played an a average non-conference schedule against a bunch of teams (Kent St, BYU, Ohio St. etc) that were good, but not great.  They never played that one game against a truly elite team.  They weren't prepared for Kansas and that lack of preparation showed from the opening tip.  Now a lot of people (Roy Williams included) are commenting on how poorly UNC coached the game.  They are mentioning how Kansas wasn't prepared and how Roy Williams just sat on his timeouts during Kansas's epic run.  I don't think the coaching was the reason for Kansas jumping on UNC from the beginning.  I think the reason was due to lack of experience against top competition.  

Some other quick hits:

• Check out the note on Jay Bilas from the USA Today.  Here is what is written:  ESPN's jay Bilas almost had his bases covered, picking a Kansas-UCLA NCAA final on air, and picking Memphis-North Carolina online.
• I tried Arby's Southern Style Chicken sandwich and can write that it is disappointing.  While it isn't terrible, it is terrible compared to Chick-Fil-A.  I wish that Chick-Fil-A would start their northern expansion plan, because these cheap knockoffs just don't cut it.
• A note on the Twolves:  A guy at my office won 2 courtside tickets to see the Twolves play the Hornets and do you know what he did with them?  He offered them back up to be auctioned off for again.  I don't know if this says more about how generous this person is or how unappealing Twolves games are right now.  Needless to write I am bidding on the tickets if only for the chance to taunt "Deron is better" at Chris Paul.  Or maybe I will ask Paul about the Julius Hodge incident from his days at Wake.
• My boss (a former MN high school basketball player) told me about Cole Aldrich and how he was such a good basketball player up here.  I then asked him if he could contact him with an offer of $500 if he could beat UNC and specifically Tyler Hansbrough.  I wonder if I will be getting a visit from Cole asking for his $500.  
• I didn't know Tyler Hansbrough could be outworked or out-hustled.   I mean he never takes a play off....right Jay Bilas?
• Duke is in need of a big man next year.  If only there were a 7ft 2 inch Sudanese center ranked in the top 5 of this year's class.  Oh wait there is and Duke is in the running (along with Uconn, Georgetown, and Florida) that is in the running for John Riek.  I watched a few highlights of him and while he looked like the Sudanese version of Brian Zoubek I am optimistic that 1) He is good and 2) He will pick Duke.

If Kansas wins tonight I will have picked the correct champion for the past two years.