Appears the cramping by several players at crucial times cost us some in the game.
The guards expended a lot of energy durning that come back and were off the normal rotation I think ! Falling behind early was what cost our hogs. Missing shots and turning the ball over. You also have to get calls when you drive and get hammered which was not the case.
8 free throws for the hogs and 25 for the North Carolina. The refs have always hosed the hogs and it happened again!
Our guards took turns terrorizing Carolina as it seems one went out with cramps or got tired, the next one came in and “beasted.”
Carolina had to be thinking okay how many guards will they throw at us–our depth and quality is high-level and these guys will be even better next season but a “re-charged” Macon would have won the game for us IMO!
Another detail was 65-60 lead we built but continued scramble, trapping defense that brought us back from many comeback victories this season including 17 down earlier in the game. We usually win those games at the end but this time we’re up 5 with 3 minutes to go and Carolina struggled to score against us! We get a foul off the trap (almost steal by Bailey who played great defense up to that point) and they hit two “free ones” to close 65-62.
Next time down, Bailey hedged on Justin Jackson “allowing” his man to the hole with a dunk Kingsley could not catch up to for 65-64. Then the offensive rebound foul (Bailey) after a missed Barford shot for two more bonus “freebies” for 65-66 Carolina lead. That’s 4 more free points w/o them going against our defense.
If we go strictly one on one ball denial with 5 point lead, I firmly believe the Hogs win and go to the Sweet 16! It gave them fits resulting in turnovers or near shot clock violations at certain stretches. We switched back to it down 65-66 forcing the Joel Berry possession with shot clock running out and he throws up a prayer after the Bailey “non-call” with 49 seconds left in the game.
Carolina struggled very mightily in scoring against us; we had them on the ropes but could not re-adjust in time ahead 5 points.
Bailey had that steal the foul was called. If not up 7 ! Several plays from them on went aginst us.
Down 65-66 when officials blew non foul on the Macon 3 and then blatantly lied saying the ball was not tipped by Meeks. It should have been two seconds left on the shot clock but Carolina get the ball then Bailey non-call. The “wrong” team advanced to the Sweet 16 but I am SO proud of these Hogs who were peaking at the right time.
I said this in another thread, but I’ll say it again.
I can live with the no-charge call. These type of calls happen in basketball, and it was a difficult call to make because, from what I can remember, Bailey is ever so slightly still sliding his feet. Honestly, I bet if the refs did make a call, it would have gone against us.
My beef is with Macon’s three. You can easily see that the ball’s trajectory was altered by the defender’s hand. And if it bounces on the line, then it’s our ball. I don’t even know what the refs were thinking on that one, but I would have loved to be a fly on the wall for their conversation about it.
Correct, it did hit his hand, but if you go back and watch it didn’t hit out of bounds, my guess is the review showed that and Barford grabbing and throwing it off the player was after the refs whistle and the clock stopped with 1 second. So, shot clock violation, UNC’s ball.
As for the no-charge, the review shows Bailey was set, but the kid still took five steps. So, if it was deemed a no-call it should still have been a travel, but you’re probably right, if the whistle blew it would have been against us.
The issue I have, and someone showed this was AR was attacking the basket. UNC had only two defensive fouls inside the AR 3pt line. Think about that, how many times do you see a team play defense THAT good?