I  honestly have never ever seen my Tar heels play so poorly. I am sick and tired of using the “their a young team” excuse. Carolina has two seniors on their team, Deion Thompson and Marcus Ginyard. Their leadership skills this season has been nonexistent. Each player had 5 turnovers each, adding to the total of 25 turnovers. It was like watching a high school team at times. Carolina has no answer for the Clemson’s full court press. The Tigers came in the game hyped, smacked us in the face, and never looked back. Where is the energy and desire of the Carolina players? Where is the competitiveness? It’s either they think too much, or not enough. It was pointed it out several times in the game that some of the turnovers were not even pressure related. Early in the season when the Heel’s were throwing the ball away, I just shrugged it off to the players not being used to each other. Now it has become a real issue that needs to be taken care of. There is no doubt in my mind that Roy Williams will take care of this. He’ll spark a fire in them before the Georgia Tech game this Saturday.

They were hard to find, but there are some bright spots I saw in the Carolina vs. Clemson game last night.

                            1. Dexter Strickland is the best freshman on the team and he showed it last night. While the whole team was struggling, Strickland never lost his edge. He put in 17 points for the Heels. The next  highest scorer had nine points. It is clear to me that Strickland deserves the starting spot of Larry Drew. They both make poor decisions, but Strickland is lesser of two evils.

                             2. Roy Williams is a great coach. He literally turned his back for 5 minutes of the game, trying to get his starters mind right. He pulled all of his starters and put in 5 freshman. How many coaches would have enough confidence and trust in his young players to put five (like Dick Vitale says) diaper dandies in? Like I previously stated, he didn’t even watch them, and you know what? The youngsters were doing excellent for time they were in. Actually they performed better than the starters. Williams should have kept the freshman in, because the starting 5 turned the ball over instantly after they came back in.

   Usually I hear college basketball analysts say “Carolina doesn’t rebuild, they reload”. This year, they are wrong. Carolina lost 75 percent of their scoring last year. I saw that statistic several times toward the beginning of the year, because I didn’t think it meant anything. I believed that the freshman would bring youth and quickness. I also thought that Larry Drew practiced hard during the summer to prepare for filling Lawson’s shoes. I’m glad that the Heels have size, but the guards can’t get the ball to them without turning it over. I guess we Carolina fans just have to take our frustration one game at a time.