North Carolina defense wakes up from rough start

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Five minutes into the game, Penn was making No. 2 North Carolina's defense look like Swiss cheese.

The Quakers' perimeter offense, typically with four players outside the three-point arc and one at the high post, used motion and sharp cuts to the basket to open up a 15-8 lead over the Tar Heels at the Smith Center. As previous opponents have learned, North Carolina forwards like Tyler Hansbrough and Brandan Wright own the lane, but when spread out the middle could be a target. Size can't be an advantage when Penn guards are streaking toward the wide open basket.

"It's a tough offense, if you master it it's a great offense," Wright said. "Everything is above the free-throw line, no low post players no guys really posting up."

The Quakers had four times burned their far more athletic opponents for open layups, as a flat-footed North Carolina could only watch. Ibrahim Jaaber hit a streaking Tommy McMahon to make it 5-0, the reverse combination happened shortly after to make it 7-4, then Brennan Votel to Jaaber to bring it to 13-6, and finally Jaaber to Zoller to keep the lead at seven. Jaaber and McMahon had combined for nine points and four assists with only 14:50 on the first half clock.

"We saw it on tape and we knew they would do that, I just didn't think they'd be that successful," guard Bobby Frasor said. "I thought we'd take them out of their offense, but they were killing us early on."

But North Carolina coach Roy Williams made sure that the next 35 minutes looked a bit different. He started by subbing out the entire starting five.

"Coach took all of us out and he kind of expressed that we gotta come out and we gotta wake up, so we all came out with intensity on the defensive end and came back," freshman guard Wayne Ellington said.

"When you get backdoor layups by 10 feet you know the [defender is] not alert, the way he's supposed to be playing defense and listening to the scouting report," Williams said. "If a guy steps out and if you deny he's going backdoor so go as hard as he goes."

Williams even had to motivate one of his most reliable defenders, senior forward Reyshawn Terry.

"I chewed his rear end out pretty good and he deserved it," Williams said. "He was more active passing the ball, defending, rebounding [and] sprinting back on the break."

Not just Terry, the whole team got a wakeup call and responded with some ferocious defense. While Penn also had a spurt late in the first half, the result was that it took 15 minutes to score its next 15 points, down 39-30 at the half.

The main change by the Tar Heels was the effort. To start the game they were slow, overconfident and not expecting a clever offense. The realization of being down as many as 10 (shortly after a Kevin Egee three-pointer) woke them up, and they came back with intense ball pressure on the perimeter, an awareness of the goal of the offense, a hustle that wasn't there at the start, as well as a slight change in scheme.

"We ran a couple backdoor cuts and then for whatever reason we kind of deferred from that whether it was their doubling the ball or what not we just kind of got a little flustered out there, turned the ball over a little bit," Penn senior forward Mark Zoller said.

This outside defense not only stopped the easy baskets, but threw off the Red and Blue's offensive attack altogether. In the opening minutes the Quakers were flawless on their passing, but that changed quickly. Penn turned the ball over 21 times en route to the 38-point loss, and that number doesn't include all the deflections that took the rhythm out of its attack.

Even with these forced errors the Quakers could have kept themselves in the game, but they couldn't take advantage of the open looks they got. Jaaber's shot was still finding the bottom of the net, but that could not be said for the role players. McMahon, Brian Grandieri and Kevin Egee were a solid 4-for-7 in the first half for 11 points, but went just 2-of-11 in the second for eight points. Grandieri was way off on his two second-half shot attempts - both for three from the corner, and both wide open looks. McMahon for whatever reason didn't even attempt a shot outside of the first couple minutes despite starting 2-for-2. And Egee had the confidence to shoot, but couldn't get anything to fall.

In order to keep these Penn shooters so unconfortable, the Tar Heels added a full-court press and trapping. The press didn't force many turnovers in its own right, but it made Penn speed up the game, more like the pace the Tar Heels like it. The trapping near half court began to kill Penn in the second half, as it also forced errant throws and fast break opportunities the other way.

"It's really hard to throw a backdoor pass when they have so much pressure on the ball," senior forward Stephen Danley said. "What happens is they cut off those angles and push you farther out and so it's a lot different to run it against five athletes like that than running it against five in practice. they shut down those angles and we had trouble making those same passes."

In other words, that Swiss cheese defense had turned into a pungent brie.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.