NC State Will Beat Carolina...

...If Wayne Ellington gets lost on his way to the Dean Dome.

I have heard it said approximately 5,473 times, “Tyler Hansborough is the best player in college basketball.”  I have seen very little from anyone else this year in college basketball to dispute that.  He works harder than anyone else on the floor, he attacks the basket, he spends a lot of time at the foul line, he rebounds, and he is very aggressive on the defensive end of the floor.  He is what we expected he would be.  But the reason this is quite possibly one of the best teams we’ve seen in Chapel Hill, has as much to do with Wayne Ellington as it does anyone else on that team, including Tyler Hansborough!

When Hanborough wins the ACC Player of the year award, he should thank his team, then get the engraver to put Ellington’s name on it beside his.

In college basketball, when you face a team with a dominant inside presence, the first thing you do is call up all of your defensive zone packages and pack it down.  You tell that team, ”Anyone else can beat us, but not the big man.”  In fact Clemson thought they came up with a pretty great defensive game plan for Hansborough: put a guy in front of him and put a guy behind him.  The only problem with that is you challenge Wayne Ellington to beat you.

There’s your problem! 

Ellington turns a normal college basketball game into the Coke bottle ring toss at the state fair.  Some guy figures out the secret and he’s walking around with five trash bags full of life sized stuffed Scooby-Doos. 

Ty Lawson is playing well.  He's pressing the ball up the floor while limiting turnovers.  He had zero TO's against UNC-A.  Danny Green is a legitimate scorer as well.  However, the dominance this team has displayed and will continue to display this season will begin, end and conclude with the inside-outside scoring of Hansborough and Ellington.

I have studied the Tarheels and have figured out a way NC State can beat UNC…

Aside from telling Wayne that the game’s being played in Hawaii, the Wolfpack has got to start shooting the ball better in the FIRST HALF of basketball games.   The Tarheels are not the type of team you want to be trailing by double figures in the second half.  It’s a pretty novel concept, I know, but more than any other team it appears that UNC plays differently when there’s blood in the water.

Listen very carefully NC State.  Carolina knows how to put the proverbial “foot on the throat.” 

Take note Wolfpack...good teams know how to do this.

Is it out of the realm of possibility for State to win vs Carolina?  NO.  And it is only for one sustaining factor: EMOTION.

I have played in STATE / CAROLINA games before.  The emotion is like nothing you have ever seen or felt before unless you have been there.  It can make an average player good, and on a given night it can make a good player great...

...I CANNOT WAIT!!