How about this? It's just November and you'd rather lose in basketball in November than later, but already, Carolina and Duke have lost in pre-season tournaments.
Gonzaga stunned the Tar Heels' second-ranked team in the semi-finals of the pre-season NIT 82-74. UNC has more players than they know what to do with, but the most important is sophomore Tyler Hansbrough, and he looked lost in most of Wednesday's game. He was well-defended and had trouble getting the ball and only managed nine points on five shots from the floor. Freshman Brandan Wright, 6'9," is, without question, a player, and he carried the load with 21 points. But UNC needs Hansbrough to play better, and they need to make sure he gets the ball.
Carolina plays everybody they have with nine players getting 10 minutes or more against the Zags. Sometimes, it's hard to keep up with who's in and who's out. Depth is nice, but can too much quality depth be a problem? Roy Williams will tell you no. I sometimes wonder.
The Tar Heels have talent and they have a coach who knows what to do with it. Nobody will dispute that. A loss in November can be a good thing for a young team that believes its press clippings, and Carolina's pre-season publicity could swell even the most level-headed person.
You can bet Roy Williams will turn this loss into a positive.
Meanwhile Duke has a young team, as well, and they played like it against Marquette. Duke turned it over 19 times with its three most experienced players, Greg Paulus, DeMarcus Nelson and Josh McRoberts accounting for 14 of those. McRoberts also missed 12 of 16 shots -- many from close range. He is the man, and he must improve.
Mike Krzyzewski said that Duke is in a transition period, which it is, but Duke is not the Duke of recent years. Except for junior DeMarcus Nelson, everybody else is either a sophomore or freshman. Although there is talent, this is not a Duke team that will intimidate the opponent just by wearing the Duke jersey, and nobody knows that better than the Hall of Fame coach. He knows this team will need to scratch and claw and work harder for everything. This is a challenge he will welcome.
Like Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski will put this loss to good use.
After all, it's just November. Teams like Carolina and Duke don't play for November, they play for March. Always have, always will.
