the hated Tar Heels suffered one of the most remarkable collapses in tournament history
squeezing the orange so tight down the stretch that a 10-point lead with seven minutes left
The Tar Heels, the deeper team that was supposed to exhaust the Hoyas with their waves of subs, looked like the team that ran out of gas.
The Carolina trachea implosion began with 9:58 left in the second half and never ended.
Each possession would end abruptly with either a brick on an open shot, a brick on a contested shot or a Ty Lawson turnover in traffic. Talk about tight.
Ellington — Fired up four huge bricks from behind the arc, including the clanger that would have won it. He also managed to fire a SCUD off the back iron on an ugly miss from the right wing early in OT.
Danny Green — He also went 0-for-4 from deep during the collapse.
Ty Lawson — The man that finally ended the nutty stretch with a meaningless 3-pointer with 7.5 seconds left in OT bricked two threes and had costly back-to-back turnovers during the choke.
Tyler Hansbrough…an absurd 12-foot jump hook over Roy Hibbert that barely caught iron with 5:50 left; a 17-footer that was such a brick it almost bounced all the way back to him; a turnaround that missed high off the glass; and a forced shot that Hibbert blocked easily, leading to a Hansbrough travel.
The 1-for-20 epiglottis constriction prompted Jim Nantz to remark, “I have never seen a quality team go this cold so late.”
It turns out you can spell c-r-u-n-c-h time without UNC.
It looks like Mr. Hench is auditioning for Dickie V’s spot as president of the Coach K fan club. I wonder what he had to say about Duke when the #1 seed lost in the round of 16 several times over the last few years?
2002 – Lost to #5 Indiana
2005 – Lost to #5 Michigan St.
2006 – Lost to #4 LSU
Since K’s last national championship in 2001, Duke has been past the Sweet 16 only once (2004). There’s a trend you don’t read much about.
