Sunday, February 17, 2008
Chapel Hill trip ends up being turn for the worst
Aaron McFarling
Recent columns
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. --I got lost on the way to North Carolina on Saturday.
Took a wrong turn on one of the back roads and wound up at a gas station in Roxboro, where three kind men were standing around sipping coffee.
"Excuse me, fellas," I said. "Can you point me toward Chapel Hill?"
One of the men -- presumably a Duke or N.C. State fan -- smiled.
"Now why would you ever want to go to Chapel Hill?" he said.
Ahem.
I'm thinking about going back to that gas station and asking for tomorrow's winning lottery numbers. Not only did that guy give good directions, he also proved to be quite the seer.
Going to Chapel Hill was a mistake. It was a mistake for the small group of Virginia Tech fans who got tickets to the game and took their seats among the hordes in powder blue, hoping to see a repeat of last season's overtime win. It was a mistake for Seth Greenberg, who suffered his most lopsided loss in his five seasons as Tech's coach. It was a mistake for the players, who entered the game badly needing to scratch out some positives and left it admitting that they quit on each other when the game got out of whack.
It was a mistake for anyone hoping to see any semblance of drama.
Final score: North Carolina 92, Hokies 53.
They'd been better off in Roxboro.
"It is very simple," said Greenberg, his head resting on the palm of his hand in the postgame interview room, "they were very good and we weren't."
Know what? It really is that simple. The Hokies shot 25.9 percent from the field. The Tar Heels, showing no effects of injury or illness that had hammered their roster, made half their shots, each one seemingly easier than the last.
While All-American forward Tyler Hansbrough clocked in with his usual production -- 23 points, nine rebounds and a couple of steals -- Tech's promising young post player flopped.
While Wayne Ellington made three of four 3-pointers en route to 19 points, Tech's best outside shooter couldn't hit a short jumper, a long jumper or any jumper in between.
While UNC's Alex Stepheson sparkled in a reserve role, the Tech bench ...
You get the point. The Hokies stunk it up collectively. The Hokies would prefer not to have that happen on national television, but sometimes it does -- particularly when you're playing the nation's fifth-ranked team on the road.
More disturbing than the loss itself were the postgame rumblings that some on the team didn't fight until the end. Without mentioning names, guard Malcolm Delaney said some Hokies needed to adjust their attitude.
"Today," he said, "we just gave up."
Backup point guard Hank Thorns also thought some Hokies clocked out early.
"I feel like some players gave up on us," he said. "We take it upon us as a team. When one gives up, we all give up."
This is not good. Young teams can get a pass on execution, but effort has to be a given if they're going to have any chance.
According to the players, Greenberg kept his locker room comments brief. He left it up to the team to talk this one over, and junior guard A.D. Vassallo did most of the talking.
The message? No sense dwelling on this one. There are still five more to play, starting with Wednesday's trip to surging Maryland.
Historically, Greenberg's teams don't stay down for long. As for this year's version, we'll know by the end of the month how resilient they are.
Or we could ask the guy in Roxboro right now.
