Rushed Reactions: #3 Iowa State 85, #6 North Carolina 83
Posted by rtmsf on March 23rd, 2014
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Three Key Takeaways.
- Iowa State Just Took It From North Carolina. The Tar Heels did almost everything that it needed to do to win today. But Iowa State just wouldn’t let them. The last run, which went 21-9 in favor of the Cyclones over the last five minutes of action, was a clinic in offensive execution. On Iowa State’s last 11 possessions, they scored on nine of them, including four threes that wouldn’t allow the Tar Heels to pull away. For those of you wondering, that’s a 1.91 points per possession pace, which is simply outstanding for a team that appeared to have lost its legs in the middle of the second half. Perhaps the most impressive thing is that it’s not like UNC fell apart during that stretch. They scored on roughly half of their possessions during the same period, and EVEN hit a back-breaker of a three by Leslie McDonald with a minute-and-a-half left as well as two free throws from James Michael McAdoo (of all people) with 15 ticks to go. North Carolina made plays to win; it’s just that Iowa State made more of them.
- DeAndre Kane Pulled a Dwyane Wade Today. Without beefy forward Georges Niang in the lineup to relieve some of the offensive pressure, DeAndre Kane decided to pull out his cape and turn into a Dwyane Wade clone, replete with a ridiculous one-handed dunk down the lane as well as an extremely athletic driving layup to win the game. It was quite reminiscent of a younger Wade tearing up defense at Marquette a decade ago, and the stat line — 24 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, on 9-of-18 shooting – supports that comparison. It’s an overused cliche, but it seems to fit here — Kane was not going to leave this building without a victory today.
- The Final Play. After Kane’s driving layup for the win, I kept my eyes on the clock and noticed that it was stuck at 1.6 seconds even after North Carolina had inbounded the ball and started dribbling upcourt. It only started running once the Tar Heel player had gotten near midcourt, and then it ran out completely. It didn’t surprise me at all that the final call was that the game was over, because it felt like at least two seconds were spent dribbling. It was a really unfortunate way to end the game, but UNC perhaps should have thought to use one of those two remaining timeouts after the ball went through the net. For those couple of minutes, the North Carolina fans behind me were as quiet as a church mouse — everyone just watching the officials and trying to read the body language. Just a fantastic game all the way around, and Iowa State a deserving victor.
Star of the Game: DeAndre Kane, Iowa State. He was the player who kept Iowa State alive when North Carolina was surging, and of course his all-around floor game resulted in a trip to the Sweet Sixteen, the school’s first in over a decade.
Quotable:
- “But Coach drew up a great play in the huddle. It was a little isolation for me to try to attack the basket. If any guys were going to help me, I was going to try to kick it out to one of my teammates. But nobody helped, and I made an acrobatic shot and it went in.” – Kane, on the game-winning play.
- “And DeAndre’s right, when we need a basket, he’s usually the guy we go to. He’s been our Mariano Rivera. He’s been our closer all throughout this season.” – Fred Hoiberg, on giving Kane the freedom to create at the end of games.
Sights & Sounds. Here in the Alamo City, at least one local citizen was fully decked out with Tar Heels garb to support his alma mater. Spurs guard Danny Green was back in town to take in the proceedings on Sunday evening.
San Antonio Spur Danny Green Came to Support His Team Today
What’s Next? For Iowa State, it’s on the Sweet Sixteen at Madison Square Garden in New York to face Connecticut on Friday night. For North Carolina, a brutal loss that won’t soon be forgotten in the Triangle.
Props to Iowa St – and good call that it wasn’t a meltdown or choke. Both teams made plays.
But the final call made no sense. (A) Roy Williams screaming for a Timeout as ref went passed him but no dice; (B) the rationale behind this clock error makes no sense. Either you go by the clock or take accountability for wrongdoing and give team ball on baseline with 1.6 secs left.
Ron – it’s a weird outcome, but I’ve seen them do this before. Think it was a Butler game in the last couple of years. RW said afterward that he wasn’t blaming the refs, that they made the right call with the timing issue (and I’m not sure how you change that). But not hearing/seeing a coach calling TO is a bit more troubling, although that’s a discretion thing again and not reviewable. Some of these issues need to be given a harder look by the NCAA — the trend toward perfection in game management is a good thing, but it creates little weird discretionary loopholes like these where nobody seems sure what to do.