In one short year, North Carolina went from NCAA champion to losing to Dayton in the NIT Championship game. So what exactly happened Thursday night, in Madison Square Garden? Simply put, they played the Flyers, a great rebounding team, says our Tar Heels blog, Carolina March.
Carolina March: UNC Loses NIT Championship To Dayton, A Team That Could Rebound
Well, playing like Carolina’s played of late finally caught up to them. The turnovers, the missed shots, the poor free throw shooting; they were all there. It’s just this time they were coupled with two things, an opponent that took advantage of those mistakes, unlike the others of the NIT, and a team that could rebound.
And rebound they did. Dayton had a 36-25 advantage on the boards, and limited the Heels to seven offensive boards, their lowest outing of the season. Let’s face it, this team was never going to heat up the nets - the last shot of Marcus Ginyard’s college career was a missed layup - so second chance opportunities were going to be crucial. And they didn’t get them. Heck, two of the offensive rebounds were Deon Thompson retrieving his own shots from under the basket on the same play. I’m pretty sure that exercise in futility would have continued for the rest of the game had he not eventually been fouled.
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