Peaking at the Right Time - Thoughts on The Gonzaga Game

Last night, Carolina dismantled Gonzaga 98-77. But it wasn't even as close as the score would indicate. The game was over with about 10 minutes to go in the first half. Carolina shot 11-19 (58%!!) from 3 point range, 53% for all field goals, out rebounded Gonzaga by 40-28, and had 23 (!!!) assists to the Zags 10. Danny Green seemed to continue on his upward shooting trend, but no one is going to complain about his playing. Check out his stat line: 13 points, 3 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals, and 2 blocks. He didn't NEED to rebound- Tyler had 10, Wayne had 7 (who has become a rebounding machine, by the way), Ed had 5.
Carolina had assists on 63% of their baskets (23 of 36). Which means its time to talk about Ty Lawson. Ty had 9 assists to 1 turnover. That's absolutely absurd. About Ty, Mark Few, the Gonzaga coach, had this to say: "The toe injury might have helped Ty Lawson," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. "He's playing at a great pace right now. He's not forcing anything." And he's right. Ty was flawless. All of a sudden he seems to have immaculate court vision, and is making the right decision EVERY time. It's been unbelievable to watch, and its helping everyone on the court. The ball movement of this team has become outstanding, and they relentlessly pass the ball until they find the open man.
The lone dark spot for the team was their 55.6% (15-27) free throw shooting. Mostly, that number was because of Deon (1 for 4), Ed (1 for 4), and Drew II (0-3). I think that's probably not something to worrry about. It'll average out, but I mean, if you're shooting that well from the field, you probably won't need those free throws anyway.
By the way, that game was Carolina's 99th all-time NCAA tournament win, which breaks the tie with Kentucky, leaving Carolina as the all time leading NCAA tournament game winner. That's pretty cool. Apparently Kentucky actually has 100 wins, but two don't count because of violations. Also, I think Carolina is about 7 wins back from Kentucky on the all time wins list. So we can't catch them this year, but maybe next...
Oh, and Ty said his toe didn't really tighten up until the end of the game. Hopefully this day of rest will be all he needs. Or maybe he's been faking the whole thing...
Anyway, next up: Oklahoma. Sunday, 5:05 pm. More on that later.