Bewerbungen » particular - was superfluous, with Cook suggest

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- North Carolina keeps sharing the ball and putting up big numbers, proving the fifth-ranked Tar Heels still have plenty of offensive punch despite losing a lot of production from last year.Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams is more focused on getting more consistency from his team on the defensive end, and maybe a little more attention to detail, too.Joel Berry II scored 23 points and UNC shot 53 percent to beat Long Beach State 93-67 on Tuesday night for a third straight lopsided win to open the season.Kennedy Meeks added 15 points for the Tar Heels (3-0), who scored the games first 14 points and led by 23 points by halftime. That dominating start was enough to erase any doubt about the outcome, though Williams was aggravated enough at one sloppy second-half stretch that he angrily punched a clipboard to the court during a timeout.That first 10 minutes of the second half ... that was about as bad offensively as Ive seen us in 31 practices and three games and one exhibition, Williams said, adding he also wants more from his team defensively.Still, that stretch was little more than a blip, the kind of moment that will give Williams something to focus on in coming practices. The Tar Heels -- who shot 59 percent in the opening half -- never let the 49ers closer than 16 after halftime.Gabe Levin scored 17 points for Long Beach State (1-2), who never recovered from an awful start that included making 8 of 31 shots (26 percent) in the first half. The 49ers finished at 36 percent and missed 20 of 26 3-pointers.Im disappointed that we didnt take advantage of the opportunity to come out here and play a little better early, Long Beach State coach Dan Monson said.BIG PICTURELong Beach State: This game came roughly 48 hours after a loss at Wichita State as part of a demanding opening stretch that includes a stop at No. 12 Louisville on Thursday as well as visits to UCLA, Washington and Kansas before the end of November. So far, at least, Long Beach State is struggling to keep up, losing the past two games by a combined 63 points.This game will help us get better, Monson said. Hopefully Thursday will too.UNC: Williams angst aside, the Tar Heels offense has gotten off to a quick start. They had 20 assists on 32 baskets after assisting on 72 percent of their made shots through the first two games. They have also scored at least 93 points in all three games -- so far, so good for an offense with new people inheriting key roles from last years NCAA finalist.POLL IMPLICATIONSUNCs three wins have come by an average of nearly 29 points per game, part of the reason the Tar Heels climbed one spot in this weeks AP Top 25 poll.BERRYS STARTBerry is off to a fast start in his development as UNCs No. 1 threat. He matched his career-high scoring total set in the opening win against Tulane to go with six rebounds, four assists and two turnovers in 21 minutes.The junior is shooting 60 percent from the floor so far this season.Im just taking open shots, Berry said. Im not trying to force anything, not trying to play outside of my game and trying to do what I have to do to help this team.THEY SAID ITA lot of curse words, just telling us to get our stuff together because we were playing bad. -- Meeks on Williams angry timeout message.UP NEXTLong Beach State: The 49ers continue their nationwide trek at No. 12 Louisville.UNC: The Tar Heels head west for an extended trip, first to play Hawaii on Friday before beginning play in the Maui Invitational over the Thanksgiving holiday.---Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap---More AP college basketball at http://collegebasketball.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/APTop-25 Nike Air Max Plus Sale . Jon Montgomerys gold medal in skeleton at the Whistler Sliding Centre and his subsequent auctioning off of a pitcher of beer in the village square elevated him to folk-hero status. Air Max 720 Womens Sale . -- Derrick Rose shook off poor shooting early to hit clutch shots late and Carlos Boozer had 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 104-95 preseason victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. http://www.airmax720wholesale.com/ . Nathan MacKinnon, Jamie McGinn and Jan Hejda also scored for the Avalanche, who won despite being outshot 38-23. MacKinnons goal, also on the power play, came with just over a minute remaining. Cheap Air Max 2019 . 8 Kansas to a 64-63 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night. The freshman from Vaughan, Ont. Nike Air Max Plus Wholesale . With his new coach and six-time Grand Slam singles champion Boris Becker watching him during an official match for the first time, Djokovic appeared tentative early against the Slovakian player, who often appeared content to keep the ball in play. It was hard to avoid a sense of deja-vu as Alastair Cook accepted that Englands batting had let them down in Mohali.He was quite right, of course. By failing to take advantage of winning the toss here, England surrendered their best opportunity to control the game. On a surface that Cook described as 400 par - and it was at least that - England instead succumbed to 283 all out and surrendered the pitch at its best to an India side who were determined to utilise it.Whereas four England batsmen had scored centuries (three in the first innings, one in the second) on what Cook described as a similar surface in Rajkot, here Jonny Bairstow was the only man to make 50 in the first innings.You need a big score on a wicket like that, Cook said, and we werent good enough to make one. Jonny Bairstow made a good 80, but we need hundreds. The pitch wasnt too different to Rajkot, maybe slightly harder to score on, but it was 400 par and we were below it. We just werent good enough.While Cooks candour is welcome, England have now lost four of their most recent six Tests with batting failures a recurring theme. If the collapses in Dhaka (where they lost 10 wickets for 63 runs) and Visakhapatnam (where they lost 10 for 63) were especially eye-catching, the batting at The Oval (England were 110 for 5 on the first day having won the toss) and here (where they were 87 for 4 before lunch on the first day) was equally culpable.And while they seem to have found the answer to their problem at the top of the order in Haseeb Hameed, Moeen Ali was not convincing at No. 4 (or No. 3 in the second innings) and Hameed is now unavailable for the rest of the series. Moeen and Jos Buttler both picked out the fielder after trying to hit over the top in the second innings - victims of good bowling, for sure, but also a lack of patience - underlining the suspicion that England were still trying to find a way to blend their naturally positive approach with the discipline required for Test cricket.Their struggles against spin are familiar, too. While the pitches in this series have deteriorated and turned a little, there has been none of the extravagant assistance that some anticipated. Instead, on perfectly reasonable surfaces, England have struggled to deal with an accurate, disciplined spin attack who have exposed some flawed techniques and uncertain temperaments.Cook was criticised for his theyre no supermen comments after the Visag Test (some even suggested he was taunting India), but he came very close to repeating those remarks here.There were not magic balls, he said of Englands second innings struggle. Maybe Jonny Bairstow was the only one that was a good piece of bowling, but apart from that there wasnt a huge amount misbehaving from the pitch. It was good accurate bowling, as you expect from India in these conditions, but not unplayable. Yoou can talk all you want but the top order have to go and deliver.ddddddddddddWhile the phrase the only one that was a good piece of bowling in unfortunate - and almost certainly a reflection of a lack of eloquence more than a lack of grace - there is a valid point in there somewhere. Cook, for example, missed a 46 mph delivery that turned about one degree. Moeen and Buttler fell to sucker punches. It was soft cricket that was thrown into its proper perspective by a 19-year-old with a badly broken finger. His teammates were, quite rightly, proud of his performance: one or two of them might have felt it contrasted with their own.Ultimately, professional players have to take responsibility for the way they play. They have to make their choices and live by the results. But these are the times that coaches also earn their keep and there have been times of late when it has been unclear what Englands approach is meant to be: are they blocking their way to safety - as they attempted in Visag - or trying to counter-attack to success, as they showed, in fits and starts, here. Both options are reasonable, but a lack of confidence in their defence has been a feature of several of these batting failures. England have usually preferred aggressive players to defensive ones - consider the selections of Ben Duckett, for example - and here picked an excellent limited-overs players (Buttler) who had played just one first-class game in the previous year. There is not a lot of evidence to suggest this aggressive approach is working.Perhaps the brief holiday they will have now is well-timed. Several of the squad will travel to Dubai for a few days, with no formal training planned. It will mentally give us a break from cricket, Cook said. We can come back more refreshed.Cook also admitted England may have erred in their selection for Mohali. The presence of a third spinner - and a second off-spinner, in particular - was superfluous, with Cook suggesting the option of a fourth seamer would have been more beneficial.All of us probably misread the pitch, Cook said. we thought it was dry and would spin more. If we had known what we do now, we would have gone four seamers two spinners. The seamers were always in the game with reverse and the way we bash length, we can control the scoring rate very well.That does not necessarily mean that England will play four seamers in Mumbai. As well as injury concerns over seamers Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes, England hope to have Zafar Ansari, the left-arm spinner, available for selection again and expect that surface may provide more assistance to spinners. The last time England played a Test there, in 2012, Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann shared 19 wickets between them. ' ' '