PITTSBURGH – North Carolina has been steadily improving over the past few weeks as it piled up victories, though it was mainly against teams in the bottom half of the ACC scoring ladder. The Tar Heels finally took advantage of their growth on Tuesday night with a major 75-65 victory over Pittsburgh.
It’s been a long time coming. The entire university basketball was robbed of COVID-19 from pre-season and exhibits, in addition to a shortened lead. The lost opportunities were important to the Tar Heels, who play six freshmen and a red pant in their turn. Instead of playing through errors against less competition, UNC prepared the first week of the season for opponents of the NCAA Tournament.
The result was four early losses and several wins that were far too comfortable. The early takeaway was that UNC shot the ball too inconsistently, was too careless to care for the ball and sometimes sluggish on the defensive side. The one thing that is striking, especially given how the 2019-20 season plays out, is that the Tar Heels fought a lot. No shortage was too great to overcome – a theory that has been tested time and time again – and so optimism remained that as this collection of players grew into a team and its various parts became whole, the crippling pace of the last months of 2020 turn into a typical Roy Williams sprint as soon as 2021 arrives.
The new year is here and that’s exactly what’s happening for the Tar Heels, who have won six of their last seven.
“I feel like with this group, we’re just getting a lot better,” Armando Bacot said after the victory. “We’re starting to talk more about defense. Everyone starts playing according to how they should play. ”
The importance of Tuesday’s victory at the Petersen Events Center was twofold: (1) UNC achieves its first Q1 victory to bolster its NCAA Tournament resume; and more importantly, (2) the trends of recent games appear to be reinforcing in a traditional Carolina-style basketball style that has been more or less absent since Luke Maye and his family left the city two years ago.
The list of positives in Pittsburgh was extensive. The Tar Heels reached a season-high 60.7 percent in the second half, reaching the fourth time in five halves, which they reached by 50 percent (after five such halves in the first 27). They shot 52.5 percent for the game while assisting on 22 of 32 field goals. Their 22:13 assist turnover ratio is a season high (while the team is also moving to a positive aid turnover area for the first time since the start of the season). It was also one of the team’s better defensive performances, shooting Pittsburgh at 41.8 percent by challenging most field goal attempts on the edge.
Individually, Bacot bolstered his player of the month award with a season high of 21 points on 8-out-10 shooting and 10 rebounds. The second center scored 16 points on 66.7 percent and 8.2 rebounds during its last five games. Garrison Brooks breaks from his recent slump (16 points, 8-of-11 FGA), Kerwin Walton continues to groove his smooth shot (10 points, 4-of-8 FGA) and while Caleb Love struggles to shoot the ball, he achieved its best auxiliary turnover ratio of the season (5: 1).
‘[We’re] just play with a lot of confidence and get the ball inside, ”Brooks said. “Just playing how we are taught to play every day, crashing the offensive boards, getting the ball in early and learning to play to our strengths.”
The benefit of UNC’s success in January is that the confidence of this team is no longer the fragile shell, and that Williams could be even more demanding in the coming weeks. While this team is finally coming together, he still has a long way to go to reach his potential.
“I never think you’ll make a comeback,” the Hall of Fame head coach said. ‘You’re in the ACC; you’re just as good as your last game. I will consistently go back to what I said: I think we are getting a little better and a little better. ‘
Stupid turnover remains just as guilty, as well as erroneous shooting (UNC shoots 67.5% in ACC play). Yet it has become clear in Pittsburgh that these tar heels have figured out their identity.
It was no longer a task to process the offense through the posts, and when Jeff Capel switched to a zone to counter UNC’s game plan, the Tar Heels effortlessly moved into their zone offense without a abundance of their coach on the sidelines. They controlled the boards, protected the edge and even made remarkable steps against the ball screen.
The road ahead remains challenging, although this UNC team finally seems prepared for the bottleneck of ACC play.