Lucas: Rapid Reactions

By Adam Lucas

1. Brownies, baby, brownies.

2. As was the case at Florida State last week, Carolina had the ball with a chance to win the game on the road. The final Tar Heel possession wasn't very clean, and was partially bailed out by a favorable possession arrow, but it turned into two points. Joel Berry made two clutch free throws to provide the 69-68 margin.

3. Luke Maye had yet another double-double, giving him ten for the season and eleven in his career. Maye's offense was essential early, when he was basically the only Tar Heel scoring with any consistency. He wasn't as productive offensively in the second half, but still finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds.

4. Theo Pinson was sensational in the second half. He either scored or assisted on five of Carolina's first seven field goals of the final 20 minutes, then added a sweet spinning finger roll at the shot clock buzzer with about six minutes left. Pinson made his fourth three-pointer of the season during the stretch. He also drew a big offensive foul on TJ Gibbs with approximately a minute left.

5. As will sometimes be the case with the smaller lineup, Carolina was too willing to settle for three-pointers in the first part of the game. Over the first 12:30, they hoisted 11 trifectas and made just two of them. They were more selective over the remainder of the half, and closed the period by making three three-pointers in a row, including a nice three from the top of the key by Cam Johnson with 2.9 seconds left in the half.

6. Good job by Maye during a key early stretch in the second half. He picked up his third foul early in the frame, then defended without fouling on multiple scrums under the rim when it looked like Notre Dame was trying to draw his fourth. That left Maye available for the key minutes at the end of the very close game.

7. Carolina caught a major break seeing Notre Dame without Bonzie Colson and Matt Farrell. Those are the kinds of fortunate occurrences you have to take advantage of to steal an ACC game.

8. Even without Colson, the Irish won the rebounding battle. Notre Dame was very active on the offensive glass and finished with a 44-37 advantage overall, and a surprising 19-13 in offensive rebounds. Those 20 offensive boards led to 18 second chance points for the Irish. However, the good news is it didn't lead to 20 second chance points, because it looked for all the world that Gibbs' last-second offensive rebound was going to turn into a basket. It somehow rolled off the rim.

9. Carolina simply must get better defending the dribble. The Irish shot 10-for-24 from the three-point line, several of which were open shots created by dribble penetration and a kick-out.

10. In this era when instant replay is a hot discussion topic, it seems a little silly that numerous things can be replayed, but a potential offensive goaltending that led directly to two Fighting Irish points in the first half can't be looked at again. Getting the right points on the board is sort of the fundamental key to the game. If there's going to be replay, that's a play--the difference between two points and zero points in a league where so many games are one-possession games--that should be able to be reviewed.

11. There will be a lot of talk about the clock on the final UNC possession. What went unnoticed is that the Notre Dame timekeeper also mistakenly stopped the clock at the end of the first half after the last Tar Heel basket, giving the Irish 2.9 seconds to hoist a desperation shot that didn't find its target. Again--clock operation is not an exact science. It showed in both halves on Saturday.

12. Interesting study on how coaches choose to use timeouts. Mike Brey burned a couple early in the second half, one to start a 7-0 Tar Heel run. Roy Williams, of course, chose to save his. That gave him the opportunity to call two in the final ten seconds, including one with 7.1 seconds left after seeing how Notre Dame had set up for their final inbounds pass.

Players Mentioned

Luke Maye

Theo Pinson

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