University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Rapid Reactions
November 26, 2014 | Men's Basketball
By Adam Lucas
1. Most of the attention for Alex Barlow will go to his offense, where he scored 17 points and made four three-pointers. But the former walk-on might have been more effective on defense, where he visibly frustrated Marcus Paige for most of the afternoon. Paige was as frustrated as he has looked at any point in his Tar Heel career, and uncharacteristically appeared to be forcing his offense at points.
2. Roy Williams said consistently in the preseason that if his team wasn't going to shoot well, they had to rebound well. On Wednesday, they didn't do either. In addition to some shooting struggles--those can happen--the Tar Heels were crushed on the backboards by Butler, which did whatever it wanted to do on the glass and ended the game with a 57-40 rebounding advantage. That included a staggering 29 offensive rebounds.
Most disturbing was the way the Bulldogs dominated the offensive boards in the closing minutes, when Carolina should have been desperate to get any possible loose ball. Butler snagged five offensive rebounds in the final four minutes.
3. A lone bright spot: Isaiah Hicks. The sophomore maintained perhaps the consistently highest energy level of anyone on the roster, and he almost singlehandedly kept Carolina in the game in the first half. Hicks scored when it mattered in that first stanza, as two of his three field goals, plus his two free throws, came at a juncture that gave the Tar Heels the lead.
4. Free throws. You already know. The Tar Heels made 18 of 32 shots from the charity stripe, and only ten of 22 in the second half. The affliction even spread to Marcus Paige, who entered the game with the highest free throw percentage in Carolina history. Paige sank just five of his nine free throw attempts.
Butler, on the other hand, got a clutch 4-of-4 performance at the free throw line from Roosevelt Jones in the final minute and overall made 11 of 12 free throws in the final two minutes.
5. The Bulldogs played very well in almost every aspect of the game. The one area where they struggled: with a double-digit lead in the closing minutes, they shot too quickly on multiple possessions, and those precious seconds ended up enabling Carolina to make the game closer than it otherwise might have been.
6. These tropical locales are nice, but if the Battle 4 Atlantis wants to be taken seriously, it needs a less slippery playing surface. Both teams slipped all over the converted ballroom floor, and Paige went down in a heap on the final important UNC possession and came up looking gimpy.
7. The loss drops UNC into the consolation bracket, where the Tar Heels will play the UCLA-Oklahoma loser on Thursday night at 7 p.m. on AXS TV.
