University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Atlantis Discoveries
December 1, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
A variety of factors conspired to make Carolina's 2-1 week in the Bahamas perhaps the least noticed pair of good early-season wins in the Roy Williams era.
It was a holiday, of course, and most of the world was focused more on turkey than basketball when the Tar Heels defeated UCLA on Thursday. A loss to Butler on Wednesday had dropped Carolina into the consolation bracket of the Battle 4 Atlantis, which meant the Thursday and Friday games aired on AXS TV, a channel most North Carolinians don't receive. That meant the Tar Heels played two games against ranked opponents with no national television coverage, a true rarity in the year 2014. And then there was rivalry weekend in college football, which took much of the spotlight away from hoops across the country—and a subject about which the less said the better in Chapel Hill.
So, if for whatever reason you missed any of Carolina's action in Nassau, here's a recap of a few trends you need to know before the Tar Heels face Iowa on Wednesday (7:30 on, thank goodness, ESPN) in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge:
Faster starts: The Tar Heels looked sluggish early against Butler on Wednesday, and allowed the Bulldogs to build some confidence and stay in the game. That changed on Thursday and Friday, when Carolina rushed to a 14-point halftime lead against UCLA and then blitzed to a 12-0 start and eventual 16-point halftime lead against Florida.
“Losing reinforces the fact that you need to play at a much higher level,” Marcus Paige said. “It's frustrating. I'm happy we won those two games against ranked opponents. But it's frustrating we needed that lesson, because we've had losses like that before.”
“We were all very disappointed in how we played against Butler,” said Theo Pinson. “They outworked us. We didn't play the way we were supposed to, and we wanted to come back and play the right way (against UCLA and Florida).”
Frontcourt competition: Isaiah Hicks played well enough in the Bahamas to make it look possible that he could push Brice Johnson for minutes this season. The sophomore had a cumulative 24 points and nine rebounds in the three-game tournament. He's also shooting 52.8 percent from the field overall, slightly ahead of Johnson's 52.0 percent clip.
Hicks' emergence is great news for Roy Williams. Not only does he now have a reliable post backup, he also has a player who can legitimately push Johnson to get better.
Rotation sharpening: Carolina primarily played eight players in the win over Florida. It looks like the starting five (Paige, J.P. Tokoto, Johnson, Kennedy Meeks and Justin Jackson) is set, as are the three main reserves (Hicks, Theo Pinson and Nate Britt). Desmond Hubert, Joel Berry II and Joel James were mostly used situationally against the Gators.
Turnover issues: Expect turnovers to be a major focus in practice this week after the Tar Heels coughed it up 19 times against Butler and then committed 19 more miscues against Florida.
“At times we moved the ball effectively, and at times we looked like we have never worked on press offense,” Williams said after the win over the Gators. “We turned it over 19 times, and that's way too many.”
Style of play: Williams made perhaps the most important observation of the week after Carolina defeated Florida. “We were exposed to many different things here, and that will help us,” he said. “Butler's physical play showed us a lot. UCLA's speed early in the game showed us a lot. We played the screen on the ball against Florida the worst we have all year.”
The Tar Heels will face opponents in the ACC who will try to do all of the above. It will pay dividends to have already faced those styles in game situations.
