University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Rapid Reactions
December 20, 2014 | Men's Basketball
By Adam Lucas
1. Carolina played some very pretty offense for most of the afternoon against the Ohio State 2-3 zone defense. The Tar Heels consistently found a big man around the free throw line, and the Tar Heel post players consistently made good decisions once they had the ball. Kennedy Meeks made a couple very nice shot fake-and-drive moves that resulted in baskets, and Carolina also had multiple nice big man-to-big man passes inside the zone.
The Tar Heels ended the first half at a whopping 1.23 points per possession offensively.
2. Another encouraging offensive trend: over the last couple of weeks, Carolina has slowly increased their tempo, both after misses and makes. On multiple occasions on Saturday, Ohio State scored, only to watch the Tar Heels race down and convert before the Buckeyes ever set their defense.
3. Brice Johnson quietly made a very big hustle play early in the second half. Ohio State had a little momentum and had closed to 45-35 with around 18:30 remaining. The Buckeyes had a run-out and appeared to be headed towards cutting the Carolina lead under ten points for the first time in over six minutes of game action. But Johnson ran down the play, got the block, and then just for good measure ran the entire length of the floor again to score on the other end and push the margin back to 12 points.
4. Not exceptionally crisp execution on the final offensive play at the end of the first half, even coming out of a rare Roy Williams first-half timeout. Joel Berry II--who played very well otherwise--might have initiated the offense just a hair too early, meaning when Marcus Paige's three-pointer missed, it gave Ohio State to race down the court for a good scoring chance. Then, defensively, the Tar Heels--who had just four team fouls--let Jae'Sean Tate race in for a basket without using any of their fouls to give.
5. Saturday's game was the first of a three-year event that will see the four involved teams (Carolina along with Ohio State, UCLA and Kentucky) play in Chicago this year, Brooklyn in 2015, and Las Vegas in 2016. Sometimes these neutral site December games end up feeling sort of sterile, but credit the organizers for putting together a fun atmosphere that included the standard Smith Center team intro (which gave Ohio State assistant Greg Paulus a chance to see himself on the video board, since his role in the Danny Green dunk is a big part of that video) and "This is Carolina Basketball" videos that are fixtures at home games.
It gave the gave the feel of a college game while being in an NBA facility. In other words, it felt like an NCAA Tournament game, which is exactly the experience you want the Tar Heels to get early in the season. Carolina plays UCLA in next year's iteration of the event.
6. Marcus Paige's shooting struggles have been well chronicled, and he finished 4-for-12 against the Buckeyes. But he's largely played a solid floor game and been immune to any other criticism. That changed when Ohio State made their push late in the second half. When the Buckeye pressure forced UNC into a 10-second violation, Paige got an earful from Roy Williams after leaving Nate Britt alone to handle the pressure in the backcourt.
7. Kennedy Meeks didn't have a great shooting day, hitting just 3-for-10 from the field and missing a couple point-blank attempts (of course, he also rebounded a couple of those misses). But he got a massive rebound in traffic on an errant Sam Thompson three-pointer with four minutes left and Ohio State down just eight, then rocketed his second laser-guided outlet pass of the game, hitting J.P. Tokoto to set up a couple of free throws.
8. Saturday's win completely changes how it feels going into the holiday break, with Atlantic Coast Conference play just two weeks away. Getting a solid nonconference victory gives Carolina wins over UCLA, Florida and Ohio State, which is a very good NCAA Tournament resume. A loss would have given Carolina a week to stew over a 7-4 record; instead, it feels like the Tar Heels are headed in the right direction and have some potential.
9. It was interesting to watch Charles Scott in the stands, where he sat wearing all black several rows behind the Ohio State bench. For the most part, he looked exactly like any parent looks while they're watching their kid, living and dying with every dribble. But when Shannon Scott was out of the game, his father also occasionally recognized a couple good plays by the Tar Heels.
No matter what his son did on the court or what uniform he wears, there remains no question that Charles Scott is one of the most important Tar Heels in history.
