University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Notebook
December 9, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
Throughout his freshman season, Kennedy Meeks piled up rebounding numbers that made you wonder what he might be capable of if his conditioning allowed him to play major rotation minutes. As a sophomore, he's finding out. Meeks has six double-digit rebounding games already this year (he had five as a rookie) and is tied for the ACC lead with five double-doubles (he had just two last year). Meeks' five double-doubles are more than the totals compiled by 11 ACC teams so far this year.
According to Ken Pomeroy, the Charlotte native is grabbing 26.5 percent of the available defensive rebounds when he's on the floor, and 14.9 percent of Carolina's available offensive rebounds. Both figures are among the top 50 in the country.
Brice is back: Brice Johnson appeared to continue his struggles early in the game against East Carolina. But then something unexpected happened. "Sometimes when Brice misses his first couple shots, he struggles a little bit," assistant coach C.B. McGrath said Monday night on the Roy Williams radio show (the head coach was out recruiting) with Jones Angell. "He missed his first three shots and we were thinking, 'Uh oh, here we go again.' Sometimes when he misses an easy shot he'll just go foul. He didn't foul. He got back on defense and got in the flow of the game, and good things started happening."
Johnson finished with 19 points and 17 rebounds.
Point guard trio: For the first time during the regular season, Williams used a lineup that included Marcus Paige, Nate Britt and Joel Berry II for a short stretch in the first half against Iowa last week. The Tar Heels were down eight when the trio entered but were down just two when Britt exited two minutes later. Paige hit a basket during the stretch--it was during a heavy J.P. Tokoto streak, when the junior hit a jumper and picked up a pair of assists--but the coaching staff felt the guards helped change the game.
"It turned the tide a little bit," McGrath said. "They heated up their guards and made them play a little bit out of control, and made them take shots where they didn't want to take shots...Those three guards really pressured the ball."
Berry won the defensive player of the game award from the coaches against the Hawkeyes, the first of his Carolina career. Britt has already won the honor three times this season.
