University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Rapid Reactions
January 27, 2015 | Men's Basketball
By Adam Lucas
1. If you think back to how abysmal Carolina looked last year against the Syracuse zone, you get an even better appreciation for the Tar Heels' offensive production in the 93-83 win. The Tar Heels shot 55.4 percent from the field, 56.2 percent from the three-point line (four of five from Nate Britt will tend to do that), and even a respectable 73.3 percent from the free throw line. Just as importantly, they made 30 trips to the charity stripe after giving in too easily against the zone last year. This year, they continued to pound it inside, and the perimeter marksmanship of Britt and Marcus Paige forced the Orange zone to continue to creep out farther than they might have liked.
2. Carolina committed an awful 13 turnovers in the first half, many of the unforced variety. Part of it was lack of preparation time for the Syracuse zone, but several of them were due to simple carelessness. The Tar Heels cleaned it up somewhat in the second half (seven turnovers in the final 20 minutes) but Syracuse still led the overall points off turnovers category 21-5.
3. The battle off the ball between Kennedy Meeks and Rakeem Christmas was as good or better than the actual game. Christmas is a very physical player, and every trip down the court both offensively and defensively including plenty of banging. Meeks hung in there, however, and his conditioning appeared to pay off on the way to playing a hard 32 minutes. Christmas was terrific, with 22 points and 12 rebounds, but Meeks had a solid 17 points and eight boards, and he played Christmas to enough of a standstill to allow Carolina's superior depth to push the Tar Heels to the win.
4. For all of J.P. Tokoto's struggles throughout the game--and there were a few, including six turnovers--he excelled when Carolina needed him. After taking a breather following the last of his turnovers, he re-entered the game with 6:08 remaining with the assignment of guarding the sharpshooting Trevor Cooney, who appeared to be on his way to joining Xavier Rathan-Mayes territory. Cooney did not make another field goal until there were 35.4 seconds remaining, and by that point Carolina had already built an 88-78 advantage.
5. This is an overdue note, but great job by Nelson Hurst and Josh Reavis from UNC New Media, along with direction from Eric Hoots in the basketball office, on the new open that precedes starting lineups at the Smith Center. The inclusion of Stuart Scott is a nice touch, and the whole thing just seems to fit together as well or better than any other pregame package that's been run in recent years.
6. Prior to Monday night, Syracuse was the likely answer to the never-asked question of "What prominent program that you would have expected to have already played in Chapel Hill has never played in Blue Heaven?" The Orange's first game in Chapel Hill was Monday night, so they now pass that distinction to, in all likelihood, Michigan, a program that has faced the Tar Heels in some big games, but never in either Ann Arbor or Chapel Hill. You would think that at some point the ACC/Big Ten Challenge would make that happen.
Another contender would be Kansas, which played the Tar Heels in Raleigh in 1959 and Charlotte in 1981 in Michael Jordan's first game as a collegian. As long as Roy Williams is at Carolina, however, that home-and-home won't happen. Others in the never-been-to-Chapel Hill category: Oklahoma (only three games in the series, all at neutral sites), Oklahoma State (only one game in the series), Northwestern (the teams haven't met since 1978) and Missouri (all nine games at neutral sites).
7. Not sure whether the good Big Monday matchups make the crowd, or the crowd makes the good Big Monday matchups, but either way, the Smith Center was lively for the game against Syracuse. It felt a little like some of the early Florida State trips to Kenan Stadium in football, as the crowd was primed to see an opponent they don't often get to see. The contributions of the 19,856 who paid to see it were important when Carolina was making a push in the second half.
8. Brice Johnson gets plenty of grief when he doesn't play hard, so he deserves some credit for having now strung together four very good games. The junior had 17 points and 11 rebounds against a physical Syracuse team, and even contributed three blocks.
