University of North Carolina Athletics
Johnson, Meeks Coming Up Big
February 23, 2015 | Men's Basketball
By Emily Fedewa, GoHeels.com
CHAPEL HILL—The North Carolina basketball team has shown itself to be a prolific inside scoring threat this season, ranking among the top teams in the nation in points per game in the paint.
There are plenty of players on the team that contribute to that in any given game, but the biggest factor is the dynamic forward duo of sophomore Kennedy Meeks and junior Brice Johnson.
Head coach Roy Williams said at the beginning of the 2014-15 season that this team needed at least one big man to step up if the Tar Heels were going to be successful. Johnson and Meeks have done just that and have proven to be the go-to guys down low for UNC.
In Carolina's 27 games so far this season, both big men have scored in double figures 20 times, making them the team's most consistent post scorers by far – and they did it again on Saturday in UNC's 89-60 win over Georgia Tech.
“They're a destructive force down there,” junior guard Marcus Paige said of the combination of Meeks and Johnson in the paint.
Against the Yellow Jackets, the Tar Heels scored 46 points in the paint – more than half their total points for the game – and Meeks and Johnson had 34 of those.
Meeks scored a game-high 18 points and had 6 rebounds, three blocks, two steals and an assist. Johnson wasn't far behind, racking up five rebounds, a block and the second highest points on either team with 16.
Johnson's performance came despite being sick over the weekend and needing an IV of fluids before Saturday's game. That level of toughness will be vital to the Tar Heels in their final four regular season games and into March, especially in a conference as strong as the ACC.
Paige knows how tough his teammates are, including Johnson, and he knows how important it is that the junior forward can make such an impact even when he's not at his best.
“It was huge because you only have so many guys. If Brice couldn't play, we would only have one big guy to sub and rotate through,” Paige said. “So even though he wasn't 100 percent, he gave us a lot.”
Johnson is averaging 15.9 points per game over the last nine games, and Meeks has scored 51 points and shot 71 percent from the floor in the last three.
While both Johnson and Meeks are strong individually, the combination of the two is explosive and essential down low for a team that doesn't incorporate a ton of perimeter shooting into its offense.
In Wednesday's overtime loss to No. 4 Duke, Carolina outscored the Blue Devils 62-40 in the paint and over half of those points came from Meeks and Johnson, who led the Tar Heels with 18 points a piece in the game.
Meeks thinks that his aggressive approach has been the biggest factor in helping him more than hold his own underneath the basket in most games this season and especially in the last three.
“We're trying to focus on being aggressive, whether we're scoring or not, just keep being aggressive,” Meeks said. “Just being aggressive, demanding the ball, getting in the lane, drawing fouls, whatever I can do to get points on the board and whatever I can do on the defensive end.”
The duo's ability to dominate in the paint on offense against any team, including one of the top five teams in the nation, will certainly be helpful in the stacked ACC tournament and throughout the NCAA tournament in March.
The younger forward thinks he and Johnson work well together as Carolina's starting post players, and even when one of them might not be having their best game, they are able to work off of one another and feed off each other's energy.
“The energy is what gets us going,” Meeks said of him and Johnson. “We just try to help each other out as much as we can, whether it's taking our man away while you've got the ball in the post or anything like that.”
While both Meeks and Johnson have shown how important they are to the success of this year's team, both of them still have plenty of room for improvement, especially on the defensive end.
“They both shoot high of 50 percent from the field and that's going to win you a lot of games if you can play through them and have them be active on the defensive end as well,” Paige said. “Once their defense matches their offense…they're going to be even on another level.”
And if Meeks and Johnson can improve on defense and maintain their offensive production as the post season quickly approaches, they could help lead the Tar Heels on a deep run in March.
