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University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Rapid Reactions
November 23, 2016 | Men's Basketball
By Adam Lucas
1. Good win in a good environment in what felt like a second-round NCAA Tournament type game. Oklahoma State is a solid team from a reputable conference but turned out to be too one-dimensional to keep pace with the Tar Heels.
2. Roy Williams saw six of his players finish in double figures in a very balanced offensive display. Joel Berry II set a career high with 24 points.
3. That was a freshman year-defining stretch for Tony Bradley late in the first half. Clearly already winded, the rookie dove on the floor to save a defensive rebound with a minute left in the half. On the other end, he had a wide open dunk after beautiful Tar Heel ball movement...but then chose to give it away to senior Kennedy Meeks for an even more wide open dunk. That's the type of stretch that helps a team build an identity. Bradley finished with 13 points and two rebounds while never so much as cracking a smile.
4. Berry had the defensive assignment for most of the night on high-scoring Cowboys guard Jawun Evans. It didn't even feel like Berry did that poor a job, but Evans is such a high volume shooter that he's going to get his points one way or the other. The Tar Heels did do a good job of keeping Evans off the free throw line. He shot 17 charity tosses in OSU's Maui opener, but was limited to just four free throws on Tuesday. Evans attempted 25 shots to get his 30 points.
5. Nate Britt has quietly had a very good road trip. The senior was important in Friday night's win at Hawaii, and contributed 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting against Oklahoma State. Britt was an important part of the thing Carolina had that the Cowboys simply couldn't match--depth.
6. For the second straight game, Carolina dominated the paint scoring. This time it was a 46-26 advantage inside, with the post trio of Kennedy Meeks, Isaiah Hicks and Bradley again all hitting double figures.
7. In the history of the program, Carolina has played 243 different opponents in a regular season basketball game. Prior to Tuesday night's game, Oklahoma State was one of just nine teams the Tar Heels had played but never beaten. Now that the series record with the Cowboys is even at 1-1, that leaves the following eight teams that have undefeated records against UNC: Army (0-3), Belmont (0-1), Drake (0-1), Milligan (0-1), Northern Iowa (0-1 and comes to the Smith Center next month), San Francisco (0-1), West Virginia (0-5) and Xavier (0-1).
8. Get ready for a good one tomorrow night against a veteran Wisconsin club (and it starts at a more reasonable 9:30 p.m. Eastern!). That could very easily be the best college basketball game of the pre-Thanksgiving stretch.
