University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Regional Final Notebook
March 27, 2016 | Men's Basketball
By Adam Lucas
Tomorrow's game is likely to settle somewhere between the two turnover extremes that have already taken place between the Tar Heels and Fighting Irish. In the first meeting, Carolina forced just two Notre Dame turnovers. In the ACC Tournament matchup, the Tar Heels forced 17 Irish miscues. That was a completely uncharacteristic performance for Mike Brey's team, which had the lowest turnover percentage in the Atlantic Coast Conference during league games this season.
“Those are the game films you burn and don't go back to,” Brey said on Saturday. “But you have to learn from it. We talked about it in practice. We were not very good with the basketball. We are a team that has been really good with the ball throughout the year. That game, we were not. Give Carolina credit. They've stepped up their defense. It was hard to make a pass the way they were contesting the passing lanes.”
Brey said he hopes a change to the starting lineup—the Irish will start Matt Farrell on Sunday, whereas Bonzie Colson started in Washington—will help his team's ball security. “I'm hoping Matt Farrell starting helps us because it gives us another ballhandler on the floor with Demetrius Jackson,” Brey said.
On the boards: Colson and Zach Auguste combined to get 20 offensive rebounds in Notre Dame's win over the Tar Heels in South Bend. That was a game in which Carolina was very rarely ever able to finish second half defensive possessions with a good box out. That means the rebounding of Brice Johnson, who on Friday night became just the eighth Tar Heel with 1,000 career rebounds, will be key.
“Brice has always been a good rebounder,” Roy Williams said. “At times, he's been a great rebounder. He rebounds in his area really well. And sometimes he can go get it outside of his area. It's times that he can get a guy that's fairly close and get a body on him and box him out he gets to the unbelievable stage. That's where he falls down sometimes, because he doesn't put a body on them and get it.”
Underdogs: It appears Brey is leaning hard on the underdog card leading up to the regional final. He latched on to an article earlier this week that ranked the Irish 16th of the teams remaining in the Sweet 16. “I think we'll be picked ninth out of the final eight,” Brey said. And then he threw in what is undoubtedly what he'll be telling his team over the next 24 hours—“But we're the toughest team.”
Levity: By far, the highlight of Saturday's usually dull media session was when Theo Pinson crashed the podium. The NCAA designs the sessions for the head coach and five starters to sit at a podium and answer questions from the media. You might notice that Pinson doesn't fit either of those categories.
But about ten minutes into the Carolina media session, Pinson came walking up the steps to the podium. With a perfectly straight face, he said, “Where's my chair?” Then he walked the length of the podium, looked at the place cards that list each individual's name, and said, “Where's my name?”
There's a first time for everything! Theo Pinson makes a surprise visit during the @UNC_Basketball press conference https://t.co/i3RY1oUPZC
— GoHeelsTV (@GoHeelsTV) March 26, 2016
Williams said he'd never had a player crash a press conference in his 28 years of coaching. “That's just Theo,” Brice Johnson said. “In the locker room, he said he would do it, but I didn't think he would actually do it. I thought someone would tackle him before he got there.”
Notes: Brey said he believes Carolina is “playing the best in the country”…The Irish have some experience with coming back from big defeats. Last season, they lost at Duke by 30 points on Feb. 7, then beat the Blue Devils by ten in the ACC Tournament…For the third straight game, the Tar Heels will have a late tipoff. “We have shootaround earlier in the day and then pregame meal four hours before the game,” said Justin Jackson. “It definitely makes the day longer. But we've done a good job of getting our minds right at whatever time we're supposed to play.”…Brey said he isn't sure if he'll have to coach in a boot tomorrow after straining his calf in the win over Wisconsin.
Stretching it out. Tar Heels wrapping up practice on the eve of the #Elite8 #HeelsLockIn https://t.co/VZ7JIu56ou pic.twitter.com/EFigHS6mF1
— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) March 26, 2016
