University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Rapid Reactions
January 28, 2017 | Men's Basketball
By Adam Lucas
1. That game, unfortunately, looked very familiar. Carolina went through a dismal stretch in the first half and had some similar zone struggles to the Dec. 31 visit to Atlanta, with all the issues leading to a 77-62 loss to Miami.
2. It's going to be a close battle between the stretch at Georgia Tech and the final 13:30 of the first half against Miami as the worst stretch of basketball played by Carolina this season. Because the Jackets have turned out to be the surprise of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and because Saturday's game is more fresh, it's hard not to go with Saturday's stinker. The Tar Heels made exactly one of their final 19 field goal attempts in the half and shot a remarkable four for 20 from two-point range (20% on two-point shots!) in the first half on the way to building a 39-22 deficit.
3. The stretch began when Carolina had five reserves on the court, as the subs struggled to find any holes in Miami's zone defense. The five subs were on the court together for just three possessions, but Miami turned around the game's momentum during that stretch. It's not that any of those five are incapable players; it's that the combination of them on the floor together wasn't very successful.
4. Frustrations eventually boiled over, as Joel Berry picked up a technical foul and Roy Williams picked up the stool he uses during timeouts and tossed it on the ground during the subsequent timeout. The lecture during that timeout was as animated as the UNC head coach has been this season.
5. Carolina was outrebounded for just the second time this season, with the first instance coming in the loss to Kentucky. The 39-34 deficit on the boards was the statistical way of evaluating what appeared true to the naked eye, which was that Miami beat the Tar Heels to virtually every loose ball from start to finish.
6. Miami fell apart at Duke last weekend because they couldn't take care of the basketball, and the Hurricanes had been the second-worst team in the ACC in turnover percentage in league games, but the Carolina defense was never able to consistently turn them over on Saturday afternoon. That limited Carolina's transition offense opportunities, and the Tar Heels were credited with zero fast break points. That was probably the product of some creative scorekeeping, but even still, Miami held an 11-0 lead in the category.
7. After the first half struggles, the bench was much better in the second half. Specifically, the freshman duo of Tony Bradley (six points and six rebounds) and Seventh Woods (three rebounds and an assist) gave Carolina some good minutes. Woods was used in combination with Joel Berry for one of the first times this season.
8. If you were wondering how important Berry is to the Tar Heel offense, the junior guard is now 3-for-21 in Carolina's two ACC losses. Berry was frustrated early against the Canes and finished 0-for-8 from the field. Berry's struggles were compounded by the fact that his starting backcourt partner, Kenny Williams, was 1-for-8 from the field. That means, as you've already gathered, the UNC backcourt starters went 1-16 in a road ACC game. That's just one of those days.
9. Stopping dribble penetration continues to be a defensive bugaboo. There was a stretch midway through the game when Miami simply did whatever it wanted offensively off the bounce.
10. Miami's zone defense did a very effective job of forcing Carolina to do what it didn't want to do offensively. One illustration of that: Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks combined for just nine field goal attempts.
11. Here's how the day went: Miami entered the game as the worst free throw shooting team in the ACC, hitting 60 percent from the charity stripe in lead games. On Saturday, they went 24-30 (80%) from the line.
12. It's true that Carolina missed Theo Pinson in multiple ways. But that didn't decide the game.
