Lucas: Rapid Reactions

By Adam Lucas

1. Not a spectacular win over Davidson, but a good win over Davidson as Carolina earned an 82-60 victory.

2. Luke Maye posted 11 points and 14 rebounds and now has three double-doubles in his last five games.

3. Carolina's defense was overall improved against a perimeter-oriented Davidson squad that struggled to generate anything in the paint. There was approximately a 15-minute stretch from midway through the first half until early in the second half when the Tar Heels were very intense defensively. The Wildcats hit just 29.9 percent from the field.

4. Sometimes your biggest contributions don't show up in the box score. Leaky Black had a couple of momentum-turning possessions of on the ball defense later in the first half at a point when Carolina appeared to be about to go to sleep. Black's harrassment of the ballhandler jumpstarted the defense, which in turn ignited the offense, which then allowed the Smith Center crowd--with the always-rambunctious post-Christmas crowd on hand--to get into the game.

5. Carolina caught a fortunate break when Davidson's leading scorer, Kellan Grady, continued to be sidelined by a knee injury. Grady had missed the previous three games and was expected to return, but was not able to go at game time. Grady averages a team-leading 19.4 points per game, and his absence certainly had something to do with Carolina's ability to slow down the Wildcats.

6. One week after Kentucky almost completely nullified Carolina's second-chance offense game, Davidson did an effective job on the boards, especially early. The easy storyline will be that the Tar Heels won the overall rebounding battle handily (49-33), but the Wildcats did a good job of limiting Carolina to just one shot. As we've seen already this year, the UNC offense isn't quite developed enough to capitalize on that first opportunity, so teams that cut off second and third chances have a much better chance. There are multiple reasons for why the Tar Heels aren't getting to the offensive glass as much, including lack of a dominant offensive rebounding big man (remember how good Kennedy Meeks was in that department during his senior year?), a dip from Luke Maye in that category as teams pay him more attention and he gets different matchups (his offensive rebounding percentage this year is 8.3%, down from 10.3% last year, and only two of his 14 boards were offensive on Saturday), and wings who aren't yet getting to the boards quite as much as Carolina's best teams (Nassir Little could help in this department and Cam Johnson contributed a team-high three against Davidson). Of course, you also have to factor in that Bob McKillop is extremely familiar with the Tar Heel style of play and annually makes it a major point of emphasis to his teams to limit the second chances and control the transition game.

7. A sequence late in the first half should be all the evidence Little needs of where his biggest impact can come. In a span of just a couple minutes, Little drained a couple free throws, got an offensive rebound dunk, and created a wide open jumper for Cameron Johnson. It's no coincidence that all three of those opportunities came when the freshman went to the basket. Little had a solid ten points and three rebounds.

8. As evidenced by his performance against Kentucky, Garrison Brooks isn't quite ready to be that guy you count on every single game for double figure output in points and/or rebounds. But he's getting closer to the point where he can reliably contribute in the majority of outings. Brooks had 11 points on Saturday and was involved offensively, even flashing a nice touch on a couple of midrange jumpers. But a point sure to be raised by Roy Williams--Brooks had only one more rebound than Wanda for most of the game and finished with three.

9. It's amazing how many lanes to the basket open when you're shooting 49.1 percent from the three-point line. That's what Cam Johnson is discovering this year, as he's making a regular habit of beating his defender off the dribble at least once per game. That's not necessarily because he's gotten so much quicker, but because he's on the scouting report as one of the best marksmen in the country. Johnson had 17 points and got just six of those points on three-pointers.

10. A sure sign that we're officially out of the part of the season when Williams likes to say his team should "figure it out" themselves--the head coach called his rarely used first half timeout with 16.7 seconds left in the first period. Carolina ran an interesting set out of the stoppage, with Coby White getting a ball screen and then trying to feed Maye over the top, but the ball was thrown away.

11. White now has a dozen turnovers in his last three games and is shooting 9-for-30 in that same stretch. The shooting is something that will correct itself; White is too good a shooter not to make baskets. With the turnovers, the best advice was noticeable after one of White's second half miscues, when Kendall Marshall visibly motioned "Slow down." Marshall was just talking to himself, but it's good advice for White, also. Keep in mind that you're going to have some turnovers with a freshman who plays at White's tempo--and it also created a team-high seven assists on Saturday.

Players Mentioned

Leaky Black

Garrison Brooks

Cameron Johnson

Nassir Little

Luke Maye

Coby White

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