University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: J.D. Lyon Jr.
Lucas: An Early Turkey
November 28, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Carolina's Thanksgiving performance was an early season setback.
By Adam Lucas
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas--Repeat after me: This happens.
That doesn't make it any more enjoyable or any less frustrating, but it happens. How often do games like Thursday's 73-64 defeat (we all know, but will hopefully soon forget, that it wasn't as close as that score indicated) to Michigan happen? How about every single November for the last decade.Â
That's right. Every Carolina team since the 2009 national champions--a squad that had one of the most dominant NCAA Tournament performances of all time--has endured a game with at least some casual similarities to today's Battle 4 Atlantis loss. All of the following defeats were in November of the listed year:
2018:Â Carolina was torched by Texas in Las Vegas.
2017:Â The Tar Heels turned in one of the worst shooting performances in program history in a 63-45 loss to Michigan State.
2016: Thumped by Indiana, 76-67.
2015: Lost at Northern Iowa.
2014: Butler overpowered Carolina in this same Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.
2013: Lost at home to Belmont.
2012: Butler again, this time with a win over the Tar Heels in Maui. Carolina then followed that up with a whipping at Indiana.
2011: Carolina was ranked number one in the country and promptly lost by ten at UNLV.
2010: Minnesota and Vanderbilt dealt the Tar Heels back-to-back losses in Puerto Rico, and Carolina fell again to Illinois a little over a week later.
2009: New York City was the location for a 16-point Syracuse win over Carolina.
Counting today, that's 14 November losses, ten of them to unranked teams. In that same period, the Tar Heels have a grand total of three losses in March to unranked teams.
So things will change. The Carolina team you saw today will bear little resemblance to the one you see in February and March. This, as painful as it is in the moment, is part of the process. The number of times you've screamed "Call a timeout!" over the last dozen Novembers is probably approximately equivalent to the number of times you've sent a gloating text in March. The Tar Heels undoubtedly wilted in that 19-0 Michigan run, as they gave up four layups, a dunk, and three three-pointers (at least two of which were uncontested). Williams will soon figure out which combinations won't give in to that type of assault. The offense will be more cohesive than the group that mustered just eight assists on 26 field goals.
That doesn't mean the head coach will sprinkle some magic dust on this year's Tar Heels and make them into national title contenders. Some of the above teams lost in November because they were not as good as the opponent. And there are some concerning aspects about this year's squad, starting with their inability to put the ball into the basket--an area of concern Williams immediately identified a month ago when asked about this year's possibilities.Â
The Tar Heels were bad by every possible shooting metric on Thursday. They made just two of 13 three-point attempts, a meager 15.4 percent. Even on two-point shots, they were just 24-for-48, and while 50 percent might sound pretty good, it's not good for a Williams-coached team, who regularly shoot in the mid-50s from that distance. And then there was the free throw line, where the Tar Heels converted just 10 of 20 opportunities and are now shooting 60.3 percent for the season from the charity stripe.
Williams will figure out a way to get more shots for his most reliable offensive options (a short list currently, consisting primarily of Cole Anthony, Garrison Brooks and Armando Bacot, with a small sample size of Brandon Robinson) and find better ways to get shots for those who are struggling right now. But he can't make, for example, Bacot be anything but a freshman, which means it's not all that unusual that on Wednesday the freshman could post a double-double and on Thursday play his way to the bench early in the second half. He will make progress, because he's already shown an abundance of talent. But he's a freshman going against senior Michigan post man Jon Teske, and the November outcome was about what you'd expect.
There could be more to come. Carolina will face either a good Gonzaga team or a good Oregon team here on Friday morning at 11:30, then face two undefeated teams (Ohio State and Virginia) in the two games after that.Â
Ready to give up, ready to turn your attention to the race for the NFL playoffs? Then maybe you should know what Garrison Brooks told Williams at halftime on Thursday. Carolina was trailing, 39-34, and Brooks had suffered a painful-looking eye injury in the first half. It was rapidly turning red and swelling shut, and to be honest, it was painful just to look at.
The head coach asked Brooks if he could play. It was Thanksgiving, his team trailed, and no one would have blamed him for nursing it on the bench. The junior replied, "I can't really see out of it. But I can guard."
He sat down exactly one time in the second half, and his 19 minutes in that half were more than anyone on the roster.Â
On a day when Carolina found out a great deal about what it doesn't have, it also learned something about what it does have in Brooks. That's one piece. The rest will be assembled over the coming months, when November will be nothing more than a distant memory.
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas--Repeat after me: This happens.
That doesn't make it any more enjoyable or any less frustrating, but it happens. How often do games like Thursday's 73-64 defeat (we all know, but will hopefully soon forget, that it wasn't as close as that score indicated) to Michigan happen? How about every single November for the last decade.Â
That's right. Every Carolina team since the 2009 national champions--a squad that had one of the most dominant NCAA Tournament performances of all time--has endured a game with at least some casual similarities to today's Battle 4 Atlantis loss. All of the following defeats were in November of the listed year:
2018:Â Carolina was torched by Texas in Las Vegas.
2017:Â The Tar Heels turned in one of the worst shooting performances in program history in a 63-45 loss to Michigan State.
2016: Thumped by Indiana, 76-67.
2015: Lost at Northern Iowa.
2014: Butler overpowered Carolina in this same Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.
2013: Lost at home to Belmont.
2012: Butler again, this time with a win over the Tar Heels in Maui. Carolina then followed that up with a whipping at Indiana.
2011: Carolina was ranked number one in the country and promptly lost by ten at UNLV.
2010: Minnesota and Vanderbilt dealt the Tar Heels back-to-back losses in Puerto Rico, and Carolina fell again to Illinois a little over a week later.
2009: New York City was the location for a 16-point Syracuse win over Carolina.
Counting today, that's 14 November losses, ten of them to unranked teams. In that same period, the Tar Heels have a grand total of three losses in March to unranked teams.
So things will change. The Carolina team you saw today will bear little resemblance to the one you see in February and March. This, as painful as it is in the moment, is part of the process. The number of times you've screamed "Call a timeout!" over the last dozen Novembers is probably approximately equivalent to the number of times you've sent a gloating text in March. The Tar Heels undoubtedly wilted in that 19-0 Michigan run, as they gave up four layups, a dunk, and three three-pointers (at least two of which were uncontested). Williams will soon figure out which combinations won't give in to that type of assault. The offense will be more cohesive than the group that mustered just eight assists on 26 field goals.
That doesn't mean the head coach will sprinkle some magic dust on this year's Tar Heels and make them into national title contenders. Some of the above teams lost in November because they were not as good as the opponent. And there are some concerning aspects about this year's squad, starting with their inability to put the ball into the basket--an area of concern Williams immediately identified a month ago when asked about this year's possibilities.Â
The Tar Heels were bad by every possible shooting metric on Thursday. They made just two of 13 three-point attempts, a meager 15.4 percent. Even on two-point shots, they were just 24-for-48, and while 50 percent might sound pretty good, it's not good for a Williams-coached team, who regularly shoot in the mid-50s from that distance. And then there was the free throw line, where the Tar Heels converted just 10 of 20 opportunities and are now shooting 60.3 percent for the season from the charity stripe.
Williams will figure out a way to get more shots for his most reliable offensive options (a short list currently, consisting primarily of Cole Anthony, Garrison Brooks and Armando Bacot, with a small sample size of Brandon Robinson) and find better ways to get shots for those who are struggling right now. But he can't make, for example, Bacot be anything but a freshman, which means it's not all that unusual that on Wednesday the freshman could post a double-double and on Thursday play his way to the bench early in the second half. He will make progress, because he's already shown an abundance of talent. But he's a freshman going against senior Michigan post man Jon Teske, and the November outcome was about what you'd expect.
There could be more to come. Carolina will face either a good Gonzaga team or a good Oregon team here on Friday morning at 11:30, then face two undefeated teams (Ohio State and Virginia) in the two games after that.Â
Ready to give up, ready to turn your attention to the race for the NFL playoffs? Then maybe you should know what Garrison Brooks told Williams at halftime on Thursday. Carolina was trailing, 39-34, and Brooks had suffered a painful-looking eye injury in the first half. It was rapidly turning red and swelling shut, and to be honest, it was painful just to look at.
The head coach asked Brooks if he could play. It was Thanksgiving, his team trailed, and no one would have blamed him for nursing it on the bench. The junior replied, "I can't really see out of it. But I can guard."
He sat down exactly one time in the second half, and his 19 minutes in that half were more than anyone on the roster.Â
On a day when Carolina found out a great deal about what it doesn't have, it also learned something about what it does have in Brooks. That's one piece. The rest will be assembled over the coming months, when November will be nothing more than a distant memory.
Players Mentioned
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