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University of North Carolina Athletics
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Lucas: Rapid Reactions
February 1, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Quick takeaways from the matchup with Boston College.
By Adam Lucas
1. Pretty simple: that's an extremely painful loss against a team you have to beat in Chapel Hill in order to have reasonable postseason aspirations.
2. There will be plenty of discussion of the final 20 seconds. Everything in that sequence went poorly for Carolina, starting with a questionable foul call that gave Boston College the game-winning free throws and put Brandon Robinson out of the game with both five fouls and an injury (Robinson was being x-rayed immediately after the game and they came back negative, but he still has a sprained ankle and his status is uncertain).
3. But even with the foul call, Carolina still had the ball with a chance to win. The execution on the final play was bad. And that's exactly the kind of disjointed offense you can expect when you have to reincorporate a point guard after an 11-game absence.
4. Cole Anthony's overall numbers were good. He scored 26 points and was 14-for-14 from the free throw line. He also had just one turnover. But you could clearly see that he and some teammates were not on the same page on offense, due primarily for the fact that he's had two practices in the last seven weeks. This was the kind of game you hope to just get through, get a win, and start incorporating everyone more smoothly going forward. That wasn't what happened. Other things that just don't go smoothly when a player misses extended time: Anthony missed two defensive calls from the UNC sideline when Roy Williams wanted a trap midway through the second half. The Eagles scored on both possessions. That's the kind of play that becomes second nature when you're in the flow of a season, but the Tar Heels have simply never been in a flow this year.
5. It's not a coincidence that the most inconsistent offensive performances from Brandon Robinson and Garrison Brooks in recent weeks came as Carolina tried to reintegrate Anthony. That's not to say it can't be done. That's just to say that it's much more difficult than people think. Saturday was the starting point, not the ending point. The problem is that it's February 1.
6. Don't forget about Christian Keeling just yet. The grad transfer had a very solid stretch in the first half, as he hustled to retrieve a defensive rebound, got a steal to stop a 2-on-1 Boston College fast break chance, and snagged an offensive rebound. In the second half, he had two very nice assists to Anthony for three-pointers. Keeling also made two big shots at NC State earlier this week. Speaking of the grad transfers, Justin Pierce had a big tip-in with five minutes left.
7. Since a 5-for-10 performance against UCLA in Las Vegas, Armando Bacot has made big improvements on his free throw shooting. The freshman is 36-for-47 since then. A good showing at the free throw line (11-for-12) in the first half as a team kept Carolina close during a dismal 9-for-30 field goal shooting effort in the first half. Bacot himself had another double-double, with 11 points and 10 rebounds, but was hampered by foul trouble.
8. Unfortunately, Bacot's frontcourt partner, Brooks, was a painful 0-for-7 from the line. Even with that showing, Brooks still had a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double.
9. Give credit to BC coach Jim Christian for unexpectedly going to a zone with 90 seconds remaining in a tie game. The Tar Heels couldn't figure out how to attack it efficiently, and Anthony fired a 22-footer that missed.
10. That was the first step in the final 90 seconds going very poorly. Stymied by that same zone, Carolina wasn't able to get a 2-for-1 when they got the ball with 45 seconds left and a one-point deficit. Anthony scored, but then the Tar Heels "fouled" a jump shooter, and then came the poor execution on the final play.
11. You know it will be asked: Carolina did not call timeout at any point in that final 90 seconds. That's simply Roy Williams' strategy, folks. You live with it in games like the win over Kentucky in the 2017 NCAA Tournament, when not calling a timeout essentially won the game, and sometimes you suffer from it.
12. The other team has good players, too. Boston College guard Derryck Thornton was problematic for the Tar Heels to defend, especially in the closing minutes. He had 15 points on just 4-for-13 shooting, but his penetration was key.
13. The Tar Heels are also going to rue a couple offensive rebounds they gave up in the final five minutes. You can't get every board, and it will be interesting to review the tape. It looked like on at least one of them the Tar Heels had inside position.
14. The (hopefully) final verdict on the 2019-20 Tar Heels without Cole Anthony: Carolina went 4-7 overall and 2-5 in the league. That indisputably changed the trajectory of the season. Now the question is where the Tar Heels go from here.
15. The next week will be a challenging one. The Tar Heels will travel to Florida State on Monday and host Duke on Saturday. We'll know much more about the prospects for the next month after those games.
16. If you're passionate enough about the Tar Heels to read these (and by the way, thanks for reading), highly suggest you take a listen to a couple of interviews on this week's editions of the Carolina Insider podcast. Andrew Platek was on Tuesday's episode and had some very frank thoughts on how he's matured over the past year. And Garrison Brooks was on Friday's show and explained how he's improved as a player and as a leader. Both interviews are the type of in-depth thoughts you don't often get to hear from current players.
17. Great to see former UNC Wilmington head coach and longtime Tar Heel assistant coach C.B. McGrath at Saturday's game with his family. McGrath was an integral part of three Tar Heel national championships.
1. Pretty simple: that's an extremely painful loss against a team you have to beat in Chapel Hill in order to have reasonable postseason aspirations.
2. There will be plenty of discussion of the final 20 seconds. Everything in that sequence went poorly for Carolina, starting with a questionable foul call that gave Boston College the game-winning free throws and put Brandon Robinson out of the game with both five fouls and an injury (Robinson was being x-rayed immediately after the game and they came back negative, but he still has a sprained ankle and his status is uncertain).
3. But even with the foul call, Carolina still had the ball with a chance to win. The execution on the final play was bad. And that's exactly the kind of disjointed offense you can expect when you have to reincorporate a point guard after an 11-game absence.
4. Cole Anthony's overall numbers were good. He scored 26 points and was 14-for-14 from the free throw line. He also had just one turnover. But you could clearly see that he and some teammates were not on the same page on offense, due primarily for the fact that he's had two practices in the last seven weeks. This was the kind of game you hope to just get through, get a win, and start incorporating everyone more smoothly going forward. That wasn't what happened. Other things that just don't go smoothly when a player misses extended time: Anthony missed two defensive calls from the UNC sideline when Roy Williams wanted a trap midway through the second half. The Eagles scored on both possessions. That's the kind of play that becomes second nature when you're in the flow of a season, but the Tar Heels have simply never been in a flow this year.
5. It's not a coincidence that the most inconsistent offensive performances from Brandon Robinson and Garrison Brooks in recent weeks came as Carolina tried to reintegrate Anthony. That's not to say it can't be done. That's just to say that it's much more difficult than people think. Saturday was the starting point, not the ending point. The problem is that it's February 1.
6. Don't forget about Christian Keeling just yet. The grad transfer had a very solid stretch in the first half, as he hustled to retrieve a defensive rebound, got a steal to stop a 2-on-1 Boston College fast break chance, and snagged an offensive rebound. In the second half, he had two very nice assists to Anthony for three-pointers. Keeling also made two big shots at NC State earlier this week. Speaking of the grad transfers, Justin Pierce had a big tip-in with five minutes left.
7. Since a 5-for-10 performance against UCLA in Las Vegas, Armando Bacot has made big improvements on his free throw shooting. The freshman is 36-for-47 since then. A good showing at the free throw line (11-for-12) in the first half as a team kept Carolina close during a dismal 9-for-30 field goal shooting effort in the first half. Bacot himself had another double-double, with 11 points and 10 rebounds, but was hampered by foul trouble.
8. Unfortunately, Bacot's frontcourt partner, Brooks, was a painful 0-for-7 from the line. Even with that showing, Brooks still had a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double.
9. Give credit to BC coach Jim Christian for unexpectedly going to a zone with 90 seconds remaining in a tie game. The Tar Heels couldn't figure out how to attack it efficiently, and Anthony fired a 22-footer that missed.
10. That was the first step in the final 90 seconds going very poorly. Stymied by that same zone, Carolina wasn't able to get a 2-for-1 when they got the ball with 45 seconds left and a one-point deficit. Anthony scored, but then the Tar Heels "fouled" a jump shooter, and then came the poor execution on the final play.
11. You know it will be asked: Carolina did not call timeout at any point in that final 90 seconds. That's simply Roy Williams' strategy, folks. You live with it in games like the win over Kentucky in the 2017 NCAA Tournament, when not calling a timeout essentially won the game, and sometimes you suffer from it.
12. The other team has good players, too. Boston College guard Derryck Thornton was problematic for the Tar Heels to defend, especially in the closing minutes. He had 15 points on just 4-for-13 shooting, but his penetration was key.
13. The Tar Heels are also going to rue a couple offensive rebounds they gave up in the final five minutes. You can't get every board, and it will be interesting to review the tape. It looked like on at least one of them the Tar Heels had inside position.
14. The (hopefully) final verdict on the 2019-20 Tar Heels without Cole Anthony: Carolina went 4-7 overall and 2-5 in the league. That indisputably changed the trajectory of the season. Now the question is where the Tar Heels go from here.
15. The next week will be a challenging one. The Tar Heels will travel to Florida State on Monday and host Duke on Saturday. We'll know much more about the prospects for the next month after those games.
16. If you're passionate enough about the Tar Heels to read these (and by the way, thanks for reading), highly suggest you take a listen to a couple of interviews on this week's editions of the Carolina Insider podcast. Andrew Platek was on Tuesday's episode and had some very frank thoughts on how he's matured over the past year. And Garrison Brooks was on Friday's show and explained how he's improved as a player and as a leader. Both interviews are the type of in-depth thoughts you don't often get to hear from current players.
17. Great to see former UNC Wilmington head coach and longtime Tar Heel assistant coach C.B. McGrath at Saturday's game with his family. McGrath was an integral part of three Tar Heel national championships.
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