Lucas: Early Lessons

By Adam Lucas

UNCASVILLE, Conn.—We learned something about this Carolina team today.

The Tar Heels had taken their first lead of the game at 65-64 midway through the second half, and an NCAA Tournament-type crowd at the Mohegan Sun was roaring.

But then Purdue, a team with all five starters returning from last year's very good club, responded the way you would expect. A 10-0 Boilermaker run ensued, and it felt like that might be the game. A nine-point deficit with six minutes to play against a team as good as Purdue was a stout challenge, maybe too stout for a Carolina team that was already without senior Leaky Black.

Part of the fun of this season—and it is going to be fun, no matter how frustrating it felt while watching Trevion Williams score on post move after post move—is going to be learning. We have to learn how Hubert Davis will handle certain situations, learn how different combinations of different players respond to changes in the game, learn what happens when the Tar Heels are tested.

And here's what we learned on Saturday afternoon: this team fights. Facing that 74-65 deficit, the Tar Heels clawed back, starting with an aggressive Caleb Love drive and dunk. Then RJ Davis scored on a drive and Brady Manek tossed in a three-pointer and within 90 seconds, the Tar Heels had made it competitive again.

"I kept saying in the huddle and to my teammates, 'It's a game of runs,'" Love said. "They had their run, we had our run, and then they had another run. We have to learn how to go on that run and keep our momentum."

He's right. In a two-point game with 6:38 to go, Purdue responded like the veteran team that they are, and Williams scored on three of their next four possessions to stretch the lead back out.

It's still November, but Purdue looks every bit like a national contender—they've got inside and outside scoring punch, dynamic guards, and a very good coach. So what does that mean for the Tar Heels?

We don't know just yet. Even while playing shorthanded without Leaky Black, who has quietly been one of the most indispensable Tar Heels through the first three games, Carolina looked capable of being a team that plays important games in March.

The Boilermakers likely feel they played pretty well on Saturday—shooting 56 percent for the game and 64 percent in the second half will do that for you—and they had to play that well in order to win the game. That was a prototypical game that an experienced team like Purdue wins in November…and that you hope your team matures enough to win later in the season.

It won't happen without improved defense, which is legitimately something that can get better over the course of a season (and by adding Black back into the mix). There won't be many teams that have better post scoring depth than Purdue, but the Tar Heels have to be able to stop the few that do. And in a continuing theme from the early part of the season, the perimeter defense also has to get better. Sasha Stefanovic made some extremely high degree of difficulty shots, but the Tar Heels were also beaten on some drives.

"Our post defense wasn't as good as we are taught, and we gave up easy drives to the lane by guards," Love said. "We have to be more fundamentally sound and move our feet."

Another learning experience: a new Tar Heel coaching staff now has to help their team regroup and play a good Tennessee squad tomorrow. They likely know significantly more about their team this evening than they did yesterday—that's a huge benefit of playing in these tournaments. They walked away from the matchup with Purdue realizing there is work to be done on defense and still some roles to fill in the rotation and the Tar Heels must take care of the ball to be successful…but they also realized they have some pieces to work with.

"This is a game we can really learn from about how much better we can become as a team," Hubert Davis said after the game on the Tar Heel Sports Network. "As upset and hurt and sad as I am that we lost, I'm also equally encouraged about how good we are and how good we can be."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Leaky Black

RJ Davis

Caleb Love

Brady Manek

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