Lucas: November Rain

By Adam Lucas

UNCASVILLE, Conn.—For the second straight day, Hubert Davis did a perfect job of summing up the day's Tar Heel basketball performance.

"This," he said on the Tar Heel Sports Network, "is not Carolina Basketball."

That was the only possible takeaway after an 89-72 thrashing by Tennessee that was more complete than the score indicated. Carolina was beaten not just on the scoreboard but in competitiveness; you never got the feeling that the patented run was imminent.

The primary reason for that lack of hope was porous defense that was sliced up in Uncasville. The Volunteers held a whopping 54-22 advantage on points in the paint, making the total in that category 96-40 over the last two days.

Purdue had done it with excellent post players. Tennessee did it differently—their guards and wings spent most of the afternoon shooting layups after driving through or past Carolina defenders.

Would you believe that Tennessee only outscored Carolina by ten in the second half? Watching it live, it felt like at least 20. The typical sequence went something like this: a Tar Heel attempted a contested shot. Tennessee grabbed the rebound (UNC recovered just five offensive rebounds on 33 missed shots). A Volunteer made a layup. Rinse. Repeat.

In three of the past eight halves, the Carolina opponent has shot at least 60 percent from the floor. The last four opponents are averaging 88 points per game, and in those games they're making 48.8 percent of their field goals.

You're never as bad as you think you are when things are going poorly and there is no such thing as a November crisis in college basketball. Keep in mind that just 24 hours ago Carolina turned in an encouraging effort against a very good Purdue team. That version of the Tar Heels had some swagger and some competitiveness, in addition to capable shot-making.

This one clearly didn't.

Most obviously, it also had very little resistance to anything Tennessee tried to do offensively. "Everything needs to change," Davis said with regard to Carolina's defense.

The puzzling thing is that it's completely incorrect to assume that somehow Davis and his coaching staff don't emphasize defense. It gets discussed and emphasized and coached at every single practice. The willingness to compete on every single possession is a frequent topic. But so far, it's not translating into results. Tennessee made 38 field goals on Sunday. Twenty-one of them, or over half, were layups. The only person who enjoyed watching that defensive performance was the ballboy nearest the Carolina bench who inexplicably spent his afternoon wearing a Duke hat.

It's going to be very interesting to watch how Davis and his staff handle the next 48 hours. The natural temptation is to have a grueling practice on Monday, but Carolina already looked gassed on Sunday and has multiple players nursing nagging injuries and/or illness. Run them or rest them? Burn the film or burn it into their brains?

Those decisions will shape the next week of the season. It's not as though those types of choices are unprecedented--that's coaching. That's why Davis took steps in the offseason to learn more about his players personally, because he wanted to understand better how they would handle situations just like this and how they would best respond. It's why Jeff Lebo was hired, to have the immediate input of someone who has made these exact decisions.

The season doesn't really begin until you've had your first taste of adversity. After two games in Connecticut, the 2021-22 season, then, is officially underway.

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