Lucas: Duke Rapid Reactions

By Adam Lucas

1. Had it all the way.

2. After fumbling through the previous couple of minutes and allowing Duke to cut a seven-point deficit to two, Carolina actually managed the final 15 seconds pretty well. Up by two points, Leaky Black made one of two free throws. And then Carolina made wise use of two fouls to give, eventually forcing a turnover. And then Black swished a couple free throws to provide the final margin.

3. Caleb Love had a huge game, finishing with 25 points and seven assists. That's the most points by a Carolina freshman against Duke since Tyler Hansbrough put up 27 in 2006, which was also a pretty fun game. Love also had seven of the team's final ten points in a span that stretched over the final four minutes. He was more efficient with his shooting, hitting 9-for-16, and also made four of his five free throws. Love was also a big part of Carolina's tempo, which generated 27 fast break points.

4. Now, that's not to say that Love didn't have an eventful final couple of minutes, when he seemed to be involved in everything that happened, good and bad (he finished with five turnovers). He had a couple of turnovers and was beaten backdoor for an easy Duke basket...but he also hit a huge three-pointer and drained a couple of free throws. He essentially had the entire freshman point guard experience in the final 150 seconds of the game.

5. In one of the most predictable moves of the season so far, Duke's big men made a sudden appearance against Carolina. Mark Williams, Jaemyn Brakefield and Henry Coleman all saw early minutes and were pretty clearly given one instruction: rebound. It worked in the first half, as that trio grabbed nine rebounds, outpacing the eight from Brooks, Sharpe, Walker Kessler and Armando Bacot. Duke's post players also did a solid job keeping Carolina off the offensive glass in the first half, as 15 Tar Heel misses turned into just four offensive rebounds and only four second chance points (Duke had 11).

6. After a halftime chat with Roy Williams, the rebounding got back to normal in the second half. Carolina finished with a 38-31 edge on the glass. They also limited the Devils to just four second chance points in the second half, while piling up 11 points in that category.

7. Carolina missed Leaky Black in the first half. The junior was saddled with foul trouble, then Roy Williams tried to play him with two fouls, and he very quickly picked up his third. The Tar Heels were +8 with him on the court in the first 20 minutes, but he saw just 5:55 of action. Black finished with 12 points, four assists and just one turnover. He was +16 in the game.

8. The Tar Heels were incredibly efficient with Duke's turnovers in the first half. The Blue Devils coughed it up nine times in the first 20 minutes, and the Heels converted that into 21 points. The other offensive highlight from the first half was Carolina's shooting, as the Heels knocked in six of nine three-point attempts. The six made trifectas in the half were more than any three-point production in the last four games, and as many or more makes than 12 of Carolina's full games this season.

9. Carolina did a good job defensively against All-ACC candidate Matt Hurt, largely using size against him to prevent him from shooting over his defender. The sophomore fouled out late in the second half and finished with just seven points and three rebounds.

10. Saturday's game brought to an end an unusual portion of the schedule. Carolina has now played 11 conference games, with seven of them coming away from the Smith Center. The Duke game wrapped up a stretch of three straight road ACC games, the first time the Tar Heels have faced that particular trifecta since February of 2016. Monday's game against Miami at home will start a stretch of five games in the next eight contests at the Smith Center (with a pending game against Clemson in Chapel Hill still on the table to be rescheduled).

11. Puff Johnson again did not dress out and was in a boot on the sideline, missing his third straight game. On the other side of injury news, though, Sterling Manley was in uniform. As you know from recent Tar Heel injury recoveries, in uniform does not always mean cleared to play. It's been a long road for Manley, who last played in a game when he scored five points in one minute against Auburn in the 2019 NCAA Tournament.

12. ESPN is going to milk every possible second out of a game that is the centerpiece of the network's college basketball coverage. On multiple occasions, both teams were left standing around waiting for play to resume.

13. Let's don't talk about free throws. The Heels were just 13-22 from the charity stripe, with Tar Heel fans around the world pulling out every follicle. But they did hit five of six down the stretch to seal the win. The good news is free throws don't matter quite as much when you hit 10-15 from three. The Heels also might have caught a break with 2:10 remaining when Ted Valentine appeared to want to review an out of bounds call that favored Carolina. But it has to be under two minutes to be reviewable, and Carolina kept the ball in a four-point game--and Love hit a three-pointer on the subsequent possession.

14. Don't imagine this team without Kerwin Walton. The unflappable freshman made all four of his three-point shots in his Cameron debut.

15. This is why you want to have seniors. With Carolina inbounding the ball in the backcourt with 1:09 remaining and 23 seconds on the shot clock, Garrison Brooks went to the officials to confirm that the ten second count in the backcourt would reset, because he didn't want any younger Heels to get confused and try to hurry the ball across midcourt at the 20 second mark on the shot clock. Once Brooks got the confirmation, he went to each Tar Heel to remind them that they had the full ten seconds--not just three seconds.

16. Great inbounds play by the Tar Heels with under seven minutes to play. With a two-point lead and just five seconds on the shot clock, Roy Williams used the media timeout to draw up a pretty pass from Love to Brooks that stretched the advantage back to four points.

17. That's a big road win. Now, in order to make it even more meaningful, the Tar Heels have to turn around quickly and beat Miami in Chapel Hill at home on Monday. The Tar Heels have now won seven of their last nine.

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

Garrison Brooks

Puff Johnson

Walker Kessler

Caleb Love

Sterling Manley

Kerwin Walton

Related Videos