Lucas: NC State Rapid Reactions

By Adam Lucas

1. Carolina finished a regular season sweep of NC State with a 84-74 win. In two meetings this year, the Tar Heels led for 79:06 of a possible 80:00 and never trailed.

2. The immediate concern coming out of the game is the health of Leaky Black. The Tar Heel senior came down awkwardly after challenging for a rebound late in the first half. Black had a hyperextension of his right knee and went through warmups before the second half, but didn't feel like he could play. Needless to say, the Tar Heels need Black when Buddy Boeheim and Syracuse come to town on Monday night.

3. In Black's absence, Puff Johnson—who had already played solid minutes in the first half—got extended playing time. Johnson is not the same defender as Black, of course. But two things he does provide: willingness to compete for every rebound, and running hard in the transition game to try and put points on the board. Johnson's aggressive running gave him a second half dunk that forced a Pack timeout. And Hubert Davis has consistently said that Johnson is a better shooter than Carolina fans have seen so far. Johnson showed it on Saturday, hitting a pair of three-pointers--equaling his total three-point effort prior to Saturday all season--during a backbreaking second half run. Johnson finished with a career high 16 points.

4. Without Manny Bates, NC State has a limited post presence. Armando Bacot took advantage of it early and often, and already had a double-double by halftime. That gives him 23 double-figure rebound games this season, tying Brice Johnson for the most in a Carolina season. He also has 22 double-doubles, which puts him one behind Johnson for the Carolina single-season lead in that category. Bacot's final tally: 28 points and 18 rebounds, a mammoth performance.

5. Saturday really made you appreciate Bacot's improvement. He scored in almost every way possible, including bulling through a defender, running the court, and even tossing in a gorgeous turnaround jumper on the baseline. The hard work with Bacot, Sean May and the rest of the coaching staff is paying huge dividends this year.

6. Brady Manek continues to play savvy, productive basketball. He was instrumental in Carolina's fast start both by scoring and distributing the ball; he finished the first half as Carolina's leading scorer (14) and assister (two). Manek also hit his 300th career three-pointer, making him the only Tar Heel ever to reach that career mark. Marcus Paige leads the Carolina career three-point records with 299. Manek stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points, five rebounds and five assists.

7. Carolina has now won 35 of the last 40 against NC State and 52 of the last 64. The Tar Heels are 18-5 against State at PNC Arena and 22-5 at the venue overall. Read those numbers again. That's incredible success against a team that always considers it the biggest game of the year when it faces Carolina.

8. Caleb Love never came out of the game. Love has now played 107:13 straight minutes without coming back, dating back to the first half in Blacksburg. He scored 16 points against the Pack but took 11 shots to do it and hit just 1-for-7 from the three-point line to go with his four turnovers.

9. Some of those turnovers came against NC State's zone, which created occasional troubles for the Tar Heels in the second half. The Pack in general is an indifferent defensive team, so that creates some nervousness going into Monday's game against a much better zone squad in Syracuse. The 14 turnovers will be an area of concern for Hubert Davis.

10. The fun thing about an early Saturday win is it gives the Tar Heels the chance to sit back and watch the rest of the league beat up on itself. The rest of the formula is simple: win one more game, and Carolina locks up a double bye in the ACC Tournament.

11. In a very unique schedule that saw Carolina's ACC schedule frontloaded with Saturday home games, the Tar Heels played their second of three straight road ACC games that served as the opponent's Senior Day. Virginia Tech did it last weekend in Blacksburg, NC State did it on Saturday, and there is word next Saturday may be a game of some significance in Durham.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

Puff Johnson

Caleb Love

Brady Manek

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