Lucas: Nov. 28 Carolina Basketball Notebook

By Adam Lucas

After a third place finish at the Battle 4 Atlantis, Saturday was a travel day for the Tar Heels and Sunday was an off day.

That meant Monday's practice was…predictable. Any time there are at least two days off during the season, the return to the court is likely to be a little ragged. And Monday's session definitely was not among the best of the season.

Don't be concerned that the Tar Heels might be overly pleased with their gutty win over a ranked Arkansas team on Friday, a victory they earned without Cormac Ryan, who was nursing an ankle injury. Hubert Davis made sure on Monday that no one got too overconfident after a 2-1 week in Nassau.

"There are no banners up there for third place in the Battle 4 Atlantis," he told his team on Monday while gesturing up in the rafters during a high-energy session.

The Tar Heels will practice again Tuesday before Wednesday night's 7:15 p.m. tipoff (it's a white out, and fans are encouraged to wear white to the game) against tenth-ranked Tennessee, a team coached by familiar foe Rick Barnes. When the Vols arrive, they will be the first top-10 nonconference team to venture into the Smith Center since Ohio State in December of 2019. Carolina's last win over a top-10 nonconference team at the Smith Center was fourth-ranked Gonzaga in Dec. of 2018.

That's also a measure of just how much nonconference schedules have changed in the last five years. Marquee nonconference matchups are more often played elsewhere—next week's game against fourth-ranked UConn at Madison Square Garden, for example—rather than at campus sites. There are rapidly becoming two tiers of major college basketball: the teams that are invited to play in the made-for-TV nonconference showcase games/events, and the teams that aren't. Carolina, fortunately, is in the former category.

Notes: The education of a Carolina point guard continues. The Tar Heels were getting some work against a trapping full-court defense on Monday and Elliot Cadeau was a little too passive for Davis. "Don't wait for the double team," the head coach told the freshman. "That's why we recruited you. Get up the court and go." On the very next possession, Cadeau listened to the coaching, raced up court before the pressure arrived, and the play ended in him leaving a lob for Jae'Lyn Withers that resulted in an easy dunk…Another area of emphasis at Monday's practice: avoiding fouling a three-point shooter. "We gave Villanova nine points fouling three-pointer shooters," Davis told his team. "We cannot do that." The Tar Heels fouled a three-point shooter at least once in all three games in the Bahamas…

Carolina has won five of the last six against Tennessee, which dates back to a 2000 victory over the Vols in the NCAA Tournament. Recent history isn't as kind against Barnes. Since he left Clemson before the 1998-99 season, Barnes is 6-3 against the Tar Heels…If you're a long-time fan who still harbors some ill will about the rivalry with Barnes when he was at Clemson, it's worth listening to this 2016 Carolina Insider podcast interview with him, in which he was very forthcoming about most of those incidents—and his regrets about them…

Not that there was much question about this, but Davis confirmed it in the Bahamas. "Seth Trimble is our best individual one-on-one defender," he said after the Arkansas game…Tennessee ranks first in the nation in defensive efficiency according to Ken Pomeroy, but that aggressiveness also comes with a price: they're in the bottom quarter of the country in sending opponents to the free throw line. The Tar Heels will need to get some offense from the charity stripe, where they're shooting 75.2 percent as a team, in order to make Tennessee's defense pay for playing physically…Expect Hubert Davis to provide a small update on Ryan's status at Tuesday's regularly scheduled press conference, but that press conference will be held before Tuesday's practice, so it won't include any information about his level of productivity—or lack thereof—in Tuesday's session…In the first six games of the season, Carolina has already used eight different players in the starting lineup. In the first 30 games of last season—all the non-Senior Day games—the Tar Heels used seven different players in the starting lineup.

Players Mentioned

Elliot Cadeau

Cormac Ryan

Seth Trimble

Jae'Lyn Withers

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