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University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: Maggie Hobson
Lucas: Virginia Rapid Reactions
March 9, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Quick takeaways from the third meeting with the Cavaliers.
By Adam Lucas
1. Carolina just didn't do enough in any phase of the game to beat Virginia, and lost 68-59 in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals. In many ways, that game was exactly what Carolina was all season and--with what's next still uncertain--a fitting punctuation mark to the year.
2. Virginia was simply too tough on--this will surprise you--offense in the second half for Carolina. The Cavaliers made nine of their first 12 shots, with almost all of them coming directly around the rim (none of those first dozen attempts were three-pointers). That enabled them to stretch their lead while Carolina hoisted seven of its nine attempts from three-point range. The Cavaliers were up above 70 percent from the field for the majority of the second half and eventually "cooled off" to finish at 58.3 percent for the half.Â
3. Armando Bacot, of course, was playing with an ankle injury suffered on Wednesday night. The Tar Heel big man was very clearly limited and was ineffective on both offense and defense. He finished with four points and three rebounds and played just five minutes in the second half and 21 in the game. Plus-minus numbers aren't always indicative of game performance, but Bacot was -16.
4. Bacot's absence basically eliminated Carolina's ability to score around the rim. The Tar Heels turned into a jumpshooting team and managed just 18 points in the paint while on the way to shooting 35.8 percent from the field and 29.6 percent from three. Credit to Leaky Black (9) and Pete Nance (8) for picking up some of the rebounding slack with Bacot out, but Carolina wasn't able to put the ball in the basket consistently enough. All of that being said, don't blame this loss on an injury. Virginia's (also playing without a starter)Â available players simply outplayed Carolina's available players.
5. Carolina was too generous with turnovers in the first half, which helped the Virginia offense immensely. The Tar Heels committed six miscues, and the Hoos picked up nine points (of the 24 they scored in the half) off of them. The Heels, meanwhile, had zero points off Virginia's two turnovers. For the game, Virginia outscored Carolina 14-2 on points off turnovers.
6. Only the presence of RJ Davis kept Carolina close at halftime. Davis was 5-for-6 from the field and 2-for-3 from three for his 12 first half points. The entire rest of the team had 12 points on 4-for-17 shooting (2-for-7 from three). How miraculous was Davis' effort? The Tar Heels got virtually nothing from Caleb Love (zero points on 0-for-5) or Armando Bacot (two points on 1-for-3 and two rebounds), but still trailed by only one at the break. Virginia was tougher on Davis in the first half, and he went a 14-minute stretch without making a field goal while on his way to finishing with 24 points. In the game, Davis made eight of Carolina's 19 field goals and was largely responsible for the best offense on a day when the Heels just didn't get many good looks.
7. Virginia was without Ben Vander Plas, who suffered a season-ending injury this week. Vander Plas had started the last 14 games; in his place, the Cavaliers elected to go big and start Francisco Caffaro. They also got good play from Kadin Shedrick. Remember that Dean Smith always said a team was very dangerous in the one game after they lost a regular contributor to injury because everyone else would raise their level.
8. Good coaching in the closing seconds of the first half. The Tar Heels had fouls to give, so they took Caleb Love and RJ Davis out of the game to avoid them picking up needless fouls. Then they gave a foul to thwart the set Virginia had called, and played good defense to prevent a score before the half. In a low possession game, that one felt important.Â
9. As thoughts begin to turn to next year, D'Marco Dunn showed something in the ACC Tournament. Along with Davis, he was one of the very few Tar Heels who was willing to stick his nose in defensively and also attack the tough Cavalier defense.Â
10. In a half when Carolina was struggling to score, the Tar Heels left too many points at the free throw line in the second half. The Heels were 11-for-16 from the stripe in the final 20 minutes. They were 13-for-18 for the game.
11. What now? No one knows. The bracketologists will tell you Carolina hasn't done enough to make the field as an at-large team. Where will they play their next basketball? We'll find out in the next few days.
1. Carolina just didn't do enough in any phase of the game to beat Virginia, and lost 68-59 in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals. In many ways, that game was exactly what Carolina was all season and--with what's next still uncertain--a fitting punctuation mark to the year.
2. Virginia was simply too tough on--this will surprise you--offense in the second half for Carolina. The Cavaliers made nine of their first 12 shots, with almost all of them coming directly around the rim (none of those first dozen attempts were three-pointers). That enabled them to stretch their lead while Carolina hoisted seven of its nine attempts from three-point range. The Cavaliers were up above 70 percent from the field for the majority of the second half and eventually "cooled off" to finish at 58.3 percent for the half.Â
3. Armando Bacot, of course, was playing with an ankle injury suffered on Wednesday night. The Tar Heel big man was very clearly limited and was ineffective on both offense and defense. He finished with four points and three rebounds and played just five minutes in the second half and 21 in the game. Plus-minus numbers aren't always indicative of game performance, but Bacot was -16.
4. Bacot's absence basically eliminated Carolina's ability to score around the rim. The Tar Heels turned into a jumpshooting team and managed just 18 points in the paint while on the way to shooting 35.8 percent from the field and 29.6 percent from three. Credit to Leaky Black (9) and Pete Nance (8) for picking up some of the rebounding slack with Bacot out, but Carolina wasn't able to put the ball in the basket consistently enough. All of that being said, don't blame this loss on an injury. Virginia's (also playing without a starter)Â available players simply outplayed Carolina's available players.
5. Carolina was too generous with turnovers in the first half, which helped the Virginia offense immensely. The Tar Heels committed six miscues, and the Hoos picked up nine points (of the 24 they scored in the half) off of them. The Heels, meanwhile, had zero points off Virginia's two turnovers. For the game, Virginia outscored Carolina 14-2 on points off turnovers.
6. Only the presence of RJ Davis kept Carolina close at halftime. Davis was 5-for-6 from the field and 2-for-3 from three for his 12 first half points. The entire rest of the team had 12 points on 4-for-17 shooting (2-for-7 from three). How miraculous was Davis' effort? The Tar Heels got virtually nothing from Caleb Love (zero points on 0-for-5) or Armando Bacot (two points on 1-for-3 and two rebounds), but still trailed by only one at the break. Virginia was tougher on Davis in the first half, and he went a 14-minute stretch without making a field goal while on his way to finishing with 24 points. In the game, Davis made eight of Carolina's 19 field goals and was largely responsible for the best offense on a day when the Heels just didn't get many good looks.
7. Virginia was without Ben Vander Plas, who suffered a season-ending injury this week. Vander Plas had started the last 14 games; in his place, the Cavaliers elected to go big and start Francisco Caffaro. They also got good play from Kadin Shedrick. Remember that Dean Smith always said a team was very dangerous in the one game after they lost a regular contributor to injury because everyone else would raise their level.
8. Good coaching in the closing seconds of the first half. The Tar Heels had fouls to give, so they took Caleb Love and RJ Davis out of the game to avoid them picking up needless fouls. Then they gave a foul to thwart the set Virginia had called, and played good defense to prevent a score before the half. In a low possession game, that one felt important.Â
9. As thoughts begin to turn to next year, D'Marco Dunn showed something in the ACC Tournament. Along with Davis, he was one of the very few Tar Heels who was willing to stick his nose in defensively and also attack the tough Cavalier defense.Â
10. In a half when Carolina was struggling to score, the Tar Heels left too many points at the free throw line in the second half. The Heels were 11-for-16 from the stripe in the final 20 minutes. They were 13-for-18 for the game.
11. What now? No one knows. The bracketologists will tell you Carolina hasn't done enough to make the field as an at-large team. Where will they play their next basketball? We'll find out in the next few days.
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