Lucas: Pivot

By Adam Lucas

LAHAINA—Now it's time to pivot.

That's exactly what Hubert Davis plans to do after Wednesday's disappointing 94-91 overtime loss to Michigan State.

"Now we have a week," Davis said on the Tar Heel Sports Network after the game, "to really evaluate some things we need to tweak or change or pivot to get better at before we play next week."

The loss highlighted several areas where the coaches are likely to focus. They can't change variables like an awful technical foul call (the explanation you received on television was not accurate—the Carolina head coach wasn't angry with the officials, and if the referee who made the call hadn't been 25 feet away from the benches, he would've been aware of the exchange that prompted the incensed response from Davis) that completely affected the complexion of the game.

But they can look into the following areas that need to be addressed following a 1-2 performance in Maui:

Carolina must start better. The Tar Heels trailed by double figures in the first half of all three games here. The Heels have trailed by double figures in four of the seven games they've played so far this year.

They are a great second half team, outscoring opponents by a combined 92 points in the second half. But they are mystifying in the first half, when they are a combined -22 this season. Again on Wednesday, during the first half the Tar Heels committed head-scratching turnovers, were whistled for offensive fouls, and managed just three fast break points. The schedule is too competitive to play just half a game; the opponents are simply too good.

Drake Powell has arrived. There are still times that the freshman looks like, well,  a freshman. But he was overall Carolina's best player for these three games, and his +16 in the event was a team high. A bigger role for him, which feels like a certainty, will have an impact on several of these issues.

On a closely related note, the Tar Heels need more out of the power forward and center positions. Through the first part of the season, those spots have been manned by Jae'Lyn Withers and Jalen Washington. Cade Tyson played just three minutes against the Spartans and doesn't look comfortable yet. This isn't an issue with just one solution. It's entirely possible that the answer is a mix of several players.

Convert more plays around the basket. Michigan State won partially because they successfully turned so many of their drives to the rim into points. They shot a troubling 54.1 percent for the game, and while they shot the three-pointer better than they have for most of the season, a big portion of that shooting percentage was their 29-for-45 (64.4 percent) success rate from two-point range.

The Tar Heels, meanwhile, hit 21-for-41 (51.2 percent) on two-point shots. The most noticeable was the missed layup with 19 seconds left in regulation, but that was far from being the only offender. Almost everyone who played will spend Wednesday night thinking about a shot they could have finished more accurately.

And the obvious corollary: Carolina must defend better. Michigan State elected to turn high ball screens into dribble penetration for most of the game, and the Tar Heels simply couldn't stop it. Davis identified this as perhaps the key issue from the game. During one key second half stretch, nine of the 12 shots the Spartans attempted were layups or dunks. Without a shot-blocker under the basket to deter drives, the Tar Heels must be stout against the dribble, and going back to the early days of practice this fall, that hasn't been the case.

"In order for this team to be the best it can be, we have to be good defensively and rebounding the basketball," he said. "Tonight we just weren't. We couldn't keep them out of the paint and couldn't guard one-on-one. It's not about size physically, it's about the size of your heart. We have to find a way to get tougher and get those stops. Michigan State got 50 points in the paint and it was all dribble-drive. They struggle to shoot from three, so they want to get into the paint and we just couldn't stop them."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Drake Powell

Cade Tyson

Jalen Washington

Jae'Lyn Withers

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