Lucas: Campbell Rapid Reactions

By Adam Lucas

1. Carolina simply had too much for Campbell in every way, bulldozing its way to an 97-81 victory.

2. Big night for RJ Davis, who wasted no time in becoming Carolina's all-time leader in made three-point shots. Davis hit two three-point shots before the first media timeout to pass Marcus Paige atop Carolina's all-time leaderboard. Davis received a nice hand from the Smith Center crowd--including Paige, who of course is on the Tar Heel bench.

3. Davis looked perhaps the most like the last season version of Davis that we've seen all year. The play in the second half when he shook his defender and then side-stepped into his fifth three-pointer of the game was vintage Davis. The veteran finished with 23 points, including 5-for-10 from the three-point line.

4. Davis and Ian Jackson were the primary portion of Carolina's perimeter offense, but it didn't matter, because Carolina was very good from two-point range, including making 18 of its first 22 two-point shots. Jackson went 6-for-8 on twos and Jalen Washington also added 5-for-7. In the first half, the Heels were 4-17 from three and 12-14 from two. They finished just below 75 percent for the game from two-point range.

5. The Tar Heels played without Seth Trimble, who missed the game with an upper body injury. Jackson made his first career Tar Heel start in Trimble's absence.

6. Being a Division I coach comes with a lot of stress and headaches. So you have to get something positive from the good moments...like the sequence in the first half when Carolina ran a new halfcourt set they've been working on in practice that ended with a perfect Elliot Cadeau feed to Ven-Allen Lubin for an easy dunk. It doesn't happen every time--but when it does, it's a nice break (and another example of Carolina's two-point proficiency).

7. Campbell helped the Tar Heels with preparation for later in the season by throwing a couple different defensive looks at the Heels. Carolina got some work against some fullcourt pressure, and also a halfcourt trap.

8. Great Tar Heel crowd in the Smith Center for a Sunday night game at 8 p.m. against a non-marquee opponent. With students out of town, Carolina fans bought up almost every available ticket. This is annually the game when tons of families and kids can attend, and the kids were loud and noticeable (Crumbl is going to give away a lot of cookies after the promotion clicked for the third time this season and the Camels missed two straight second half free throws).

9. Jackson continues to be an emerging part of the Carolina offense. The freshman now has 118 points in his last seven games (16.9 points per game). If he shoots the three-point shot roughly as well as he did on Sunday (he made three for eight), he becomes very hard to guard, because when you close out on him he's going by you to the rim. Jackson had the most free throw attempts on the team (seven) because he aggressively attacks the basket. He is the first Carolina freshman to score 20+ in back to back games since Cole Anthony, and finished his night with a spectacular lob from Cadeau with three minutes left.

10. Cadeau quietly had a very good night. He had just two turnovers in the second half and finished with 12 points and a career-high 12 assists (and, again, was great from two-point range, as he hit six of nine).

11. The other Tar Heel who showed a glimmer on Sunday was Jalen Washington. The junior, who had perhaps the biggest play of the game in the huge win over UCLA with his offensive rebound and basket with 92 seconds left, contributed 10 points and five rebounds. After playing his way out of the starting lineup, Washington may be elbowing his way back in as league play approaches. Washington was part of Carolina's 37-25 overall rebounding advantage.

12. It wasn't all perfect: Hubert Davis is absolutely going to mention that his team allowed Campbell to shoot 60.7 percent in the second half. This could have been a mammoth runaway; instead, it doesn't look as dominant on the scoreboard. The Camels hit six of nine three-point shots in the final 20 minutes.

13. Sunday night's game marks the end of Carolina's non-conference schedule. The final 19 games of the regular season are against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents, beginning with Wednesday's New Year's Day game at Louisville. Given the 8-5 mark against non-league foes, the Tar Heels are likely looking for around 15 or 16 wins in ACC play to comfortably make the NCAA Tournament field and eliminate any chance of sweating on Selection Sunday.

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Elliot Cadeau

RJ Davis

Ian Jackson

Ven-Allen Lubin

Seth Trimble

Jalen Washington

Related Videos