Lucas: Miami Rapid Reactions

By Adam Lucas

1. Go ahead and get the engraving machine ready for the Player of the Year award. RJ Davis poured in 42 points and Carolina beat Miami, 75-71. Davis made seven three-point shots, seven two-point shots, and seven free throws. Did the Heels need every one of those points? Yes. We'll worry about that tomorrow.

2. Miami actually had what felt like a good defensive strategy against Davis--they put size on him, with Matthew Cleveland handling the responsibilities. But Davis was just too hot. He continually found a sliver of daylight and finished with 42 points on 14-for-22 shooting and 7-for-11 from three, plus 7-for-9 from the free throw line. It was one of the best offensive performances in, well, ever. He now owns the Smith Center record (erasing Tyler Hansbrough), is the first time a Tar Heel scored more than 40 since Shammond Williams had 42 in 1998 (in a double-overtime win), and honestly, was just electric to watch. The Smith Center crowd was chanting Davis' name with four minutes left while he was doing nothing other than playing defense.

3. More RJ numbers: the last time a Tar Heel scored more than him? You have to go back 54 years, to when Charlie Scott had 43 against Wake in 1970. Look, the end of the game wasn't pretty (just as it wasn't in Coral Gables), as Miami went on an 11-0 run. But you're going to remember Davis' game far longer than you remember some tough late possessions. How good was he? On both free throws he missed, he got the offensive rebound. By the way, he also finished third on the team in rebounding with six.

4. Davis was equally terrific in the first half, when he poured in 21 points on a nice mix of three-point shots (three of them), two-point shots (five of them) and two free throws. It was one of the best demonstrations this year of how hard he is to guard and how much his game has progressed.

5. As a break from the Davis show (worrying about the rest of the Tar Heels scoring just a combined 33 points is a worry for another day, as is the bad late free throw shooting on the way to going 12-for-21 from the line), special mention to Harrison Ingram. He had two big momentum-changing plays in the second half. The first came when he swiped a cross-court pass and turned it into a layup. The other was when he perfectly timed a Miami inbounds pass and stole it. That's the second time he's made a play like that on the inbounds this year.

6. What a weird first half. Miami went 4-for-19 from two-point range, but was hot enough from three (they made eight of 13) that they were able to stay within five points at the break. Carolina helped keep the game close by being too perimeter-heavy in the early going; 10 of the first 17 field goals they attempted were three-pointers.

7. Good energy from Jae'Lyn Withers in that first half. Withers played nine minutes in the first half and was +5, the second-highest figure on the team. His activity defensively and on the glass (three rebounds, one offensive) is exactly what the Tar Heels need him to provide off the bench. He also drew three fouls during that stretch, the highest figure of any Tar Heel, and blocked a shot. He may have also saved the game in the second half by rebounding a missed Seth Trimble free throw with 2.6 seconds left. No one in the building wanted to see what might have happened if Miami grabbed that board. Withers iced the game with a pair of free throws.

8. Monday night marked Hubert Davis' 100th game as the Carolina head coach. He is now 71-29 in those first 100, putting him in similar company to Bill Guthridge (75-25) and Roy Williams (77-23) in the most turbulent time in the history of college athletics.

9. Cormac Ryan didn't have the same three-point stroke he's had recently, when he had hit 14 of his last 27 three-point shots over the previous three games (he finished 1-for-9 from three). But after he went 1-for-6 from three during most of the first half, it was encouraging to see him take the ball to the rim late in the half, where he scored on a short jumper. Ryan is a great free throw shooter who is more than just a three-point shooter. He has the ability to drive and score, and even if he doesn't convert, could get fouled and get to the line. Coming into the game, 24 of his last 28 shots had been three-point attempts. Adding more two-point shots to the mix will make him a tougher player to guard. Ryan did it again in the second half, drawing a big third foul on Norchad Omier and sending him to the bench early in the period.

10. Miami brought a depleted team to Chapel Hill; the Hurricanes played without two guards in the game. Nigel Pack, who was terrific in the game in Coral Gables, remained out with an injury, and Wooga Poplar was also in street clothes. But the remaining Hurricanes combined to hit 14 three-point shots, with three different players making at least four.

11. Children from the Hargraves Community Center joined the Tar Heels coming out of the tunnel and on the court for the national anthem. For more on the connection between Carolina basketball and Hargraves, a Chapel Hill institution, read today's story. It's a great example of the way the Dean Smith influence still has an impact and is being carried on by Hubert Davis.

12. It's pretty simple: win the next two games, both at home, and Carolina has at least a share of the ACC regular season title. There have been challenging stretches this season with a bevy of road games, but this sequence at the end has a chance to be very beneficial for the Tar Heels.

13. There really needs to be a senior thesis or something on Jim Larranaga's use of timeouts. He called one 44 seconds into the second half after Carolina scored two baskets, then called another in a nine-point game with 9:28 remaining.

14. Shirt of the year in the Smith Center: the video board caught a fan with a shirt that read, "I was on Elliot Cadeau's middle school basketball team" with a team photo.

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Elliot Cadeau

RJ Davis

Harrison Ingram

Cormac Ryan

Seth Trimble

Jae'Lyn Withers

Related Videos