Lucas: Carolina Tough

By Adam Lucas

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Harrison Ingram said it in the Bahamas, what seems like years ago, and it was true then.

And Harrison Ingram said it Friday night in Washington, D.C., and it was true then, too.

What he said four months ago in Nassau after the Tar Heels beat Arkansas: "We have some big boys. We can bully, too."

What he said Friday night on the Tar Heel Sports Network after the Tar Heels beat Pittsburgh: "We're not going to beat ourselves. It's going to be hard to beat us. Teams try to punk us, but we're not those pretty boys. We're rugged. We love the talk and the nasty game. When it gets physical, that's the game we'll play."

That's exactly the game they needed to beat the Panthers, 72-65, to advance to the program's first ACC Tournament championship game since 2018. It's ludicrous that Pitt isn't considered an NCAA Tournament team. They are not just talented but, as Hubert Davis said, have NBA players in multiple spots on the depth chart.

And they played an NBA style game in the semifinals, trying to reduce the second half to a one-on-one battle and take advantage of bad matchups to extend what had been a two-point Pitt halftime lead. They were so one-on-one oriented that they had just five assists over the final 28 minutes of play.

Here's the problem with that strategy against Carolina: the Heels are versatile enough to make it very difficult to have bad matchups. Switching every screen, Hubert Davis was willing to let the very talented Carlton Carrington and Jaland Lowe try to make tough shots over outstretched hands.

Sometimes, they made them. Carrington finished with 24 points and Lowe had 17, and they scored 19 of their team's 30 points in the second half.

More often, though, they didn't. That duo took 17 shots to make seven in that final half. Pitt as a team shot 33.3 percent in that half. Defended largely by third-team All-ACC selection Harrison Ingram, first-team All-ACC selection Blake Hinson went 2-for-12 in the game and eventually became so frustrated that early in the second half he jacked up a 27-foot three-pointer (it missed).

But that type of defensive performance shouldn't necessarily be a surprise. Listen to these credentials:

It was the 35^th time in 66 halves this season that Carolina's opponent shot under 40 percent.

Based on kenpom.com stats, the Tar Heels entered the game number-one in the ACC in defensive efficiency in league games. Not number-one other than exalted defensive juggernaut Virginia. Number-one in the league…counting Virginia.

Carolina has two of the top four rebounders in the league in Armando Bacot and Ingram. In all games, Bacot leads the league. In conference games only, Ingram leads the league.
Along with ACC Player of the Year RJ Davis, who poured in 25 points against Pitt, including a clutch three-pointer, those are the headliners. But as Pittsburgh discovered on Friday night, you don't win in March with just the headliners.

Carolina's top reserve, Seth Trimble, played 24 minutes and led the team in assists with four while harassing Carrington defensively. The second reserve, Jae'Lyn Withers, played ten minutes and grabbed two offensive rebounds in that span, second on the team only to Bacot's five. Sometimes toughness isn't just playing physically or barking at an official or making a mean face. A certain type of toughness—and on Friday, a winning type of toughness—is having a limited role but knowing exactly what to do within that role to help your team win.

"We always talk about making impact plays," Hubert Davis said. "There's a number of ways you can do that to give our team a chance to win. I can go down everyone who played who made an impact for us to win tonight."

So Carolina will play for the conference tournament championship on Saturday night and has positioned itself for a very good NCAA Tournament seed. On Friday, they beat a team that probably had to win in order to sustain NCAA postseason chances. On Saturday, they will have to do the same thing again.

But don't make the mistake of thinking Carolina, which already holds the league's regular season title, will have trouble finding something to play for on Saturday. For most of the season, from Ingram's interview back in November through his interview in the nation's capital, they've very often been the same team. Now they'll get another chance to make people notice.

"Oh, we have something to prove," Ingram said. "We always have a chip on our shoulder. We've been doubted. No matter what we've done, no one chooses us or thinks we're good."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

RJ Davis

Harrison Ingram

Seth Trimble

Jae'Lyn Withers

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