University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: Maggie Hobson
Lucas: On The Defensive
January 15, 2026 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Wednesday's defensive performance continued a troubling trend.
By Adam Lucas
PALO ALTO—The problem wasn't that Carolina didn't know.
The Tar Heels were well aware—as is the rest of college basketball at this point—about the abilities of Ebuka Okorie. Stanford's high-scoring freshman came into Wednesday night's game averaging 22.1 points per game. Just last week, he scored 31 points at Virginia Tech, the highest scoring tally in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season. In that Stanford win, he scored or assisted on 40 of the Cardinal's final 42 points.
He wasn't a secret. The Tar Heels charged freshman Isaiah Denis with emulating Okorie in practice this week. It was a plum job, because Denis essentially had license to do whatever he wanted offensively.
There were very few moments in practice the last two days that didn't include some variation on the coaching staff instructing the Heels to know where Okorie was at every moment.
The freshman then proceeded to go out and score 36 points in Wednesday's 95-90 win over the Tar Heels. He shot 12-for-20 from the field. He handed out nine assists. Just a couple weeks ago, Stanford's entire team scored 40 points against Notre Dame in a full game. Okorie very nearly did that solely by himself against the Heels.
"Okorie is an amazing player," Hubert Davis said after the game on the Tar Heel Sports Network. "We tried different things, we tried different defenders, we tried to trap him, but he's also a willing passer and had nine assists. When he found his open teammates, they stepped up and hit a season high 16 3's."
That part was the surprise. Nowhere on the scouting report did it suggest Ryan Agarwal might score a career-high 20 points, or Jeremy Dent-Smith might score a Division I career-high 20 points. Or that both would do it on the same night, while Okorie was also pumping in a career high.
Put those three players together and they were a remarkable 14-for-21 from three.
It's hard to shoot those numbers on Pop-a-Shot.
Stanford will (deservedly) get most of their attention for a scorching second half when they shot 57 percent from the field and 67 percent from three. But the trend actually began midway through the first half.
With eight minutes left in the first half, Carolina had built a 31-20 lead largely by pounding the ball into Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar, who would eventually finish with 26 points apiece.
The Cardinal had 15 possessions in the remainder of the first half. The Carolina defense recorded a grand total of two stops on those 15 possessions. Twelve times, Stanford scored points. One time, they went to the free throw line and missed both free throws. And just twice, they failed to score or get to the line.
That's a very efficient 15 possessions of offense. And it took what had been an 11-point UNC lead down to just two at halftime, which left Stanford in perfect striking distance for their blistering second half.
The worst part was that the defensive performance was not an aberration. Over the last six halves of basketball, these are the opposing team shooting performances by half:
57.1.
57.1.
53.3.
44.1.
71.4.
50.
"Since Christmas break, we've talked about how we've struggled on that side of the floor," Davis said. "Stanford shot 57 percent from the field for the game. It's very difficult to beat teams and to beat teams on the road when allowing them to shoot such a high percentage."
We won't go through all the defensive transgressions here. Just suffice it to say that this century, only once has Carolina allowed at least two ACC opponents to break 95 points in regulation. The offender? The 2002 team, which went 4-12 in the conference.
This year's team has now equaled that dubious mark—posted by the worst UNC team this century—in just four league contests. What's even more startling is that this year's team was among the best teams in the country in field goal percentage defense for most of the nonconference portion of the schedule. The Heels entered the SMU game, which was just 12 days ago, third in the country in field goal percentage defense. Since then, well...you know.
They have the potential of being a good defensive team and at times this season have looked like one.
The challenge now is to find that version of the Tar Heels again. It's in there somewhere. But right now, it's very well-hidden.
PALO ALTO—The problem wasn't that Carolina didn't know.
The Tar Heels were well aware—as is the rest of college basketball at this point—about the abilities of Ebuka Okorie. Stanford's high-scoring freshman came into Wednesday night's game averaging 22.1 points per game. Just last week, he scored 31 points at Virginia Tech, the highest scoring tally in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season. In that Stanford win, he scored or assisted on 40 of the Cardinal's final 42 points.
He wasn't a secret. The Tar Heels charged freshman Isaiah Denis with emulating Okorie in practice this week. It was a plum job, because Denis essentially had license to do whatever he wanted offensively.
There were very few moments in practice the last two days that didn't include some variation on the coaching staff instructing the Heels to know where Okorie was at every moment.
The freshman then proceeded to go out and score 36 points in Wednesday's 95-90 win over the Tar Heels. He shot 12-for-20 from the field. He handed out nine assists. Just a couple weeks ago, Stanford's entire team scored 40 points against Notre Dame in a full game. Okorie very nearly did that solely by himself against the Heels.
"Okorie is an amazing player," Hubert Davis said after the game on the Tar Heel Sports Network. "We tried different things, we tried different defenders, we tried to trap him, but he's also a willing passer and had nine assists. When he found his open teammates, they stepped up and hit a season high 16 3's."
That part was the surprise. Nowhere on the scouting report did it suggest Ryan Agarwal might score a career-high 20 points, or Jeremy Dent-Smith might score a Division I career-high 20 points. Or that both would do it on the same night, while Okorie was also pumping in a career high.
Put those three players together and they were a remarkable 14-for-21 from three.
It's hard to shoot those numbers on Pop-a-Shot.
Stanford will (deservedly) get most of their attention for a scorching second half when they shot 57 percent from the field and 67 percent from three. But the trend actually began midway through the first half.
With eight minutes left in the first half, Carolina had built a 31-20 lead largely by pounding the ball into Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar, who would eventually finish with 26 points apiece.
The Cardinal had 15 possessions in the remainder of the first half. The Carolina defense recorded a grand total of two stops on those 15 possessions. Twelve times, Stanford scored points. One time, they went to the free throw line and missed both free throws. And just twice, they failed to score or get to the line.
That's a very efficient 15 possessions of offense. And it took what had been an 11-point UNC lead down to just two at halftime, which left Stanford in perfect striking distance for their blistering second half.
The worst part was that the defensive performance was not an aberration. Over the last six halves of basketball, these are the opposing team shooting performances by half:
57.1.
57.1.
53.3.
44.1.
71.4.
50.
"Since Christmas break, we've talked about how we've struggled on that side of the floor," Davis said. "Stanford shot 57 percent from the field for the game. It's very difficult to beat teams and to beat teams on the road when allowing them to shoot such a high percentage."
We won't go through all the defensive transgressions here. Just suffice it to say that this century, only once has Carolina allowed at least two ACC opponents to break 95 points in regulation. The offender? The 2002 team, which went 4-12 in the conference.
This year's team has now equaled that dubious mark—posted by the worst UNC team this century—in just four league contests. What's even more startling is that this year's team was among the best teams in the country in field goal percentage defense for most of the nonconference portion of the schedule. The Heels entered the SMU game, which was just 12 days ago, third in the country in field goal percentage defense. Since then, well...you know.
They have the potential of being a good defensive team and at times this season have looked like one.
The challenge now is to find that version of the Tar Heels again. It's in there somewhere. But right now, it's very well-hidden.
Players Mentioned
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