If North Carolina makes waves going into March, most hoop heads will point back to the Tennessee game when the Vols completely embarrassed the Heels.
For those who have forgotten, North Carolina was whitewashed 89-72 in the neutral site loss. The Heels looked uninterested in playing defense and, by the end of the game, they looked uninterested in anything but getting back to Chapel Hill.
To date, North Carolina hasn’t loss sense. The four straight wins including a blowout win over Michigan and a road conference win at Georgia Tech.
Though a lot has changed since the Tennessee loss, there are still some sticking points especially on defense.
In the win against the Yellow Jackets, the game turned after halftime when North Carolina decided they wanted to defend. The problem is that defense can’t be a 20 minute exercise. In the first half of that game, the Heels were way too comfortable with playing pick-up game defense. That attitude allowed Georgia Tech to hit 5 of 8 three-pointers in the first half compared to 1 for 8 in the second half.
Against Elon the issue was different. The Heels inability to guard the screen and roll properly gave Elon 18 paint points. This could be a product of going away from the two-big lineups Roy Williams used. Not only are teams getting in the lane with ease but there’s no longer the fear one, sometimes two bigs coming over to contest.
Offensively, North Carolina’s progression can be seen through Caleb Love. No longer are we seeing Love make copious amounts of low-IQ plays during the game. He’s learned when to speed up and when to slow down and he’s cut down on trying to attack multiple guys off the dribble.
RJ Davis sharing the ball handling duties has also helped Love. Head coach Hubert Davis has bought into the two-point-guard/multiple-primary-ball-handler lineup that we’re seeing on every level of basketball. Without the stress of being the full-time primary ball handler his shooting percentage has increased from 31% to 43%. His three point shooting has also improved from 27% to 32%. This can be attributed to making better decisions more than anything else.
Transfers, Brady Manek and Dawson Garcia have worked out better for Davis than some of the portal guys worked out for Williams.
Manek stretches out to the three-point line 36% while Garcia shoots 50% in 20 three point attempts. That works well for what Davis wants to do.
The question will be if the Heels can shoot a high enough percentage from three to make up for not dominating the boards the way they’ve done in past seasons. Also, after four straight games of single digit free throw attempts, the Heels attempted season-high 35 against Elon.
North Carolina has three more out of conference games, including a neutral site contest against UCLA. The Heels will need to continuing on the defensive end if they want to make a run in March.
