Quick Hitters – Chaminade (Maui Invitational Quarterfinal)

Joel Berry takes a jump shot in Monday night’s game against Chaminade in the Quarterfinal of the Maui Invitational. Photo Credit: J.D. Lyon, Jr.

Quick Hitters from Monday night’s 104-61 win over Chaminade in the Maui Invitational.

1. My favorite part of tonight’s game is that Coach Robinson, who couldn’t travel with the team, was live tweeting throughout the game. It was an interesting glimpse inside the mind of a coach.
2. Just to put any doubts to rest about a scoring drought like last game against Hawaii, Joel Berry hit a three-pointer just :53 into the game. His final line was eight points, four assists, four steals, four rebounds, against only one turnover
3. The Tar Heels looked uninterested for the majority of the first half. Admittedly, it must be hard to get up for a game against a D2 school, but that’s no excuse to come out flat. As the game wore on, the Heels got more locked in and established their will.
4. UNC’s main three big men (Hicks/Meeks/Bradley) didn’t miss a shot until 2:35 remaining in the first half. Prior to that point, the three players were a combined 12-12 for 27 points. By the end of the night, the Big Three were 20-26 for 56 points. Keep in mind, Chaminade as a team only had five points more (61) in the entire game.
5. Another double-digit point effort from Tony Bradley (14). He is quickly establishing a very important role as the third option in the frontcourt. It will be fun to watch his progression throughout this year.
6. Kenny Williams continues to be the spark plug that this team needs, filling the void that Theo Pinson’s injury created. It will be fun to see the two of them on the court together when Pinson returns.
7. Speaking of spark plugs, Stilman White gave some nice minutes and scored a career high five points. He came into the game to give some extra minutes of rest for the regulars thinking of the three-games-in-three-days tournament as well as to bring some fundamentals to a team that looked sloppy.
8. We found out that Brandon Robinson is tough. He took an elbow in the first half and came back into the game and had an impact in the second half. Always nice to see freshmen respond to adversity in this way.

Quick Hitters – UNC @ Hawaii (11/18/16)

Quick Hitters from Friday night / Saturday morning’s 83-68 victory over Hawaii, moving the Tar Heels to 4-0 on the season.

1. I’m too old for games to start this late. That said, I made it all the way through!
2. If my eyes saw correctly, Theo Pinson wasn’t wearing any kind of boot. He looked to be wearing tennis shoes. Luke Maye, on the other hand, had on a walking boot.
3. Encouraging to see this veteran team play two true road games in their first four of the season.
4. Despite the victory, the Heels looked rather lackadaisical for the majority of this game. Chalk it up to the long travel, adjusting to playing a game at 1:00am EST, not getting much time in Hawaii’s gym before the game, looking ahead to the Maui Invitational, or whatever else you want, but this performance was most certainly not the same team we saw in the first three games of the season.
5. At the first media timeout, Kennedy Meeks was beating Hawaii 6-4 and already had four rebounds, three of which were offensive.
6. UNC held Hawaii to just 7 offensive rebounds, after giving up double digits in this stat category in every other game (30, 17, 15, 12), including the exhibition.
7. Joel Berry had zero points in the first half. Didn’t end up scoring till there was just 5:10 left in the game. Also, he uncharacteristically had four turnovers.
8. Thankfully, Nate Britt really stepped up his production, scoring 13 on 5-9 shooting (including 3-5 from deep), three assists, one turnover, and two steals.
9. Freshman Tony Bradley continues his streak of scoring in double digits every game thus far of his career. He added 13 rebounds in this game to notch the first of what will probably be many double-doubles during his time in Chapel Hill.

Quick Hitters – UNC vs. Long Beach State (11/15/16)

Isaiah Hicks (#4) takes a baseline jumper during UNC’s 93-67 victory over Long Beach State on 11/15/16. Photo Credit: Jeffrey A Camarati

Quick Hitters from Tuesday night’s 93-67 over Long Beach State in the Dean Dome.

1. With the win, Coach Williams moves into a tie with the legendary coach Lefty Driesell for 9^th (786) all-time in Division 1 wins.
2. This was the second straight dominant win against a team predicted to win their conference.
3. Long Beach State didn’t score until the 12:21 mark of the 1^st This is in large part due to the fact that…
4. The Carolina defense is already in mid-season form. Moving feet. Hustling. Activity. Diving after balls. They’re playing a brand of defense that last year’s squad took a long time to develop. This is the type of playing that will keep you in games even when the shots aren’t falling.
5. This Carolina team is unselfish. It shows in the aforementioned defense, but also in assists. Tonight, there were 20 assists on 32 made baskets.
6. Joel Berry is more than living up to his Preseason All-ACC First Team Nomination. He looks like one of the best players in the country.
7. For comparison’s sake, I’ll say another word about Joel Berry. I said it several times last year and I’ll say it again: the progression of Joel Berry reminds me a lot of Ty Lawson. The improvement on the outside shot. The pace with which he pushes the ball. The comprehension of how to run Coach Williams’ offense. The understanding of when to use his strength and speed to penetrate and score. The difference is the drive and determination – Berry has a fire in his eyes that I never saw from Lawson.
8. Good to see UNC playing with intensity for 40 minutes no matter the opponent or score.
9. Freshman Tony Bradley has reached double figure scoring in all three games to begin his Tar Heel career.
10. A welcome sight: the Heels have scored 90+ points in all three games this season. It sounds like a broken record, but this scoring output starts with the defense opening things up for the offense.

Quick Hitters – UNC vs. UT-C (11/13/16)

Photo Cred: Jeffrey A. Camarati

Quick Hitters from Sunday afternoon’s 97-57 win over Tennessee-Chattanooga. It’s always good to get a win against a tough mid-major and UT-C is favored to win the Southern Conference.

• It was a sloppy first six-seven minutes of the game for the Heels, who finished with 15 turnovers on the day. But after that point, the team, led again by Joel Berry’s example, locked in on defense and then began to overwhelm the Mocs in the paint.
• Isaiah Hicks once again doing a good job with active feet, not reaching in, and therefore staying out of foul trouble. His first foul came with 7:49 left in the first half. He once again finished with three fouls, so that will need to be cleaned up, but Isaiah played 27 minutes in this game.
• Could it be that after several years of “soft” Carolina teams, the 2016-17 team will be hard-nosed? A trait this year’s team seems to espouse more than last year’s is a scrappy determination to get after the ball. There were so many Tar Heels diving on the floor after loose balls that even Psycho T would have been proud. Along with this will hopefully come the killer instinct to put teams away, as the Heels did on Sunday.

Kenny Williams helped set the hard-nosed tone for the Tar Heels against UT-C. Photo Cred: Jeffrey A. Camarati

• Who’s going to fill the void left by Theo Pinson? Kenny Williams is certainly making his case with hustle play after hustle play. He was everywhere in this game. Williams also hit his first three of the season; much earlier than his first three of his freshman year. During the post-game press conference, while looking at the stats, Coach Williams said of Kenny Williams, “Four for seven, six rebounds, 11 points, five assists, one turnover, three steals – that’s a Danny Green kind of stat sheet right there.” That’s extremely high praise for the sophomore.Just before halftime, we got a taste of the non-Theo Pinson small ball line-up: Nate Britt, Joel Berry, Kenny Williams, Justin Jackson, and Kennedy Meeks (with Isaiah Hicks subbing in for Meeks just before the half).
• Luke Maye checked out with 12:16 left in the second half with a noticeable limp. Hope he’s okay.
• After barely missing a double-double against Tulane (nine points, 15 rebounds), Kennedy Meeks had already achieved a double-double midway through the second half of this game and ended with 14 points and 12 rebounds. More importantly, Meeks became the 73^rd Tar Heel to score 1000 points in his career.
• There were 26 assists on 34 made field goals (76.5%). Friday night the total was similar: 23 assists on 34 made field goals (67.6%). This is a good sign of early team dynamics.
• It’s just two games into the season, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m going to really like this team.

Quick Hitters – UNC @ Tulane (11/11/16)

 

Kennedy Meeks (#3) and the Tar Heels opened the 2016-17 season with a 95-75 victory over Tulane in New Orleans. Photo Credit: J.D. Lyon Jr.

 

1. It took me until two weeks ago to finally re-watch the National Championship game. I was proud of myself – I even watched the final 4.7 seconds. What a wild ride and fun season 2015-16 was. That said, I’m really glad a new season is underway so I can put some new images of Tar Heel basketball in my head.
2. When you lose players the caliber of Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson, other guys have to step up. It was an encouraging sign that both Joel Berry and Justin Jackson recorded career highs in scoring (23 and 27 respectively), while Kennedy Meeks had a career high in rebounds (15).
3. A big part of the reason Jackson had such a big night is because he shot 4-5 from three point range. He clearly put the time in during the off-season.
4. As a team, the Heels shot 9-20 from deep (45%). Although it’s only the first game of the season, this is an encouraging sign.
5. One of the main storylines this season is Isaiah Hicks’ ability to stay out of foul trouble and on the court. In the first half, he had no fouls and even took a charge. Hicks did, however, have three fouls in the second half. He played 25 minutes which is good news.
6. After committing a turnover at the 9:00 mark of the first half (the ball inadvertently went off his foot), Joel Berry had a dominant stretch that you hope to see out of your leader: He had an assist on the next offensive possession, then a steal, then another assist, then a 3-pointer, then hit 1-2 at the free throw line. In that stretch of 4 offensive possessions, he had 2 assists, a steal, and 4 points. Prior to this stretch, Tulane had cut the Carolina lead to one. Berry’s stat line for the whole game: 23 pts on 6-11 shooting, 7-9 FT (he missed two?), 6 reb, 4 ast, 2 steals, only 1 TO.
7. Freshman Tony Bradley (surprise, surprise, another athletic big for the Heels!) had a nice run of his own early in the second half, scoring on three straight possessions. He established good post position and scored off an entry pass from Justin Jackson, had a nice little running hook shot in the lane, then scored on a put-back off a Justin Jackson miss.
8. The most glaring area of deficiency after the exhibition game and first regular season game: Allowing offensive rebounds to the opposing team. UNC-Pembroke had 30 and Tulane had 18.
9. Kennedy Meeks struggled shooting the ball (4-13 shooting), but clearly looks more athletic and ready to run than he ever has. He dunked a ball mid-way through the second half that he previously would have laid up. The aforementioned 15 rebounds were much needed with the void left by Brice Johnson.
10. Tony Bradley was the most consistent of the freshmen, but Seventh Woods and Brandon Robinson both had some nice moments. Both players will get minutes and valuable experience while the Heels wait for Theo Pinson to return from injury.

Quick Hitters (Syracuse – Round 2)

A feature I will do on the blog after every game is what I’m currently calling “Quick Hitters”; which will typically be 10 quick takeaways from the game posted within a couple hours of the end of the game. I would love to hear your thoughts from the games as well, so please share them in the comments section!

1. This game felt very similar to the Duke game just shy of two weeks ago. A game in the Dean Dome. A game in which Carolina built a seemingly-comfortable second half lead. Then squandered it while simultaneously forgetting that Brice Johnson is a candidate for National Player of the Year. The difference? The Tar Heels were able to do just enough to pull away in this one.
2. With the win, the Heels clinch a top-3 seed in the ACC tournament. Why does that matter? Because the top 4 seeds each get a double bye. With the win, the Heels also continue to control their own destiny. A win Saturday at Duke secures at least a share of the regular season conference championship and top seed in the ACC Tournament. If Miami also wins out, the teams would have the same conference record with Carolina winning the tiebreaker and top seed because of the head to head win. victory. demoralization.
3. Senior Day. Every year, I get so nervous at the beginning of the Senior Day game when several atypical starters are in the line-up – often including walk-ons. I always wonder what in the world Roy is thinking. But they always play hard and often exit the game with a lead, as was the case tonight. Of course, it helped that 2 of the seniors on the court were Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson. I thankful for the tradition and the memories it provides for some young men to talk about the time they started for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels.
4. Isaiah Hicks needs to be in the starting line-up. If you caught the halftime studio broadcast, you saw Jay Williams trying to start a campaign to get Isaiah Hicks in the starting line-up. I’ve been hesitant to admit, but there is a different level of comfortability between Johnson and Hicks. Their games and skill sets are more complementary. As much as it pains me to agree with a Blue Devil, I’m on board with JWill. Why should this line-up change happen? Simple: because….
5. Kennedy Meeks is (currently and unfortunately) just not explosive or athletic enough. Perhaps his knee is still bothering him? I don’t know that I can remember another Carolina frontcourt player getting blocked or beaten to out-of-range rebounds to the extent that Meeks has this year. I hate to see it, because I love Kennedy and his easy smile. Hopefully, 1 more off-season of conditioning will get him to the level he needs to be at to really dominate.
6. Marcus is not shooting well. Joel is shooting better. Marcus appears to be more comfortable with the ball in his hand. Marcus sees plays develop more readily than Joel (at this point in their careers). I’m not comparing Marcus to his jersey number’s predecessor; no one has Kendall Marshall’s Nostradamus-like ability to see things before they unfold in real life. We saw more of it tonight, but Marcus’ best asset right now is as a playmaker (8 assists, 1 turnover tonight). So let’s call him the ‘1’ and Joel the ‘2’. Don’t forget, we all thought Marcus was primarily a play-maker until he (out-of-necessity) became a scoring machine in his sophomore season.
7. This game was another example of Carolina’s lack of closeability. Wondering what that is? Read this: Closeability.
8. There’s just no other way to say it: The ball must funnel through Brice Johnson all game long. Thankfully, this didn’t hurt the Heels in the loss column tonight as it did against Duke and Virginia. The problem, as I see it, is 3-fold: 1. Johnson is one of the best players in the nation, so opposing teams are going to do everything they can to stop him from getting the ball (especially down on the block). 2. At the same time, Johnson can’t disappear. Knowing that he is the focus of the defense, he must work that much harder to get open and make himself available for entry passes (and stay out of foul trouble). 3. The Heels cannot get jump-shot-happy. This was at its worst against Duke (and both Virginia and Syracuse are doing everything they can to goad Carolina into taking 3s). The first half against Syracuse was fools’ gold and we all felt it. A jump shot (especially against the zone) is open and available at any point in the shot clock. This offense is predicated on owning the paint, so the guards must keep attacking and probe the interior throughout the first 20 seconds of shot clock.
9. Of all the roller coaster rides this team takes us on, nothing is more maddening to me than their inability to commit to defense for a whole game (which includes finishing off the possession with a rebound). Sure, there are pockets of stellar defense here and there, but never or rarely a full game’s worth. Imagine what this team could be down the stretch if they defended for a full game. The ‘09 team played a little bit of defense in the last few weeks of the season and things turned out all right for them. The #1-in-the-nation Kansas Jayhawks are in that position right now because they committed to defense at some point in January. In a year where just about anyone could win the whole thing, defensive buy-in is going to be the difference between the 2015-16 Tar Heels having 5 or 6 games left and having 10 games left.
10. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Marcus Paige look more defeated than he did after his only turnover of the game came with less than a minute to go and allowed Syracuse to cut the lead to 3.

Closeability

After a 2014-15 campaign that saw the North Carolina Tar Heels consistently struggle to close out wins, the main focus of Roy Williams and his team during the off-season was overcoming this tendency. We’ll call this principle “closeability” – the ability to close out games. Teams with closeability are tough, focused, and have a Tyler Hansbrough-type player who refuses to lose. Teams without closeability lack determination and grit and have a propensity for losing games they should win.

Given this offseason focus and a returning veteran squad led by preseason All-American candidate Marcus Paige, closeability sounded like a readily attainable goal for the 2015-16 Tar Heels.

How have they done so far? Some numbers to consider:

UNC has 5 losses (4 on the road, 1 at home). In each of those 5 losses:

• They have held a 2^nd half lead
• They have held at least a 6-point lead at some point in the game
• The greatest margin of defeat in any one game is 6 points
• The total combined margin of defeat is 17 points

Game	Date	Score	Margin	Largest UNC Lead	Held 2nd Half Lead?	Last Tie/Lead
@ N. Iowa	11/21	71-67	-4	16 (16:53 – 2nd half)	Yes	Tie – 2:57, Lead – 7:37
@ Texas	12/12	84-82	-2	8 (1:06 – 1st half)	Yes	Tie – :02, Lead – 2:56
@ Louisville	2/1	71-65	-6	6 (5:50 – 1st half)	Yes	Tie – 12:10, Lead – 15:58
@ Notre Dame	2/6	80-76	-4	15 (2:15 – 1st half)	Yes	Lead – 6:36
vs. Duke	2/17	74-73	-1	8 (6:31 – 2nd half)	Yes	Lead – 1:10

These numbers show a certain lack of closeability. There have been several culprits along the way. Lack of defensive intensity. Lack of defensive cohesion. Inability to box out and grab a defensive rebound. Getting away from attacking the interior. Unforced turnovers. Empty, careless possessions down the stretch. Unnecessary jump shots.

Each of these issues boil down to one thing: focus.

Despite these losses, there is good news: This 2015-16 edition of the Tar Heels have not been embarrassed or humiliated in ANY game this season. Remember, even the uber-talented 2011-12 team, with 6 future first-round picks, suffered a humbling and uninspired 90-57 loss at Florida State.

After the recent skid in which they lost 3 of 5 (and even 1 of those 2 victories was a narrow escape at winless-in-ACC-play Boston College), the Tar Heels have been dialed in during their last 2 games. UNC completely dismantled Miami (another potential #1 seed) and patiently overcame their biggest deficit of the year (13 points) to win on the road against NC State and the ever-dangerous Cat Barber.

In a year where there is no single dominant team in college basketball, these Tar Heels have the talent and experience to win every game in which they’ll play.

Unfortunately talent and experience aren’t enough to win games. It depends on their ability to focus. It depends on their ability to demonstrate closeability.

Can these Tar Heels focus and be a team with closeability? Absolutely.

Will they be a team with closeability in the final weeks of the season and cut down the nets in Houston? I can’t wait to find out.