GAME INFO:
November 9, 2021
7:00pm Tip Off
Dean Smith Center (Capacity: 21,750)
Chapel Hill, NC
TV: ACCN
Last Year’s Records:
UNC: 18-11, 10-6 in ACC
Loyola: 6-11, 1-5 in Patriot’s league
Last Time Out:
UNC: Lost to Wisconsin 62-85 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament
Loyola: Lost to Colgate 72-85 in the Patriot’s league conference championship game
SERIES INFO:
Loyola and North Carolina will meet for the second time in series history and the first time in almost 74 years.
The Greyhounds played the Tar Heels on December 31, 1947, in the former home of the NBA's Baltimore Bullets, the Baltimore Coliseum. North Carolina won the New Year's Eve affair, 64-47.
Team Leaders (Last Season)
Points:
UNC: Bacot (12.3 PPG)
Loyola: Aldama (21.2 PPG) No longer on team
Rebounds:
UNC: Bacot (7.8)
Loyola: Aldama (10.1) No longer on team
Assists:
UNC: Caleb Love (3.6)
Loyola: Cam Spencer (3) but only played 5 games, Aldama (2.3) no longer on team, Andrews (2.2)
Exhibition notes
Dawson Garica had 17 points on 5-9 shooting, 2-4 from 3, 5-5 FT, 5 REBS.
Armando Bacot had 16 points on 6-9 shooting, 1-1 from 3, 3-4 FT, 7 REBS
Brady Manek had 16 points on 5-9 shooting, 2-5 from 3, 4-7 FT, 5 REBS, 3 BLKS
RJ Davis had 12 points on 5-8 shooting, 1-2 from 3, 1-2 FT, 5 Assists, 2 TOs
Caleb Love had 10 points on 2-7 shooting, 2-4 from 3, 4-4 FT, 5 Assists, 3 TOs
TEAM STATS:
41% FG
39.1% from 3
80% FT
49 REBS
18 Assists
15 TOs
The exhibition game against Elizabeth State gave you enough to be excited about with plenty of room for improvement. The Heels really didn’t get going until the second half in an 83-55 win. The starting lineup was Love, Davis, Walton, Garica, and Bacot. Hubert Davis has said that starters will change based on how they grade out on defense. Walton struggled on defense last year. How many times will he be out of the starting line-up because of that? Black started the second half, but that was preplanned. For the most part, the Heels looked averaged on offense. The overall shooting percentage wasn’t great, but the tempo and pace was there. It needs to be a little more under control as 15 turnovers is still too many. The spread offense lends itself to more ball movement and drives which we saw. Davis and Love both did a good job of pushing the ball up court. Davis looked more comfortable with the ball in his hands though and handled the ball more than Love.Thank the Lord for Garcia and Manek. Both had big games. Manek did it a little more quietly than Garcia. Manek just goes out there and gets the job. Nothing flashy. Just good smart basketball. Offensive rebounding didn’t seem to be affected by the new offense.
Defensive side of the ball still has some of the same issues that we saw last year, still too many 3’s. The intensity on the defensive side of the ball is good, the execution will come. Garcia was slow off screens. I’m sure this is something that will be addressed in practice.
The rotation was a lot smaller than I expected. Johnson is out with a hip strain, but I didn’t think we would go an entire half without seeing Harris, Styles, or Dunn. Harris didn’t get into the game until the 14:50 mark in the second half. He played point guard during most of his minutes and Hubert is confident in his abilities to be the backup point guard with Davis and Love both starting. Styles and Dunn mostly played garbage minutes and came in at 6:36 with the score sitting at 76-44. I would expect Harris to be a bigger factor in the rotation going forward. The freshmen are still getting their feet wet. Their progression will be something to keep an eye on.
The Tar Heels start the regular season off tomorrow night against Loyola (MD). The greyhounds were 6-11 last year, and lost their best player, Santi Aldama. The greyhounds were a little underwhelming in their exhibition win over Johns Hopkins. It was a low scoring affair (60-49). Johns Hopkins had a 6 point lead at half. Loyola would then go on a 19-1 run to start the second half. Andrews had 18 points and 9 rebounds. Jones scored 10 points and had 6 rebounds. Milos IIic had 9 points and 7 rebounds. Dike had 10 rebounds and 5 assists.
The greyhounds had 8 players that averaged over 20 minutes last year. They only return 4 of them this season (Andrews G, Spender G, Dike F, Jones G). The greyhounds lost Luke Johnson, Isaiah Hart, Brandon Bradhser, Ethan Norton, Brent Holcomber, and the already mentioned Santi Aldama. Aldama averaged 21.2 points a game. Hart averaged 8.6 points a game. Bradsher averaged 7.3 points a game and shot 46.2% from 3. Luke Johnson averaged 4.9 points a game.
The greyhounds added Veljko IIic, Milos IIic, Nick Marshall, Chris Kuzemka, Charles Weisberg, and David Brown III. And while the greyhounds are a freshmen heavy team I would expect their starting lineup to be experienced. Andrew and Jones are seniors. Spencer and Dike are juniors. Expect a heavy dose of Andrews as he averaged the most minutes last season (35.1 per game). I wouldn’t expect that to change. I would expect one of the IIic brothers to fill the final starting spot. With that, the greyhounds would be starting 3 guards and 2 forwards.
Matchup wise the greyhounds probably matchup okay against our guards. We have an advantage in the post for a different reason than in year’s past. The greyhounds do have some size. Dike and the IIic brothers are 6’10”. Faure is 6’11”. Expect Faure to be a key player off the bench. The greyhound’s frontcourt is slow in comparison to ours. I think Dike and whichever IIic brother starts will have a tough time with Bacot and Garcia, especially Garcia. I don’t think they have anyone capable of guarding Garcia out on the perimeter. McKoy could also be a huge matchup problem for them. He is a forward that has the quickness of a wing player.
The greyhounds had turnover problems last year. Our turnover average and margin is nearly identical. If we can minimize turnovers and capitalize on theirs then we can put this game away fairly quickly.
We will need to contain Jaylin Andrews as everything the greyhounds do offensively runs through him. Dike is a sneaky good passer, but had almost as many turnovers as assists last year. Cut off the passing lanes, so he can’t kick it back out and that will present a lot of fast break opportunities.
At the end of the day, this was scheduled as a tune-up game, but still needs to be taken seriously. The Heels have 3 such games before they take on Purdue. Put the game away early, so different defensive/offensive sets can be worked as well as different lineups. The game should be an opportunity to get the kinks out.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR:
Different line-ups/rotations (Will the starters remain the same? Do we see Harris in the first half? Do the freshmen get worked into the rotation more?)
Tempo under control (Tempo was good during the exhibition game, but it was sloppy at times. Do we clean it up?)
Guarding the 3 PT line (Elizabeth State lived behind the 3 point line in the exhibition game. Do we do a better job of closing out specifically off screens?)
Does Walton get more touches? (Walton only had 3 points in the exhibition game and struggled behind the line. He didn’t get a ton of touches though.)
Is RJ Davis still the alpha in the backcourt? (Davis handled the ball more against Elizabeth State and honestly he looked more comfortable than Love doing so. Does this trend continue?)
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