TEXAS RECAP
Well we got off to another slow start, but this time we extended it to the entire first half. Texas got whatever they wanted offensively in the first half and we looked completely out of sync on offense. There were several things I said we needed to do to win. Caleb Love and RJ Davis needed to handle the pressure from Texas’ more experienced back court. They didn’t. We had 10 turnovers in the first half and Love had 3 of them. We ended up with 14 turnovers and our freshmen backcourt combined for half of them. Roy got so frustrated with them that he subbed in KJ Smith in the first half. The second half was significantly better as we only committed 4 turnovers. But 14 turnovers lead to 17-9 advantage for Texas in the fast break points category, a category Carolina usually dominates. Love and Davis just flat out got outplayed by more experience guards. That is going to happen Tar Heel fans. Welcome to watching a young team. Ramey and Coleman combined for 35 points on 14-33 shooting. Coleman had 22 and shot 50% from beyond the arc. They combined for 19 of Texas’ 23 points in the final 14:10 of the game. Love and Davis went 5-24 for a combined 16 points. We only had 6 total assists and one assist in the first half. We went 5-13 on free throws in the first half and missed two front ends of one and one opportunities. We went 18-32 on free throws for the game. There was a lot wrong with our performance yesterday, but that is a pretty telling statistics. In a two point game that came down to the last shot those 18 missed free throws were big.
Our first half defense was horrific to watch. Texas made 7 3’s and there was a stretch where they made 3 straight. Half of their 3’s were in the face of a Carolina defender that had his hands at his sides. That ladies and gentleman is just effort. The effort that was there the first two games was noticeably absent in the first half. Maybe we were tired, who knows. Texas only made 2 3’s in the second half though. I admit I didn’t watch the second half until the final sequence. I am not really liking the heartbreaker last second loses that seem to be a theme the last couple of years. I feel like I am losing years off my life and I am only 24. It is nice that we were able to make adjustments at half time that obviously worked. Our team seems fine with climbing out of holes, but that isn’t a good way to make a living. Leaky Black made two clutch free throws to tie the game at 67-67 before Coleman hit the step back game winner over Davis.
Davis played fine defense, he was just undersized. The ball also bounced off the rim 3 times before it fell in. That doesn’t fall in other arenas. Interesting enough, Roy said they may have trapped Coleman if we had more experience. I know ya’ll are probably tired of hearing it already but that will be a huge theme this year.
Going back to Leaky Black, He had 8 points and 10 rebounds. He had another solid defensive performance and has made key plays down the stretch. He had a drive and free throw in the final minutes against Stanford, hit a 3 to tie the game against UNLV, and played excellent defense at the end of the first half in the same game. Bacot added a double double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Brooks led the way with 18 points and 7 rebounds. Sharpe and Kessler combined for 12 points and 7 rebounds. At times our best offense seemed to be missed shots. We had a 50-32 rebound advantage with 20 offensive rebounds. Those offensive rebounds led to 25 second chance points. We also added 36 points in the paint. We went 1-9 from behind the arc which has to improve. We went 12-41 from 3 for the tournament and 54-88 from the free throw line. Neither one of those statistics is going to win us any games. Texas has had our number and everyone knows it. 7 of our last 9 losses to Texas have been by 3 points or fewer. We obviously need to improve on free throw shooting, turnovers, and guarding the 3 before our matchup with Iowa.
TOURNAMENT WRAP-UP
2-1 isn’t a bad record for the tournament and I will take a 3-1 start especially since the Texas game was winnable. Unfortunately our play seemed to get worse as the competition increased during the tournament. Slow starts were common and the Texas game took that to a whole new level by having a slow first half. We shot better in the second half of every game, and it seems as though we are a second half team at the moment. We have to get better from behind the arc and from the free throw line though. A lot better. We went 12-41 at 29.2% from behind the arc and 54-88 from the free line at 61.3%. That won’t win you many games. Luckily we have a strong front court once again and this team will allow Roy to get back to what he wants to do, feed the post and rebound the basketball. Both of those were high points of the tournament. We out-rebounded our opponents 147-90 and won the points in the paint battle 100-70. We also won the second chance points battle 64-29. Clearly the majority of our offense is coming from inside and at times our best offense was missed shots. We averaged 18 turnovers a game, a statistic that has to improve in the coming games and definitely when we get into ACC play. We lost the points off turnover margin to both Stanford and Texas. We lost the fast break point battle to Texas and only had one more fast break point than UNLV and Stanford. Usually that is our game, to push the ball and run the floor. That statistic shows our freshmen guards are still learning the system, and haven’t figured out when to run and when to slow things down. As bad as our defense looked at times, the opposing teams numbers aren’t great. Collectively the opposing team shot 36.5% and 29.17% from 3. UNLV shot 16% from the field in the second half. Texas had the highest percentage from 3, but did most of their damage in the first half. UNLV seemed to be hot when we weren’t, but they cooled off. Our defense rotation still needs a lot of work. The opposition had a lot of open shots that they just flat out missed. We have to do a better job of staying in front of our man and not sagging too far into the line on the back side.
Ball distribution was almost non-existent. We averaged 9 assists a game. We averaged twice as many turnovers as assists during the tournament. Love had a great debut against the college of Charleston, but struggled in Asheville. He averaged 4 turnovers a game and 9 points. He scored 16 points against Stanford but had to take 18 shots to get there. He went 10-40 from the field and 2-15 from 3. Those numbers should improve as Love gets more comfortable in the system. RJ Davis averaged 2.3 turnovers a game and 12 points. Davis showed he can score consistently and he was better behind the arc than Love. Our freshmen backcourt are turning the ball over too much and that is the biggest worry. Doesn’t matter how much you score if you give it right back. Bacot was consistent and averaged 10 points and 7 rebounds. Brooks had a bad debut, but had a solid tournament. He averaged 14 points and 7 rebounds. Now those aren’t ACC player of the year numbers, but if he can give us that every night I will be happy. We have so much talent in the front court that he doesn’t need to put up 25 every night. Leaky Black has had a lot of criticism thrown his way, but he had a great tournament. He averaged 7.6 points and 9 rebounds and made multiple big plays down the stretch. He also played lock down defense and has emerged as our best defender early in the year. Platek averaged 5 points, but didn’t score against Texas. His 11 points against UNLV were big though. Sharpe had a great debut, but he was another freshman that struggled in Asheville. He only averaged 4 points and added 6 rebounds a game. He hit the glass, but his scoring touch wasn’t there. Kessler averaged 3.6 points and 2.6 rebounds and was a non factor against Stanford. He didn’t score or grab a rebound. Johnson and Walton were also essentially non factors. Walton hit a 3 against UNLV and Texas.
It was good to see some consistency in our veterans players with Brooks and Black as well as Bacot. Our freshmen struggled at times especially against a Texas team that returned all their scoring from last year. That was to be expected though. It’s encouraging that we were able to make adjustments and got some experience playing from behind and in close games. That experience will come in handy as we get further into the season.
*averages are from tournament and don’t include the game against College of Charleston.
Comments