The win over Syracuse gives the Heels 3 straight wins and what was seemingly the best performance of the season. Well of what I saw. I will admit I only watched the first half because I need sleep and I am cranky when I don’t get enough so I turned the game off when it was tied. Buddy Boeheim had 18 points when I turned the game off and when I woke up he still had 18 points. What a defensive performance by Black in the second half. That effort isn’t necessarily going to show up in the stat sheet but Black’s defensive job on Boeheim was a game changer. He led the team with 7 assists and added 5 points and 4 rebounds. Brooks had a good first half and it was nice to see him start again and respond well. Him and Bacot got the start as they had experience against the Syracuse zone. The high low from Brooks to Bacot was money for most of the first half. Both bigs finished with double doubles. Brooks with 16 points and 10 rebounds and Bacot with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Sharpe was limited by foul trouble in the first half, but finished with 8 points and 4 rebounds. I am safely assuming his second half went better. Walton struggled from behind the arc (1-5), but he showed the evolution of his game. On two separate occasions in the first half Walton head faked, dribbled inside the arc to create space and knocked down the jumper. He finished with 9 points. That part of his game will make defenders play him more honestly. We didn’t shoot the ball well from 3, but it was nice to see Love and Davis knocked down a 3. Davis hit 2. They both still struggled at times, but from a points perspective it was a better game for both. Davis finished with 12 points and no turnovers. Love had 7. Our best offense is still a missed shot, but we took advantage of Syracuse’s zone. A zone opens up offensive rebound opportunities and we grabbed 24 of them (matching our defensive total). We outrebounded Syracuse 48-31 and added 24 second chance points off 24 offensive rebounds. We limited turnovers with only 11 and our offense had better flow at times. It was definitely the most Carolina basketball performance to date this season. Defense still leaves something to be desired as Syracuse shot close to 47%.
FSU 6-2 (2-1 in ACC)
UNC 8-4 (3-2 in ACC)
SERIES:
Carolina is 50-14 against the Seminoles, including 17-7 in Tallahassee.
Carolina has won eight of the last 10 games in the series.
Roy Williams is 21-7 against FSU (20-7 at Carolina, 1-0 at Kansas). The Tar Heels are 8-4 under Williams against FSU in Tallahassee.
The Seminoles have won the last two games at the Tucker Center – 81-80 in 2019 and 65-59 a season ago.
LAST MATCHUP:
UNC led, 37-35, with 15:49 to play, but made only five free throws over the next 10:25, falling behind by 10 points en route to a 65-59 loss.
In the second half, UNC missed 17 consecutive field goal attempts and finished the half 11 of 39 from the floor. Florida State made 11 of 22 field goal attempts in the second half.
Leaky Black had 10 points and added five rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Armando Bacot and Garrison Brooks combined for four field goals and 11 points.
Florida State out-rebounded UNC, 43-37, and blocked 10 shots.
The Tar Heels travel to Tallahassee to face the Seminoles of Florida State on Saturday at noon. Florida State is always a difficult team to play and Tallahassee is a challenging place to play regardless of the number of fans. Two things stand out when you look at these teams. Florida State is an experienced team, only one freshman seeing significant minutes and their strength is their guard play. Their top 3 scorers are guards and they have 3 players shooting over 40% from 3 point range. The Seminoles are led by MJ Walker who averages 15.8 points per game, 41.5% from 3, 11 of 28 over his last 5 games and shoots 93.2% from the foul line. The freshmen guard, Scottie Barnes is second on the team with 11.1 points and 4.1 assists. Barnes is 6’9” and is a match up nightmare for either Love or Davis. I expect Black will guard him when they are on the floor together. The Tar Heels top 3 scorers are all post players. Armando Bacot leads the team with 11.3 points and 8 rebounds, while Garrison Brooks averages 10.7 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. UNC has a 9 rebound advantage over the Seminoles and are ranked 1st among Division 1 teams with an offensive rebound percentage of 41.9%, 16.6 offensive rebounds per game and 19.7 over the last 3 games. The Tar Heels don’t shoot the ball well so there are plenty of opportunities for offensive rebounds and they need to do a better job of being efficient in converting those into points. The Tar Heels and the Seminoles are almost equal in points in the paint. The Tar Heels get theirs from post play and offensive rebounds. The Seminoles get theirs from their shifty guards, who do have some size. In order to extend our win streak to 4 games we must keep our man in front of us off the dribble and guard the 3 well. Free throws will be important in this game as FSU is 5-0 when shooting at least 71.4% from the line while UNC is also 5-0 when shooting the same percentage. As always limiting turnovers will be a key and UNC has managed to do a better job of doing that recently while also using assists to create baskets more often than the Seminoles. FSU assists on 54.5% of field goals over the past 3 games with UNC assists on 62.2% of field goals over its past 3 games. FSU is coming off a lights out performance against NC State, winning 105-73, shooting 70.7% from the field, 66.7% from the 3 and 100% from the freethrow line. You would like to think they can’t shoot that well twice in a season and currently not 2 games in a row. Some improved defense on UNC’s part would definitely make it more difficult to repeat this feat. Anthony Harris was in uniform for the first time last game vs Syracuse and his return would give us some welcomed experience. FSU goes 9 deep so they have the depth to match us. Getting Harris back would be huge in that regard as it would give us a little more depth. We have plenty of depth, but he would be someone with a little experience. Rumor has it, he will be playing off the ball and won’t be running point. Roy is sticking with Love and Davis in hopes they start to figure things out. FSU also has the size and have always played a physical brand of basketball. I think we still have a slight advantage in the post but our bigs will have to be strong. At times our bigs have gotten their shots blocked way too easily and they have brought the ball down which has led to turnovers. Our guys will have to play through contact and knock down free throws. It is a tough matchup, but it is winnable. Every game this season is.
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