Let me just say it seems as though this season was a bad season to start a blog because, wow, is this frustrating to watch. We put the “L” in “ATL.”
Well it’s time to face it Tar Heels fans, we aren’t good. We are lucky if we can call ourselves average. It’s downright embarrassing at this point. The other teams celebrate beating us like they just won the national championship, really congrats you beat a mediocre team. Somehow we managed to have the lead the majority of the game only to completely collapse in the final minutes. No double digit deficit and we still find a way to lose. We even had an 11 point lead at one point. I’m having ptsd from last year. Experience wins again. If that’s going to be a theme then we won’t win another game all season. Apparently it means more to them to beat someone with North Carolina across their chest then it does for our players to be the ones with North Carolina across their chest. Maybe it’s time we pull a Washington and just put “basketball team” on the jersey because this is not North Carolina basketball. On the bright side, we no longer have to play another basketball game in 2020. We started 2020 with a beat down in the Smith Center by this same Tech team and are ending it with a loss to a Tech team we should have beaten.
The first thing that stands out is the change in the starting line up. Love, Black and Brooks were benched for Platek, Walton and Sharpe. This was more to send a message to Black and Brooks. Let’s face it the team goes stagnant when Love is running the point. Black seemed to get the message and had a solid game with 10 points, he drove several times and had some nice mid range shots. We finally broke the trend of first half deficits and led by 6 at half time. There was a renewed intensity on defense and emphasis on getting the ball down low. There were a fair share of fouls called in the first half as both teams were in the bonus half way through the first half. We managed to go a perfect 7-7 from the line.
The second half was a different story, the refs weren’t going to call fouls and we turned it into a 3 point shooting contest. We went 2-7 on free throws in the second half. Kerwin Walton was about the only bright spot, making all 3 of his 3 point attempts. He will continue to start and see increased playing time if he can continue to shoot well. We managed to go 8-20 from 3, but yet again couldn’t guard the 3 and gave it right back. Tech shot 61% in the second half and 53% for the game. That’s just inexcusable. Our bigs struggled to guard Usher and Devoe as they both finished in double figures. Usher had 14 and was 2-5 from 3. Devoue had 20 points and was 4-7 from 3. Hell we held the leading scorer in the ACC to 8 points and still lost. That sounds familiar. For once our big lineup hurt us. We had way too many missed assignments especially when kessler was on the floor. There used to be a time when UNC prided itself on playing defense, forcing turnovers and getting run outs. There is not one damn player on this team that cares about getting a stop on the defensive end of the floor. We were beaten in fast break points 8-15. It’s hard to play fast if you are constantly getting the ball out of the basket. We had the advantage in the post but we were beaten 22-24 in points in the paint. Once again inexcusable. At least it was a relatively new way to lose. Our guards must keep their man in front of them. Remember in the preview where i said Alvarado was going to give our freshman guard fits? Well it happened. He had 20 points, went 8-10 from the field with 7 assists, 7 rebounds and 3 TOs. Still a way better assist to turnover ratio than our guards. We also turned the ball over 18 times, mostly unforced. Love, Davis, Platek, Black and Bacot all had 3 turnovers a piece. And I honestly can’t tell you how many times I wrote “stupid (insert action) (insert love/davis’ name)” in my notes. Another thing that stood out was Love’s presence on the floor in the final minutes. Our offense seems to go stagnant when he is in the game. We were up by 8 and Love entered the game for Davis and things kinda went downhill after that. I honestly can’t pinpoint the source of this because Davis isn’t naturally a point guard, he’s a shooting guard but seems to run the point better. Love and our offense run better when he is penetrating, unfortunately too often he gets frustrated and settles for outside jump shots. I think he is a better shooter than his stats show, but he definitely isn’t as advertised. In the final minutes we spent way too much time dribbling around the perimeter and had few if anything good offensive possessions after the under 4 minute timeout. On the final meaningful possession, Davis threw up a 3 that would have tied the game. Guess who was open in the corner…..Kerwin Walton. That would have been the first person I looked for in that situation. It’s just basic basketball sense, look for the hot hand. It seems like at times the name on the back means more than the name on the front. Second straight game where Davis has had a chance to make a shot to tie the game late and has missed. Bacot was our only other player in double figures with 14. Our bigs need to stop bringing the ball down low. That has led to unnecessarily turnovers or a wasted entry pass. We need a leader and unfortunately Brooks hasn’t shown that he is the guy. No one has. There is no one out there taking this team by the horns. No one wants to be that guy. UNC has a week before they go to Miami, due to the fact that the Syracuse game in Chapel Hill got postponed. A lot can happen in a week and at this point I am open to anything. I am hoping 2021 brings some better basketball, but nothing up to this point makes me very optimistic.
But hey at least Duke sucks. Well everyone in the ACC this year kinda does. The ACC is wide open this year, but it’s clear we don’t want it. 0-2 in the ACC and 0-2 on the road. The bottom line is we are a sub par team looking at a .500 season with a real possibility of missing the tournament. You can’t lose games you are supposed to win in the ACC, not when anyone can beat anyone on any given night. Right now we are finding ways to lose games instead of win then. To quote Remember the Titans ``This team ain’t got no heart.” There isn’t one player with the mentality of “I”m going to lock my man down on defense'' or “I want the ball in my hands with the game on the line.” No leadership. No Heart. Saying “they are young” is an excuse at this point. I doubt Roy Williams is walking into the locker room and saying “It’s okay guys you are young you will get together.” Well something needs to change drastically. I thought this game was a do or die game but now the Miami game definitely is. Hey maybe something will change and we will go undefeated the rest of the year and only end up with 4 losses… I guess I better write to Santa early and tell him what color dragon I want for Christmas next year instead.
Eat some of that lucky food, kiss a special someone, do whatever good luck thing you have to do tonight to ring in the new year because this team needs it. For me, I am going to be drinking margs because I am going to ring in the new year the only way I know how… with tequila! Happy New Year Tar Heels fan. Let’s hope 2021 brings us a completely different team. If it doesn’t, at least these guys will be around for 2022. The running joke in the family group chat is a GIF from Waterboy so I will leave you with that.
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