Well a game that I thought would be a fast paced game dominated by turnovers was instead dominated by the whistle. There were 55 combined fouls in the game, 34 of those were called in the second half. I flew back to NC for the weekend to partake in some family Christmas festivities, so this was the first game(maybe the only game) that I got to watch with the fam. It was nice to not be the only yelling at the TV, and it got to the point where every time the whistle blew you wanted to throw whatever was close to you at the TV. There were so many ticky tack fouls called. It was a physical game and there were plenty of legitimate fouls to go around the post, but 55? I don’t think so. The constant whistle detracted from the game in my opinion, but it did play in our favor down the stretch. 4 of Kentucky’s players fouled out including all of their post players. We were able to continue to pound the ball late in the game, and with no post players, Kentucky didn’t have any answers. It all led to a 75-63 victory in the battle of the top 2 recruiting classes.
Slow starts are definitely a theme at this point and almost aren’t worth pointing out at this point. Kentucky had an 11 point lead at one point and Boston had a great first half. As usual, we made halftime adjustments and ended up limiting Boston to 5-13 shooting from the field. Platek got significant playing time because of Davis’ absence and was a big part of limiting Boston in the second half. Kentucky clearly tried to take advantage of Platek on the defense end, but Platek kept his man in front of him for the most part. Surprisingly good fundamental defense works. Platek had 6 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists in 24 minutes. Davis played just 17 minutes as we spent the majority of the time being looked at by Carolina’s head athletic trainer. He did knock down a 3 which were his only points of the game.
Rebounding was a new concern against a longer Kentucky team. Their length gave us problems and Kentucky ended up with a +4 rebounding advantage. The Wildcats had a 14-5 advantage in second chance points. We cleaned it up in the second half and controlled that category 13-2 in the second half. We ended up with a 18-16 advantage in second chance points for the game. We won the points in the battle 38-32. We got beat in the fast break category 7-9 in a game that was slowed by an annoying amount of whistles. Our bench outscored Kentucky 30-20 in large part to Kerwin Walton. Walton had 13 points and didn’t miss a shot. Walton hit 3 3’s in a variety of ways. He made one in rhythm, one off of a nice head fake, and then his last 3 was a heat check step up. Johnson also had a nice floater in the lane. Those were his only 2 points, but it was nice to see that Johnson’s game can expand past an outside shot.
Black had to run the point guard in Davis’ absence and run it with adequacy. Black ended up with 6 points and 6 rebounds. I don’t want to say this was a page turner game for Love, but he looked a lot better. There were moments where you thought “Why the hell did you shoot that” but he drove the ball a lot more. He did a good job of converting at the rim, and he made more of an effort to penetrate. That is Love’s game. Our guards don’t get a lot of penetration which leads to a lot of passing around the perimeter. If we don’t get the ball to the post, our offensive possessions usually end up in a contested long range jumper at the end of the shot clock. More penetration would open up our offense and Love drove the ball yesterday. He seemed to have a better control of the offense and he limited his turnovers. He had 6 assists and only 2 turnovers. One of those assists was a nice back down alley-oop to Brooks off a set play. He added 11 points, but went just 4-14 shooting. As a team we only had 11 turnovers which was a huge improvement. We forced 16 Kentucky turnovers and turned those into 10 points. Kentucky had 6 points off our turnovers.
We had 4 players in double figures, and had 10 different players that scored. Bacot continues to be a consistent force down low with 14 points and 8 rebounds. Brooks had 11 points and 6 rebounds. Love and Walton were the other 2 Tar Heels in double figures. Sharpe was a workforce down low and he continues to outcompete people on the boards. He grabbed 11 rebounds and added 7 points. Kessler had just 2 points in limited action.
It seems as though some of our players may be figuring out their roles little by little. Platek played very solid minutes and started for Davis in the second half. We saw a flash of what Walton could be. The next Kenny Williams? It is a little early for that, but he does wear his number and his stroke is pretty smooth. Love looked like he was in more control of the offense, and seemed to do better when Davis wasn’t on the floor. Maybe Davis and Love would play better when each solely has control of the offense. Getting Anthony Harris would make that more feasible. He is back practicing, but he hasn’t done any full court drills yet. The time table for his return is sometime in January. His experience will be a nice addition to a backcourt that is slowly figuring it out. Well at least after yesterday Love appears to be. I know Kentucky was 1-4 now 1-5, but that is not a 1-5 team. It’s a good win going into ACC play.
Our freshmen will get their introduction to ACC play on Tuesday as we take on NC State in Raleigh at 9pm. State is short players because of covid issues, but it is always a game where you hold your breath. Thankfully we seem to play well in PNC even in our worst years.
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