SERIES:
Carolina leads the series, 25-8, including wins in each of the last four games.
UNC is 9-3 at Miami.
UNC beat Miami 85-76 back in January of 2019 the last time the teams played in Coral Gables.
Roy Williams is 21-8 against Miami ( 2-1 at Kansas and 19-7 at UNC).
LAST MATCHUP:
Carolina beat Miami, 94-71, in Chapel Hill on 1/25/2020.
UNC shot a season-high 58.0 percent from the floor.
Carolina shot 55.0 percent in the first half and 62.1 in the second half.
UNC had 32 assists, which equaled the most by the Tar Heels in the Williams era.
Senior guard Brandon Robinson had career highs in points (29), field goals (11) and three-pointers (6).
Armando Bacot had 19 points, 12 rebounds and a season-high seven assists.
Leaky Black tied his career high with six assists.
Miami was led by Wong who had 19 points.
Carolina had a 41-21 rebounding advantage and held Miami to 41% from the field and 25% from 3.
BY THE NUMBERS:
UNC is 6-4 (1-2 in the ACC)
UNC has 3 players in double figures:
Bacot averages 11.5 points a game
Brooks averages 10.5 points a game
Love averages 10.2 points a game
Other notable players:
Sharpe averages 9.6 points a game
Davis averages 8.9 points a game
Black averages 6.9 points a game
Platek averages 5.8 points a game
Walton averages 4.3 points a game
Kessler averages 3.1 points a game
Miami is 4-4 (0-3 in the ACC)
Miami has 3 players in double figures:
Wong averages 17.9 points per game.
Lykes averages 15.5 points a game.
McGusty averages 10.2 points per game.
Other notable players:
Walker averages 7.88 points per game
Brooks averages 6.25 points per game
Olaniyi averages 8 points per game
Beverly averages 9 points per game
Timberlake averages 8 points per game
Cross averages 8.25 points per game
Well I will admit I didn’t watch the game, but I did check the score on the ESPN app and saw countless posts on several Facebook groups. What I got out of all of that is this. It is good to see that Black responded to being benched and it was good to see him take charge at the end of the game. I will take a one point victory over a well coached Mike Brey team, but it still seemed like a fairly ugly game in some respects. 29-30 halftime score isn’t great. Sharpe and Walton have solidified their spots in their starting line up in my opinion. 25 points from Sharpe and 12 points from Walton were huge. Walton went 4-8 from 3 and had half our team’s makes from behind the arc. He is 11-16 in the past 4 games from behind the arc averaging 9.2 points in 19.2 minutes per game. He stretches the defense like no other player on the team. If only our entire team had the motor that Sharpe had. Brooks has also solidified his spot coming off the bench. The senior hasn’t responded well to being benched, and Black seems to be the leader, if we really have, now. Love nor Davis had a good game and Love only saw 15 minutes. I understand that his confidence is probably shaken, but Roy has to put the guys on the floor that gives us the best chance to win. If you don’t play well then you don’t get as many minutes. Now I understand confidence is a tricky thing and it is hard to build that back up by yourself. Love has to find it within himself to get better though. He has to dig deep, so does Davis for that matter. We still aren’t getting good point guard play and I truly believe Anthony Harris takes over that spot once he is fully back and healthy. I would like to see Black run the point some. He gets that the ball needs to go down low and he seems to be the closest thing we have to a leader at this point. Speaking of which, Roy called 2 timeouts with under 30 seconds left to go. One to get the right offensive play set, and the next to get the right defensive personnel in. People will hate his decision to put in Platek, but it has been proven that we need experience on the floor. That is why he was put out there. Roy called those timeouts because he doesn’t have the floor general he has had in years past. It was a nice adjustment by the ole ball coach to get this young team into the correct sets. But it was good that we got a stop when we needed it. Maybe that gives our team some confidence that we finally won a close game albeit it wasn’t pretty. A win is a win though especially right now. Still seems as though we had trouble guarding the 3 as they made 11 3s (2 more than their season average) and shot 47.3% from the field. Thank god for our 21 offensive rebounds. On the bright side, we only had 8 turnovers this game which is half than our season average. Taking care of the ball gives you a chance even when you shoot and guard poorly. Expect Johnson to continue to get more playing time as well. My approach this season has slightly changed though. My mindset is leaning towards that of a rebuilding year. It definitely shouldn’t be, but for whatever reason it feels that way. The thing is that if we were improving we would be winning the games we have lost and it wouldn’t be as hard to watch. We have played horribly and have been in every game. It’s there, but for whatever reason we can’t find it yet. Hopefully we can get some momentum by getting a win in Miami.
UNC travels to Miami to play the hurricanes. We can only hope the heels can duplicate the success our football team had against Miami. The last time these two played was a 94-71 tar heel victory in Chapel Hill. Wong led Miami with 19, Walker had 14 and Lykes who averages 15.5 didn't play. We held a 41-21 rebounding advantage, shot 58% from the field and 10-23 from 3, while holding Miami to 41.4% from the field and 25% from 3. The stats between the two teams are very similar. Good news Miami shoots the 3 about as horribly as we do, but we always seem to get everyone’s best shooting game. Lykes shoots 45.5 from 3 and Cross shoots 45.8 from 3. We might have trouble with Cross. He is a smaller forward at 6’7” but can shoot the 3 very well. We tend to have trouble with a smaller, “quicker” 4 position who aren’t your traditional post players. Both teams like to score in the paint, however that production comes from different sources. The Miami guards tend to be shifty and like to drive the lane. We have trouble keeping our man in front of us and that leads to lay ups or kick out 3s. We like to pound the post and rely on offensive rebounds. When you don’t shoot the ball well there are plenty of opportunities for rebounds. The problem is we don’t seem to be efficient in converting those into second chance points. Miami does have some size and their post players aren’t afraid to be aggressive on defense. This might come down to how much the refs want to let them play. If they have the whistle stuck in their mouths we need to convert from the line and if not we need to not get frustrated with the lack of calls and go strong to the basket. We can’t seem to put a full game together as far as free throws, turnovers and defense. Last game we managed to do two of those things but only won by 1 point because of lack of defense. Since we struggle on offense I would like to see us force some turnovers on defense and get some run outs. Good defense can lead to good offense, seldom does it go in the other direction. We also don’t have a good offense to test that theory. I think Davis and Love’s minutes will continue to decrease as Roy prioritizes experience and effort. There is a clear difference in the effort and selflessness displayed by the 4 other freshmen vs Love and Davis. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. Rumor has it that Anthony Harris may be back for this game. He would be a much needed boost in energy and scrappiness, but I would imagine his minutes would be limited if he sees the floor. I have kind of resounded myself to the fact that this is a rebuilding year, so seeing continuous improvement would be a nice thing. This game is another must win though as we play Clemson and FSU next. The schedule isn’t going to get any easier so we need to beat teams at the bottom of the ACC even though currently we sit there as well. Hopefully our basketball team will be as inspired as our football team was against Miami.
Check out the articles below for more info on the Notre Dame win and some interesting facts ahead of our Tuesday night match up in Coral Gables.
Keys to the game are this:
Build on the Notre Dame game as far as limiting TOs goes
rotate better on defense, keep your man in front, guard the 3
stretch the defense with drives and kick outs to Walton.
Check out the articles below for more info on the Notre Dame win and some interesting facts ahead of our Tuesday night match up in Coral Gables.
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