Well a win is a win even if it was ugly. I will take back to back close ugly wins over ugly losses any day. Let’s be real here… it’s all been kind of ugly as it seems we can’t get out of our own way sometimes. This game and last we did just enough in the final seconds. It helps that Miami went over 5 minutes at the end of the game with no field goals and they kind of self-destructed at their own end. I will give it to our guys though they did fight in the final couple of minutes. If we played like we did after the under 4 timeout all game then we have had control of the game from the jump. But notice who has gotten the ball at the end of the last two games… drum roll please… our upperclassmen. Black sank the winning shot against Notre Dame and this game it was an unexpected baseline drive by Andrew Platek to lift us to a 67-65 win in Coral Gables. So all the Black and Platek haters can calmly sit down. Black had 16 points and 9 rebounds and went a perfect 4-4 from the 3 point line. Platek’s stat line won’t jump out at you but he had 7 points and drained a 3.
Carolina went on a 13-2 run to take a 63-61 lead off a 3 from Black with 1:36 remaining. Black had missed both free throws on the previous offensive possession, so shout out to him for still having the confidence to take that shot. My notes after that go like this:
Miami turns it over 1:22 left
Miami 0 points in last 5:30
Walton misses 3
Wong makes both free throws 63-63
Miami fouls Brooks makes both 65-63
Miami losses ball out of bounds TO
Love turns ball over 65-63 20.5 seconds left
Wong makes crazy runner 65-65
Platek drives baseline for the winning drive 67-65
I would specifically like the address Brooks’ free throws. I will be honest Brooks’ body language sucked for the majority of the game and he looked soft. No worries Brooks, your front court counterparts had their own soft moments as well. But anyway Brooks went 1-7 from the floor last night, and just minutes before had missed a wide open dunk. Brooks stepped up to the line though and sank both those free throws. I can not tell you how mentally difficult that was. For Brooks to have the ability to get out of his own head and have the confidence to sink those free throws was a major accomplishment. Thank you for showing some mental fortitude in a season where it has been severely lacking. As mentioned Brooks went 1-7 from the field and only finished with 6 points. 2 of those were huge. He added 7 rebounds and 3 blocks. Hopefully those free throws give him some confidence. But again who showed up down the stretch… the upperclassmen. I don’t want to be the one to be pessimistic because we won but about the only difference from a year ago is we are managing to win close games. They are against the bottom of the ACC though, Miami was missing several players. I found myself agreeing with almost all of Dicky V’s statements last night and I really can’t stand to listen to him commentate a game. One of the reasons watching UNC basketball is so frustrating this year and last is because when you see the Carolina uniform you expect to see greatness. You expect excellence and to win. We have been far from excellent and it seems to be a surprise when we manage to pull out a win. He also mentioned that not a lot guards today, especially ours, possess the art of feeding the post. I know it’s hard to feed the post when everyone just packs in their defense because we can’t shoot from the outside. Our 3 point shooting and free throw shooting has improved recently though. We don’t shoot the ball very well from 2 point range and seem to miss a lot of shots around the basketball. Offensive rebounds are quite literally pointless when you can’t convert them. At halftime Seth Greenberg said our guards weren’t dynamic and I would agree with him. Love and Davis combined for 2-14 shooting with 5 points and 6 turnovers. They seemingly couldn’t shoot the ball into the Atlantic Ocean standing on the Carolina Coast. This isn't an anomaly though, these stats are similar to a lot of games this season. The halftime show commentators then went on to say that they don’t see anything getting any better. I would tend to agree with this being the 11th game and we are still dismal on defense and turn the ball over way too much. If things are going to get better they need to start on the defensive end. Turn defense into offense.
Speaking of which our defense was terrible. Miami got most of what they wanted all game. We couldn’t keep our man in front of us and there was little to no rotation on the back side. Poor defense got bailed out several times by timely blocks. Walton got beat badly on a back door and Black bailed him out when he met Walton’s man at the rim for a huge block. Walton had a solid game, but came back down to earth a little bit at the start of the second half. He air balled a 3 to start the half and then turned the ball over. He then made a 3 on the next offensive possession followed by a steal on the defensive end that led to a basket by ways of a goaltending violation. He then got beat back door on the next defensive possession. He ended up with 13 points and 3-7 from behind the arc. Back to the defensive side of the ball. Miami got into the lane at will and it is for that reason they won the points in the paint battle 32-24. Some of it was also that we missed way too many shots right under the basket. We weren’t lacking opportunities we just couldn’t convert. Sharpe was uncharacteristically 4-12 from the field but finished with 16 points anad went 4-5 from the FT line. He added 16 rebounds for a double double. Bacot finished with 7 points and was 5-5 from the FT line. Our big man still bring the ball down too much specifically Kessler and it has led to dumb turnovers. Getting the ball that low without getting a shot off is inexcusable for something so simple.
3 point shooting was a lone bright spot. We went 9-20 from behind the arc. Our mid range still leaves a lot to be desired and we throw up a lot of air balls this game. Both teams shot 34% from the field. We made 21 FGs and had 19 TOs. That isn’t going to win you many games. That statistic is actually pretty remarkably bad. We did a good job of limiting turnovers against Notre Dame only to take a step backwards against Miami.
Our offense is still too stagnant. We look disjointed and out of sync 99% of the time and our spacing is terrible. The guards and bigs don’t know how to work with each other within the system. A lot of that has to do with our lack of having a true point guard. We don’t drive nearly enough. Black had 2 3-pointers off of Love drives. Things open up when that happens, but we spend the majority of the shot clock dribbling and passing around the perimeter. We ended up winning the rebounding battle 45-39.
I guess I will take ugly wins over ugly losses because at this point it’s all ugly. A win is a win. I still stand by saying Anthony Harris takes over the starting point guard spot when he is completely back and healthy. And I still stand behind wanting to see a Black, Platek, Walton, Sharpe, Bacot starting five. At least then you have players that can stretch the defense and Black drives more than Love or Davis. Hopefully we have a couple of good practices before a ranked Clemson team comes to Chapel Hill.
I will leave ya’ll with a quote from Roy on Love and Davis:
“They've got to stop turning the ball over. That's the biggest thing. They can both be good defensive players so they've got to stay in front of the basketball. I've always said if my point guards will stay in front of the ball and not turn it over, I can stick with them for anything. They're both shooting the ball terribly. And they're good shooters. But this is not kindergarten basketball. I can't say, 'Oh, you're doing great. You're shooting 28%. God, that's fantastic or anything. Sometimes, you've got to man up and start making shots. And that's what they have to do to get their entire game going because they focus so much on their shots going in. And I still say focus on the things that I talked about as a point guard is stay in front of the ball, do the job defensively, and then don't turn it over.
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