The UNC basketball program once again played a conference game without its two best players and leading scorers against an in-state rival that was frothing at the mouth for a chance at easy revenge. NC State, losers of their last two games, each in a different and uniquely painful fashion, needed to get right, and an undermanned North Carolina squad would do perfectly.
The Tar Heels didn’t help matters by having some of the worst shooting Hubert Davis is likely to witness as head coach. UNC couldn’t take advantage of NC State’s lack of size either because of its missing starting frontcourt. Things snowballed from there, and the game was never really a contest.
Let’s dust ourselves off, wipe the blood off our lips, make sure we have all our teeth, and dive into some lessons learned from a tough loss at NC State.
High Scorer
When UNC signed Zayden High as a four-star high school recruit, if I told you that he’d be the team’s high scorer in an ACC game, you’d probably say “Wow! Good for him.” If I then told you that he’d be the high scorer in a 24-point loss, you’d probably go “Hmm, that makes sense.”
I don’t mean to slander High, who, for the second game in a row, answered his nation’s call. He just has a ceiling that’s not as high as Caleb Wilson’s. You’d hope that some of the team’s more prominent players, like Seth Trimble or Luka Bogavac, could pick up some of the scoring slack. Combined, those two scored the same 13 points that High did.
High stepping up in the absence of Wilson and Veesaar is a net positive for the team. But Hubert Davis needs more horsepower from his backcourt. The balance of the team’s scoring should come from its guards, because the remaining posts aren’t as good as the Twin Towers of Power. Having most of the team’s scoring come from third- and fourth-choice posts just means the team’s ceiling gets lower.
Cold from three
It was a bad night at the office for UNC’s three-point shooters. The Tar Heels were an abysmal 5/33 from the three-point line all night, but the damage was really done in the first half when UNC went just 1/16. When NC State was hitting all night, UNC couldn’t stay within touching distance to keep any meaningful game pressure on the Wolfpack.
Besides the raw numbers, nothing illustrates the frustration of the night better than the possession with about six minutes left in the first half. It began with a Derek Dixon miss at the elbow, but Jonathan Powell tipped the ball out to maintain possession. He eventually got the ball back and fired a three from the right wing. Brick. A scrum ensued with Seth Trimble grabbing the loose ball, which eventually found Jarin Stevenson in the right corner. Brick. Zayden High punched the rebound out to Dixon, who drove and kicked back to High in the left corner. Brick.
That possession could have gotten UNC within 9 points, but instead, they gave up a layup at the other end and went down 13. I get that with Wilson and Veesaar drawing attention in the post, UNC’s shooters would have more space and better looks from downtown, but without them, they MUST shoot better than this, or UNC will be in a world of pain for the rest of the season.
Bold Talk
It’s easy to talk smack against a wounded opponent. NC State knew that the most dangerous Tar Heel would not play, and they had a reasonable inference that the second-most dangerous one wouldn’t either. They even had the benefit of watching tape of what the makeshift UNC frontcourt would look like, so no surprises. There’s no guarantee that UNC would have beaten NC State if Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar were healthy and available, but it certainly wouldn’t have ended up like this. Not a record margin victory.
After the game, NC State’s leading scorer Quadir Copeland had some things to say:
Again, brave words for a team that won’t have to play in Chapel Hill this season. So if there is a God, and He is just, please let Wilson and Veesaar heal in time for the ACC Tournament. Please put NC State on UNC’s side of the bracket. And let’s see what Copeland and his friends have to say then.
