There are two good things that come out of preseason college basketball games: winning gives you hope that the season will turn out alright, and losing is extremely forgivable because it doesn’t go into the record books anyway. For the Tar Heels, they suffered a pretty ugly loss to Indiana that they will have to chew on for the rest of the week. As the game went on, it seemed pretty clear that this team is still trying to gel on both sides of the ball. The Hoosiers are dealing with the same thing, but ultimately getting to take a bunch of free throws and some hot shooting from Bryce Lindsay gave them the edge.
Let’s dive into a few takeaways from a bad afternoon in Indianapolis.
Neo Avdalas’ struggles as the primary ballhandler continue
Virginia Tech transfer Neo Advalas arrived in Chapel Hill with the expectation that he was going to spend a lot of time with the ball in his hands as the main facilitator on offense. So far that hasn’t gone particularly well, but it would be unfair to say that Avdalas is just a bad player. After all, we’re talking about a preseason game with a team that is basically brand new. Figuring out where your teammates like to be or should be takes time, and so the sky definitely isn’t falling. However, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t speak to what we saw yesterday, and what we saw was pretty painful.
Avdalas finished his day with six points, two rebounds, an assist, a steal, and four turnovers. The four turnovers were pretty hard to watch, with the one sticking out the most being a pass that he made directly to a Hoosiers player as if he thought their jersey was actually blue. My hypothesis from watching him play is that he is thinking a lot about what he should and shouldn’t be doing, all while trying to figure out where his teammates should be on the floor. Not at all shocking to see this before the regular season starts, but still, Malone needs to help him figure it out if he is going to be the presumed point guard for this team.
Sayon Keita is better than advertised
It would only be fair to clarify what is meant by saying that Sayon Keita is better than what was sold to Carolina fans. While we spent a lot of time in the offseason hearing about how good he was, there was a heavy-handed emphasis on the fact that this kid is raw, young, and will be a work in progress all season long. While all of that is true, beating that drum as hard as some people did made it seem like he wasn’t that good right now. That’s clearly not the case given what we saw against the Hoosiers.
While the other big men on Carolina’s roster had a rough outing, Keita was able to finish with 12 points, 9 rebounds, five blocks, and two steals. He was easily the Tar Heels’ best defensive player, giving the Hoosiers fits if they got anywhere near the rim. Indiana shot 36% from the field in this game, and their shooting percentage would’ve been a lot worse if it weren’t for Bryce Lindsay going off from deep. Things got so bad that just knowing Keita was in their vicinity manipulated some of the shots that Indiana took. There’s no doubt that Keita’s game isn’t perfect — nor does anybody expect it to be — but something tells me he is going to be a much more important player for this team than some people think.
Perimeter defense is a pain point for the Tar Heels
While interior defense was pretty good for UNC in this one, the perimeter defense was awful. A lot of the Hoosier’s makes from deep were Lindsay, and while I’m sure he’s just a really good shooter, a lot of his damage could’ve been prevented. It’s difficult to say whether or not this is a team problem, because if we’re being honest, a lot of it was Matt Able getting cooked.
Able struggled to stay in front of Lindsay throughout the afternoon, getting torn up on ball screens and failing to close out properly when he had the opportunity. I didn’t pay enough attention to how he did in this department at NC State, but it may be a concern if this is just who he is. Malone may have to re-think how to handle ball screens when Able is getting picked on, but also it could be a communication issue since UNC has been switching a lot on defense. Again, is this a big concern going into the regular season? Maybe, but maybe not. All we know is for one afternoon in the Circle City, Lindsay dropped 26 points on the Tar Heels, and it would be worth reviewing the film on repeat until their next preseason game against Charlotte.
