5 Takeaways From Carolina's Loss To Wisconsin

WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – North Carolina’s season came to a quick end Friday night, as the Tar Heels couldn’t get anything going on offense nor could they stop Wisconsin on defense in an 85-62 loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Mackey Arena.

Not only did the Tar Heels lose in the opening round for the first time since 1999, but this was the first time a Roy Williams team has lost an opening game ever in the tournament, ending his streak of 29 consecutive wins in to start NCAA Tournaments.

Carolina trailed 40-24 at halftime and by as many as 19 midway through the second half and by the final margin, which was Wisconsin’s largest lead of the night.

Armando Bacot led the Tar Heels with 15 points followed by Garrison Brooks and Caleb Love with 10 points each.

The No 8 seed in the South Region, UNC finished its season 18-11, while the No. 9 seed Badgers improved to 18-12.

Here are 5 Takeaways from UNC’s loss to Wisconsin:

One of our 5 Keys for this game was the importance for UNC to defend the perimeter because the Badgers were going to shoot threes and shoot a lot of them if they continued getting open. Well, that’s exactly what happened.

Wisconsin made Carolina defend, or at least try to defend. But the Heels were routinely twisted into knots defending drives and feeds off the dribble. And at times, the Heels didn’t get out on shooters. The Badgers had early success getting into the lane for layups or drawing defenders before dishing for layups and even a couple of dunks.

Then the perimeter stuff started happening, and it seemingly never ended.

With 6:43 left before the intermission, at the next-to-last TV timeout of the half, Wisconsin was 3-for-11 from the perimeter and led 22-18. But then hit 9 of its next 11 from beyond the arc and that was the game. For the night, the Badgers were 13-for-27 from three.

Remember, entering the game, UNC’s opponents shot 29.5 percent from three in games the Tar Heels won, but opponents shot 45.5 percent in games the Tar Heels lost. That proved itself again on this night.

“I don't think we allowed them to do anything,” UNC Coach Roy Williams said. “In sports, basketball, it's man on man a lot of times. I think Caleb and RJ and Kerwin, they wanted to do well.

“We weren't good enough or experienced enough or coached well enough or all of the above tonight… But the bottom line is 13 out of 27 for them, five out of 13 for us. So that's eight. So they outscore us by 24 points from the three-point line. Their guys made shots.”

Much of what afflicted the Tar Heels early in the season as they were still feeling things out returned on both ends of the floor. For the guards, Caleb Love in particular, the drives to the basket trying to score over opposing bigs didn’t work in December and January, and it didn’t work on this night either.

But it wasn’t just him. The movement was so-so, cuts weren’t sharp, posts weren’t strong, and as a result there was a lot of looking around leading to impatience by the young guards. It wasn’t all on them, though.

Armando Bacot attempted one shot in the first half and Garrison Brooks was 1-for-7, clearly hurrying some shots because nothing else was available.

And other than Bacot having a really nice stretch in the second half, it was more of the same for the Tar Heels. They finished the night 25-for-65 from the floor (38.5 percent), but an even greater illustration is that UNC was 19-for-28 on layups and dunks as well as 5-for-13 from the perimeter, which means the Heels were an amazingly poor 1-for-24 on mid-range and other stuff.

The Heels turned it over just 10 times, though some during a key stretch in the first half were awfully damaging. This was just a poor night for a team that has played much better over the previous five weeks.

“We weren't good enough or experienced enough or coached well enough or all of the above tonight,” Williams said. “But it's frustrating. Like I said, we take bad shots and turn the ball over and that's been an Achilles' heel for us all year long.

“But the kids do want to do well. I never had a kid that wanted to turn the ball over. I've never had a kid that wanted to miss a shot.

“But as one of the lowest field-goal percentages of any team I've ever coached, one of the lowest 3-point percentage, one of the lowest free-throw percentage -- in some ways it may have been the worst at all. But kids didn't want to miss them, I know that.”

Kerwin Walton came into the game having converted just 19 field goal attempts over UNC’s previous seven games, which included him netting just seven shots last week in the ACC Tournament. Carolina has mostly played well during this stretch, but for the offense to work as it should, the Heels need a perimeter presence, and Wisconsin just didn’t let Walton get many touches or looks.

As a result, his first field goal attempt came with 2:06 left in the first half and was a three that made the game 32-24, and his second bucket, also a three, came with 9:03 remaining and cut Wisconsin’s margin to 66-50.

Over the final eight games of the season, Walton was 21-for-61 from the field overall (34.8 percent), including 16-for-48 from three-point range (33.3 percent), and that includes the 6-for-9 overall (4-for-7 from three) game against Duke two weeks ago. Furthermore, he attempted just 23 shots over Carolina’s last four contests, which is 5.8 per game.

For UNC to beat quality opponents, the Heels needed him to shoot a higher percentage and to get more looks than he got over the last two weeks.

As inexplicable as so much was tonight, that Carolina was outrebounded by the Badgers is an indication of just how poorly UNC played. Carolina entered the game No. 1 in the nation in rebound margin at plus-10.6 per game while Wisconsin was No. 241 at minus-1.7 per contest.

But the Badgers out-worked the Tar Heels on the glass, 37-34. UNC had a modest 12-9 edge on the offensive boards giving it just a 12-9 advantage in second chance points. When UNC plays well, those numbers are better than that. So what did Wisconsin do to keep the Tar Heels off the glass?

“Boxout,” Brooks said.

Only Kentucky (42-38) in December and Florida State (30-29) on the road in January have outrebounded the Tar Heels this season.

“They outrebounded us in the first half. I think at the end of the game they still outrebounded us 37-34,” Williams said. “Not many people have done that.”

Armando Bacot attempted one shot in the first half, but he went off in the second half, scoring 15 points over the first 6:50 of the half. He scored on a dunk, a layup on a put back and the plus-one, a pair of layups, a short jumper, two free throws, and another layup on a put back.

It was too little too late for the Tar Heels, but it was once again more evidence that when Bacot is totally dialed in just how effective he can be. He was rebounding, altered some shots on defense, and even had a pretty feed to Garrison Brooks for a dunk.

“I challenged our big guys to be more effective in the second half, to be more aggressive,” Williams said. “And I think we did that.”

It wasn't enough, but at least it's one thing that was somewhat a positive on the night for the Heels.