5 Takeaways From UNC's Loss To Florida State

GREENSBORO, NC – North Carolina had chances to defeat Florida State on Friday night, but the Tar Heels struggled down the stretch getting quality shots and fell, 69-66, in the semifinals of the 68th Annual New York Life ACC Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Carolina trailed by 11 points at halftime and fought back to take the lead holding it through the mid-point of the game. But the Heels missed 14 of their last 18 shots from the floor and the Seminoles made some clutch plays to seal the deal.

Caleb Love led UNC with 13 points while Armando Bacot added 12 points and Kerwin Walton finished with 11 as the only Tar Heels in double figures.

The Tar Heels will wait until Sunday evening to find out what bracket the NCAA selection committee will place. UNC dropped to 18-10 while FSU improved to 16-5.

Here are 5 Takeaways from UNC’s loss to Florida State:

Trailing 35-24 at halftime, UNC got back into the game by hitting some perimeter shots and also going inside and establishing itself in the paint. In fact, nine of Carolina’s first 20 field goal attempts after the intermission were by bigs, which is a healthy number given that six other shots in the stretch were open and crafted three-point attempts. Caleb Love and Kerwin Walton combined to convert four of them, balancing out the Heels’ work in the paint. Getting those looks were a point of emphasis, but so was going inside.

That’s why the last 10 minutes were a bit troubling for the Tar Heels. In that span, bigs attempted just four of UNC’s final 18 field goal attempts, with the guards dribbling a lot before their shots, forcing drives among taller Seminoles, and just not working to get better looks. It shouldn’t come as a surprise the Heels were only 4-for-18 on those field goal attempts.

In particular, Roy Williams wasn’t happy with the final 3:15 after RJ Davis’ three free throws gave Carolina a 64-62 lead. Following a missed free throw by FSU’s Anthony Polite, UNC had perhaps its worst possession of the night.

Armando Bacot’s attempted layup was blocked but Carolina retained the ball. And then, following an inbound, Day’Ron Sharpe ended up attempting a 17-foot jumper that didn’t hit the rim. And while the Heels rebounded the miss, the shot clock expired. Violation on UNC.

“Bottom line is their defense late in the game was much stronger than our offense was,” UNC Coach Roy Williams said. “We did not get a good shot at all after RJ made three free throws to put us up. We never got another good shot after that the whole time. Their defense was better than our offense.”

Bacot also gave FSU credit for much of Carolina’s issues late in the game.

“They're definitely unique in that respect because they've got so much length, and they're athletic and they play 12 players deep,” he said. “So, kind of like how we are with our front court, they always have fresh legs. They're switching, they're fronting the post, not letting us get into our sets. So, it was a tough thing.

“It's kind of a game of just playing freelance the whole time out there, trying to just go and score one-on-one stuff and stuff like that. Because I mean, it was just hard to get any offense versus them.”

By the way, UNC’s bigs took just 19 of the team’s 68 field goal attempts on the night.

UNC came into the game having been outrebounded just twice, in a win over Kentucky in December and at FSU in January. The Noles had a 30-29 edge that afternoon, but two weeks ago, UNC outboarded them 44-36. But here in the semifinals, FSU was back owning an advantage on the glass.

The Seminoles owned a 22-21 edge on the glass through halftime, though the Heels had a 9-6 edge on the offensive glass turning it into an 8-5 advantage in second chance points. After the intermission, however, Carolina owned a 21-17 advantage, including 12-4 on the offensive glass leading to a 9-4 edge in second chance points.

For the game, the Tar Heels won the rebounding battle 42-39, including 21-10 on offensive boards, and owned an 18-10 edge in second chance points.

This is significant because it illustrates their fight and grit. Garrison Brooks just didn’t have any lift, the ankle clearly bothered him Friday night, yet he battled and battled. He missed several box out opportunities because his movements just weren’t as sharp as before the ankle injury.

FSU is a terrific rebounding team and was fresh facing a Carolina club playing its third game in as many nights, but the Heels did enough on the glass to win the game, even in defeat.

It wasn’t just that Kerwin Walton was cold shooting the basketball in UNC’s first two games here this week, he wasn’t getting many looks, either. In the wins over Notre Dame and Virginia Tech, the freshman guard was a combined 3-for-9, including getting off just two three-point attempts versus the Hokies on Wednesday night.

By halftime Friday, Walton was 0-for-1 and was a non-factor in the game. That’s when his coach went to him and mandated he hunt for his shot more. FSU was draping Walton not allowing him any space to pop out for catch-and-shoot jumpers, so it was incumbent on Walton to work harder to get open, to use his teammates to get open, and simply cut, jab, stop, and do everything with greater gusto. He did and it worked, though it took some time.

With Carolina trailing 42-36, Walton finally got hot because he got open and his teammates found him. He drained a three off a feed from RJ Davis at the 14:27 mark, then again off another feed from Davis at the 12:56 mark. And 31 seconds later, Bacot found Walton open for another three, which he drained at the 12:25 mark tying the score at 46-46.

It was part of Carolina’s 27-11 run to open the second half and put the Seminoles on their heels. Walton did what Williams wanted, and it worked.

“Yes, I challenged all of them, not just Kerwin,” Williams said. “If he's only going to take one shot, that's not helping us. I want him to play defense. I want him to do all those other things. He is getting better, but he's our best outside threat by far. So, I told him he had to move better, and everybody else had to do a better job of getting him shots.

“But it's been a problem that we've had basically all year of making outside shots other than Kerwin, and we're not getting him enough looks. We're still shooting a bunch of them but not getting enough makes.”

UNC was outstanding from the line in beating FSU two weeks ago, as the Tar Heels converted 27 of 30 from the stripe in the 78-70 win. But they were back to their more usual selves at the line Friday, shooting just 14-for-25, including some key late misses. In a game as tight as this was, those lost points were crucial in the outcome.

The Seminoles, by the way, were 16-for-22,

RJ Davis hit three huge free throws to give Carolina a 64-62 lead with 3:15 left, but it wasn’t enough.

“Throughout the course of the game, we missed a bunch of free throws,” Williams said. “Yes, that would have helped us, there's no question about that.”

The Tar Heels kept down the turnovers for the third straight night, committing just 12 in the semifinals after a total of 22 in the first two games. The problem, however, was how damaging they were and impacted the game’s outcome.

FSU scored 19 points off UNC’s 12 turnovers, a reason the Noles also owned a 19-8 advantage in fast break points. This was most troubling in the first half, as the Seminoles scored 12 points off seven UNC turnovers.

But this wasn’t a twist from the first two meetings between the teams, it was more the same. In the January 16 meeting in Tallahassee, FSU scored 22 points off 14 Carolina turnovers, and two weeks ago in Chapel Hill, the Noles scored 25 points off 21 UNC giveaways. That’s a three-game total of 47 UNC turnovers leading to 66 FSU points.