5 Takeaways From UNC's Loss To Ohio State

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina had a huge opportunity with Ohio State in town Wednesday night looking to connect last Friday’s performance in a win over Oregon in the Bahamas, but the Tar Heels fell well short of that in a 74-49 loss at home.

The margin is the worst loss at home for the Tar Heels in the Roy Williams era, eclipsing a 21-point loss to Louisville on Jan. 12 last year. In the end, the stats and final score told the exact story of this game.

And with that in mind, here are 5 Takeaways from UNC’s loss to Ohio State:

A pair of 3-pointers by Cole Anthony cut the Ohio State lead to 39-36 with 15:57 left, but from that point on, OSU outscored the Heels 35-13 to close the game. The numbers over that closing stretch:

OSU was 11-for-20 from the field, including 5-for-11 from 3-point range while the Tar Heels were 4-for-21 and 1-for-7, respectively.

Whatever could go wrong for the Tar Heels in that stretch did. In fact, things were going so poorly Roy Williams subbed in five players for the regulars before subbing back for them because they didn’t play well, either.

But things really caved in after the margin was cut to 39-36.

“We turned it over a couple of times during that stretch, but I can pick on everything,” Williams said. “We said we were going to switch every screen on the ball; first possession we didn't do it with a veteran lineup in there. Seems like we even had the ball and I think they missed the first possession… After Cole's second three, that got it to three (points). As evident from the game, I have no answers.”

Nobody knows if the Tar Heels would have won or even been that much more competitive had Bacot not gotten hurt 7:12 into the game, appearing to severely injure his ankle, but it stands to reason the Heels would have been much better off. He’s that good and that important to the team. So in what part of the game did the Heels miss him the most?

“That’s huge,” Garrison Brooks said. “That’s a guy that averages 12 and 10, so you are missing a double-double on the court… I believe we missed a big part of us today with Armando out.”

Roy Williams said Bacot is “out for a while.”

Ohio State owned the Tar Heels on the glass and it wasn’t just because Bacot went down with an injury less than eight minutes into the contest. By the time he was injured, OSU had a 14-5 edge on the glass, so its possible UNC was on its way to a bloodbath on the glass regardless. The final tally, though, was 48 for the Buckeyes and 32 for the Tar Heels, so it was 34-27 over the final 32 minutes of the game without Bacot on the floor.

Ohio State entered the game ranked No. 31 in the nation in rebounding margin at plus-8.6 per game but considering Carolina was No. 2 with a plus-16.7 edge this stat is the most alarming. UNC has a lot of issues, but rebounding hasn’t been one. But it was on this night.

A final rebounding note: Both teams had 13 offensive rebounds, but Ohio State had 16 second-chance points to UNC’s 8.

The Tar Heels’ struggles in their half court offense are such that you can’t point to just one or two things as culprits for the problems. Cole Anthony is really the only player on the roster who can create his own shot with the dribble, the Heels don’t run the offense through the post well, especially when Bacot is not in the game, so defenses aren’t being forced to move and rotate, and the general ball movement is too slow. The result against a quality defensive team Wednesday night was that UNC attempted contested shots on way too many possessions.

“In our freelance offense, we’ve got to pass, cut, move and set great screens,” forward Justin Pierce replied, when asked what’s wrong with the offense. “We’re not setting great screens right now and that’s why I think we’re not getting as open of shots… We’ve got some good shooters on this team and, right now, we’re not getting clean enough looks.”

The Tar Heels were 17-for-62 from the floor for the night, with the 17 made shots their lowest total in the history of the Smith Center, which opened in 1985. And, to further illustrate the half court offense woes, the Heels scored just 10 points in the paint.

Even with Bacot going down less than eight minutes into the game, thus his minutes went to someone off the bench, the Heels’ bench was still outscored 25-10. Eight Buckeyes played 15 or more minutes, so it essentially relied on three players off the bench. UNC’s main reserves, outside of Justin Pierce, who logged most of Bacot’s minutes, played much less: Christian Keeling 9:51 and Andrew Platek 11:56. Brandon Huffman was on the floor for 7:08, Walker Miller 6:14; Shea Rush 5:39; K.J. Smith 7:07 plus the few minutes the guys at the end of the bench got. That’s 10 points in 79 minutes.