A Few More Takeaways From Carolina's Victory at Miami

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CORAL GABLES, FL – Winning on the road in the ACC is not easy, even for the best teams. Yet, with North Carolina’s 75-72 triumph at Miami on Saturday at Wetsco Center, it has improved to 6-1 away from the Dean Dome in league games this season.

It required the Tar Heels bow up late, as they couldn’t stomp out the Hurricanes when leading by 12 points with 7:43 remaining. But Carolina got the win nonetheless, and improved to 19-5 overall and 11-2 in the ACC.

Four Heels scored in double figures, led by RJ Davis’ 25 points, the eighth time this season he’s gone for at least that many in a game. Elliot Cadeau posted a career-high with 19 points, Harrison Ingram added 13, and Armando Bacot finished with 10 points and 15 rebounds.

UNC’s next game is Tuesday at Syracuse.

As we do a day or two after each game, here are a few more takeaways from Carolina’s win at Miami:

Although Elliot Cadeau is 6-for-31 on the season from 3-point range, don’t think it’s because he isn’t working on it.

Cadeau said following the win at Miami that he makes between 500 and 1,000 threes a day. A day!

He gets up shots in three different workouts, spending about 45 minutes each time with a student manager or two rebounding for him.

“Mostly threes, but a little bit of everything,” Cadeau said, giving more details about his shooting regimen.

He’s seen the ball go through the basket a lot since arriving in Chapel Hill, just not in the games. But the work hasn’t waned, and he expects it will pay off.

“I’ve been working on it a lot,” Cadeau said. “I make shots all the time in practice, they just haven’t been in the games. So, I just have to see some fall, and I think it will be good going forward.”

What does Cadeau becoming a consistent shooter from the outside mean to his game and the team’s?

“I feel like nobody can guard me if I’m making shots, because now you’ve got to play me up close, and I feel like I feel like I can blow by anybody,” he said.

If there was a stat kept for how often a player crashes to the floor, rest assured RJ Davis would lead the Tar Heels, and perhaps the ACC, in that category.

For all of his 6-foot, 180-pound frame, Davis has at times looked in postgame like a boxer after a fight, and one can only imagine the heat rubs and ice packs on other parts of his body. And it’s not happening just on offense when he’s fouled. It’s all the time in a variety of situations.

For example, he crashed to the floor multiple times on defense against the Hurricanes, plummeted to the ground multiple times trying to battle Clemson’s trees for rebounds Tuesday night, and two Saturday at Watsco Center, Davis simply dove for a loose ball, once near midcourt when he looked more like Michael Phelps at the outset of another gold medal heat than one of the smallest players on a basketball court.

And it’s that grit that helped UNC beat Miami, and darn near overcome Clemson last Tuesday.

“He does hit the floor,” UNC Coach Hubert Davis replied when asked if he’s ever seen a guard Davis’ size on the floor so much. “Maybe you can say that to get him some more free throws, because he is a great free throw shooter.

“But you know, he gets into the lane, he doesn't shy away from contact and that allows him to be effective on the offensive end. But again, you can't get any tougher. It doesn't matter (that he’s) six feet, you don't measure his height. You measure his heart. And there's nobody in a country that has a bigger heart than RJ Davis.”

Nobody needs to tell Harrison Ingram he’s struggling from the free throw line. He’s well aware. And perhaps soon, his conversion rate will see an uptick.

Ingram was 3-for-7 from the charity stripe in the win here at Miami, furthering a perplexing trend for a player one would think shooting at a higher percentage than the 55.6 percent clip marking this season.

Going back to the win at Clemson, Ingram is 10-for-25 from the line, including a 1-for-8 stretch spanning four games beginning with Clemson and ending with Louisville. He was shooting 63.9 percent before the current 11-game span began at Littlejohn Coliseum.

“It’s just mentally, I’ve got to work on it,” Ingram said at Watsco Center, when asked about his struggles. Part of the problem is attributed to a wrist he injured in the Kentucky game in December, and then reaggravated in early January.

Ingram’s attempt at a form of load management has centered on the wrist. Keeping it healthy enough to perform in contests has meant laying off it some in between games.

And when he’s at the line late in games does it enter into his mind?

“It’s just in general I’m bad at free throws right now,” he said. “It’s something I’ve got to work on. I feel like it’s something I’m going to focus on in the next few weeks.

“I haven’t really been able to get as many shots up the last few months because my wrist. I’ve been trying to play through that so I won’t be able to get the shots up that I usually got before practice, after practice. I’m trying to play through my wrist. Now my is healed and I’m going to get back in the gym and keep working.”

Jae’Lyn Withers played five minutes at Miami and did not score or grab a rebound. He did have an assist, though, and a turnover. He didn’t even shoot the ball.

In fact, Withers has not made a shot from the field since scoring nine points in a win at Boston College on January 20. That’s six games without a bucket. He has shot 7-for-8 from the free throw line in that span, but is scoreless in four of Carolina’s last five games. He also has only six total rebounds over the last five games.

More: Withers has played just five minutes in each of the last two games, and only 37 minutes in UNC’s last five contests.

Jalen Washington has also seen his production drop in the last few games. He has scored four points on one made field goal in the last three contests, and has more than four points once in the last eight games.

Washington has remained efficient when shooting, as he’s 7-for-9 from the floor over the last six games, and has 14 rebounds in that period, too. His minutes going back to the Louisville game on January 17: Louisville 4; @ BC 7; Wake Forest 5; @ Georgia Tech 11; Duke 4; Clemson 13; @ Miami 6.

For Carolina to march through March and approach their goals, Hubert Davis needs more from Withers and Washington. However, there’s somewhat of a catch here: Davis must play them more. Neither player has been up to par of late, but perhaps they’re playing tight knowing they won’t get many minutes if they don’t perform well.

Whatever it is, UNC’s bench was once one of its weapons, but its production has diminished of late, and getting Withers and Washington on the upswing would be huge for the Heels.