CHAPEL HILL - On a night when North Carolina guard RJ Davis recorded a career-high 42 points, the most by a Tar Heel in the Smith Center, mistakes and blunders by the Tar Heels can be easily overlooked.
North Carolina (22-6, 14-3 ACC) scraped by Monday night, defeating the Miami Hurricanes 75-71 for its third straight win, but it didn’t come without a struggle.
While the focus will be on the Tar Heels’ allowing a 13-point lead to shrink down to one, their inability to establish a presence down low led to the heavy-reliance on Davis and the three-minute scoring drought in the final minutes..
Miami (15-14, 6-12) made a concerted effort to prevent entry passes and allow Armando Bacot to take over the game, much like the way he did in the second half of the first matchup in Coral Gables.
That was the game plan and it worked.
Bacot finished with just five points on four shot attempts, tied for his season-low in both categories, while Jalen Washington did not attempt a field goal in seven minutes of action. Miami's denial defense in the post was as aggressive as anything UNC has seen all season.
“I would say that they made it really difficult because not only was [Armando] getting fronted by a strong big in (Norchad) Omier and (Michael) Nwoko, but they also had helpside defenders on his backside,” said UNC forward Jae’Lyn Withers. “Everyone was ready to collapse and go for the ball as soon as it left the passer’s hands.”
UNC committed 12 turnovers, with more than half when intent of getting the basketball on the block to Bacot or other bigs.
Carolina Coach Hubert Davis credited the Hurricanes’ approach for the offensive disruption, but also looked towards his guards to make better passes.
“The discipline and details of how to enter the ball in the post [is important]. You can’t enter the ball in the post above the free throw line,” he said. “You have to break the free throw line [and] extend it. You never can throw the ball into the post to a big guy with a leaning pass. It’s impossible.”
Combine the leaning passes with the inaccuracy when attempting to feed the post and it was a recipe for disaster on the block.
The Tar Heels’ passes from the backcourt mirrored that of a quarterback and not a guard, attempting to lead Bacot to a spot instead of hitting his hands.
“Big guys are always fighting to hold their man off. You have to throw it to their hand, you cannot lead them,” said Hubert Davis. “A number of times we were making entry passes above the free throw line, which is a very small chance that that can be without a turnover. Leading the ball into the post to the big guy, that just can’t work.”
When North Carolina wanted to establish position down low, Miami had the answer. Yes, they forced turnovers by preventing clean entry passes, but their real impact was felt when the Tar Heels abandoned the strategy altogether at times.
Armando Bacot’s last field goal attempt came with 16:31 left in the second half and the Hurricanes turned the UNC offense into a one-dimensional threat.
They dared the likes of Cormac Ryan and Harrison Ingram to hit from three, and were comfortable with Davis beating them from the outside. Ryan and Ingram combined to shoot 6-for-26 on the night, including 2-for-14 from the perimeter.
Davis did in fact beat them almost on his own, but he also pointed out that even if the box score showed a dominant night, that he could’ve been better in some areas, including his passing.
“They have a couple of lengthy wings and they were just in the passing lanes a little bit within the paint,” said Davis. “They were able to get a lot of deflections and our post entries weren’t the greatest tonight. We've got to do a better job of doing that.”
Off Tuesday, the Heels are back at it Wednesday, first with a lengthy film session, in which the head coach promised will include an emphasis on post entry passing.
