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CHAPEL HILL – With North Carolina’s rather wobbly overall play to start the season, among the storylines surrounding the Tar Heels has included them cutting the cord to last year.
More concisely, when will the Heels apply the last snippet to their miracle run to the national championship game and have all feet squarely on the ground for 2022-23?
It appears they are fully in that process right now, but nobody in the program is willing to concede mission accomplished, or even close to it.
“I wouldn't say we've figured it all the way, but we are getting there for sure,” junior guard Caleb Love said following a 100-67 victory over The Citadel on Tuesday night at the Smith Center.
Regardless of the opponent, and the Bulldogs were the final non-power conference team Carolina will face until the postseason, UNC’s approach Tuesday night mirrored how it dove into a 16-point win over Georgia Tech last Saturday at home.
This is a start, as the team clearly bottomed out dropping its fourth consecutive game in a loss at Virginia Tech on December 4. Poor everything on offense, occasional defense, and rebounding not at all in line with the Carolina standard marked most of the first nine performances.
This wasn’t just a simple issue of the Tar Heels not playing well. They have admitted their minds weren’t right, but having the tree shaken until nearly every leaf fell off was perhaps what this club needed.
No longer are the Heels trying to live up to the hype, much of which was self-created given their “championship or bust” mantra during the preseason. Instead, the focus is inward. Opponents are secondary. This is all about Carolina worrying about Carolina.
“It’s definitely a factor for us,” Love said. “Not just thinking about us but thinking about the bigger picture, as far as good to great passes, help defense, help the helper, once we buy into stuff like that it helps on the court.”
Focusing on themselves means playing in the minute, not expecting their alarms to go off with March already here. Focusing on themselves means to defend better, rebound better, move offensively better, recognize better, pass better, take better shots, and be more accurate when shooting the basketball.
The Tar Heels aren’t disrespecting anyone on their schedule, but they are respecting themselves, their development, and their quest.
“One hundred percent,” senior Armando Bacot said. “We just got to keep getting better and focus on us. We can't control anything outside of us, so that’s what we are really worried about right now.”
Evidence?
During the four-game losing streak that included a four-overtime loss to Alabama, the Tar Heels registered only 38 assists in 180 minutes of basketball. That’s one every 4.7 minutes of action. They also connected to 104 made field goals, a lowly percentage of 36.5 percent.
In the two wins over Georgia Tech and The Citadel, the Heels have assisted on 39 of 59 field goals. That’s a dish every 2.1 game minutes, and assisting 66.1 percent of the time.
For reference, last year’s team assisted on 54.2 percent of its field goals. The national average is in the 51 percent range.
One reason for the increased connectivity is that Carolina’s transition game has improved. This isn’t just fast breaks, but the secondary breaks and many variants that come with it. Bigs busting down the court beating defenders to the block is such a crucial component to this approach working.
It, too, is a Carolina staple.
"That's something that we've been emphasizing all season, but I feel like that we've actually done it in the last couple of games,” UNC Coach Hubert Davis said following the win Tuesday night. “I know I mentioned after the Georgia Tech game, the three-minute period right before halftime, that I felt like this is the first time that I looked and go, 'Wow, they were running like a Carolina team.'
“And I felt like we did that tonight. Everybody was running and we were able to get the three things that we were looking for in transition. We're looking for layups and dunks. We're looking for pitch-ahead wide-open threes by our best three-point shooters. And we're looking for deep post catches by our five men, and we were able to get all of them tonight because of our ability to run in transition."
The Tar Heels shot better than 50 percent in three of the four halves versus the Jackets and Bulldogs. The degree with which UNC is dialed in might not be measured as much on the defensive end of the floor as it is the offensive end.
That is different from most teams, but this Carolina club is unique in its makeup, experiences, and expectations. The mantra will remain full disconnection from the run, as it will fully reflect a complete launching forward.
"That's a great question, I don't know,” Davis replied Tuesday night when asked when he will know when the cord is finally severed. “I don't think about last year at all. The only thing that's on my mind is this team, these players, our locker room, our growth, our chemistry, our togetherness.
“I don't think about it, and I don't talk about it at all. But that's a great question. I don't know."
The answer is, he will know, the players will know, and so will everyone else. It will be quite evident.
