Is Carolina's Peremiter Game Getting On Track?

Perimeter shooting hasn’t been a pleasant topic for North Carolina’s basketball team for most of this season. Or last year, either.

Currently, the Tar Heels’ 30.4 percent accuracy rate from 3-point range is the exact same it was a year ago, when they fell to a 14-19 record, the second worst mark in program history.

Right now, Carolina stands at 7-4 overall and 2-2 in the ACC, but it’s teetering on the edge, with its last two wins coming on buckets by Leaky Black with nine seconds left to defeat Notre Dame and by Andrew Platek with three seconds remaining to win at Miami.

What is interesting in those wins is UNC shot threes at a palatable level, and in fact, over the last three games, the Heels have converted 25 of 63 from beyond the arc, which is 39.7 percent. Teams with UNC’s interior can win a lot of games shooting that clip from the outside.

But Carolina hasn’t been that team for most of the season.

“Caleb (Love) shoots the ball well, Puff (Johnson) can really shoot… RJ (Davis) shoots it well - but they haven’t done it in games,” UNC Coach Roy Williams said last month.

He threw in freshman Kerwin Walton at the time, too, but that was around the time Walton’s recent perimeter eruption commenced. He went 3-for-3 triggering UNC’s run to close out Kentucky on Dec. 19 in Cleveland, and over the last three games he’s 10-for-19.

“If we were to have a shooting contest, he would almost win it every day,” Williams said about Walton.

But the Heels need other guys to hit shots from the perimeter, too.

Platek has been labeled a great practice shooter since he arrived nearly four years ago, but it has only recently started translating to games. Love and Davis came to UNC this season with reputations as prolific scorers and much more accurate shooters than they’ve displayed.

Actually, Platek and Davis shot well over the first few weeks but have struggled of late, going against the rest of the team’s recent trend. Platek hit seven of his first 16 shots from outside, but is 4-for-15 since, and Davis was 8-for-18 through the loss at Iowa on Dec. 8, but is only 4-for-24 since.

The Heels as a whole, however, have gotten it done the last three games, and it’s not just Walton. They have converted eight, eight and nine threes in that span, combining to shoot 25-for-63, which is just under 40 percent.

“We're really good shooters,” Platek said after last week’s win at Miami. “I think if you put any of us in a gym with anybody in the country, I think we can outshoot them like anywhere. But this is more of what we know we can do and it's like, we don't even have everyone shooting well…

“Yes, we can make shots and we're gonna do that the rest of the year, it just takes time.”

Love was just 1-for-9 versus the Hurricanes, but he made a late three cutting Miami’s lead to 61-60 with 2:52 remaining. Williams talks a lot about having the proper toughness to hit big shots, well his struggling freshman did just that in a key moment. So the coach singled him out afterward.

“Caleb hadn’t made a basket all night, yeah it's right because he was 0-for-8 because he finished 1-for-9,” Williams said. “(But) Caleb makes that big three right in front of our bench.”

In spite of the overall poor shooting performance in Coral Gables, Love has shown signs of coming out of his perimeter struggles. He was 4-for-34 (11.8 percent) through the first eight games, but is 4-for-11 since, which is 36.4 percent.

Garrison Brooks is 2-for-2 over the last three games, and Leaky Black went 4-for-4 at Miami and is 5-for-8 during this stretch. Platek joked last week he’d never seen Black hit so many threes in a row, but he was serious expressing confidence in the team and the struggling freshmen, in particular.

“Caleb and RJ still aren't shooting at the clip that I know they can get to and that they are going to get to the rest of the season because we all have confidence in them,” Platek said.

Like hitting in baseball often is, sometimes shooting can be contagious, and if the Heels’ recent trend from the perimeter is more the new normal than an aberration, the pups and rest of the team could be for an interesting stretch moving forward.

And with Syracuse and its vaunted 2-3 zone visiting the Smith Center on Tuesday night, effective perimeter shooting is required for the Tar Heels.