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TALLAHASSEE, FL – North Carolina is still the worst 3-point shooting team in the ACC, but the Tar Heels cut into their deficit behind the 14th club in the league by scorching from the perimeter over the last two games.
The Tar Heels sat at 29.8 percent heading into a home win over Virginia last Saturday, but following a 10-for-22 performance against the Cavaliers and 14-for-29 in a win at Florida State on Monday night, the Heels are now at 31.2 percent on the season. That’s a nice jump for a team that now trails Boston College (32.2 percent) next in line in the conference.
So, how did this happen? Is it a simple matter of the ball suddenly going through the basket? Or is there something else?
How about a little bit of both?
“We’ve been struggling to shoot all year,” said Pete Nance, who is 7-for-10 over the last two games after hitting just six from the perimeter in his previous ten games. “But we always knew, and we were always confident we had really good shooters in the locker room… And like I say, water always finds its level, and we’re starting to find out the team we are when it comes to shooting from the outside.”
Ball movement was a key against UVA. So was body movement.
The Tar Heels (19-11, 11-8 ACC) weren’t as stoic as they were in the first half at Notre Dame last week, which is the worst statistical half of offense for Carolina since 1979. In fact, the Heels have been stagnant, dribble heavy, and easy to guard much of the season, especially in league play.
Several Tar Heels have said defenses are easily snuffing out their sets, but against the Wahoos, the Heels did everything well in working to get quality looks. And when that, and most of the threes more the catch-and-shoot variety instead of after multiple dribbles, they were open. That will always render a higher conversion percent.
At FSU, it was a matter of taking what the Seminoles gave them. The Heels worked it well, got plenty of open looks, and knocked them down in a 77-66 victory.
“They switch everything,” UNC Coach Hubert Davis said following the win. “They have such great length and athleticism that when we drive, all their defenders kind of converge in the lane. So, what was gonna be available was that outside shot….
“Statistically, we're the worst 3-point shooting team in ACC. So, teams have been packing in and having multiple guys in the lane and making us shoot the ball from the outside at times. I've said before, at the end of the day, we're gonna have to knock down some perimeter jump shots, and over the last couple games, we've been able to do that."
At Tucker Center, Carolina got a lot of outside shots on kickouts from the lane. Often by guards RJ Davis and Caleb Love, and sometimes by the bigs, usually Nance, rotating the ball to the wing or even corner for quality looks.
Four Heels made at least three treys on the night, the first time that has happened in UNC history, and six Tar Heels hit at least one. Carolina was 11-for-18 in the first half, and drained eight over the final 10:39 of the half.
“We knew as soon as they drove to the paint, they were going to swarm…,” RJ Davis said. “We were able to penetrate, heat up the middle, kick it out for three, and our players were able to knock it down. That’s a lot of confidence in them and confidence in each other.”
Davis has been wildly inconsistent from the perimeter this season, so his two-game ascent shooting 5-for-11 is an encouraging sign.
In a nine-game stretch beginning with a win over Michigan in December and ending in a win at Syracuse on January 24, the junior point guard was 24-for-48 from the perimeter. This came after he removed tape from a finger on his shooting hand, playing a role in a poor slump to begin the season.
But Davis injured his finger again against the Orange, and was 8-for-42 (19 percent) from beyond the arc over the next eight contests. The tape came off before the UVA game, with Davis shooting 2-for-4 and 3-for-7 since.
He will discuss the tape, but is more interested in speaking about why everyone is getting more shots on the catch and not having to create by pounding the ball on the floor along the perimeter.
“Getting more spacing and more ball movement,” he said is the key. “I think sometimes we get too stagnant and try to do it by ourselves, whereas it kind of makes it difficult and tougher for our shots. Whereas, if you’re penetrating and play for others, going from one pass and good to great shots, that’s the type of efficiency that we’ve been playing with.”
The sample size of this reversal of fortune on the perimeter is just two games. This is the first time UNC has converted 10 or more threes in back-to-back games this season, with the recent consecutive-games high nine and eight versus Wake Forest and Notre Dame in early January.
A third straight game at 10 or more threes would match UNC’s streak to open its NCAA Tournament run last season when it netted 13, 11, and 10 in wins over Marquette, Baylor, and UCLA. And with Duke visiting the Smith Center on Saturday, the Heels might need to make plenty of shots from the perimeter to defeat the Blue Devils.
That might move them a tad northerly on the ACC charts, too.
