UNC Tar Heels Basketball Team Comes Out Flat and Never Recover

by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn

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The North Carolina basketball team played their second game of the Hall of Fame Tip-off Tournament against Tennessee on Sunday afternoon. The Tar Heels got off to another slow start. The Heels came out with entirely no energy and effort on both ends of the floor. They were completely out of rhythm on offense today and way too lackadaisical on defense. Armando Bacot and Brady Manek were the only players that played well offensively as they led the team in scoring with 16 and 24 respectively.

However, Tennessee got whatever they wanted offensively and disrupted UNC’s offense all game long. The Volunteers completely outplayed Carolina on both ends of the floor and led the game from start to finish with their largest lead being as much as 20. Tennesse had 28 assists, shot 54% from the field, 45% from 3, and outrebounded UNC 38-30.

This was by far the Tar Heels’ worst game of the season so far. They completely struggled offensively for their standards with more turnovers (13) than assists (8) and their struggles to stop anyone on defense continued, which resulted in their 89-72 loss.

UNC Game Stats

1       2       T

#18 North Carolina     32      40      72

#17 Tennessee          39      50      89

North Carolina

STARTERS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
D. Garcia F	18	2-7	0-1	0-1	1	2	3	0	0	0	3	2	4
A. Bacot F	29	6-9	0-0	4-6	4	8	12	1	0	0	2	2	16
R.J. Davis G	35	3-11	2-3	6-7	0	4	4	4	1	0	4	2	14
C. Love G	31	3-8	2-5	4-4	0	2	2	3	0	0	2	1	12
L. Black G	19	1-3	0-0	0-0	0	2	2	1	2	0	0	3	2
BENCH	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
B. Manek F	28	7-12	6-10	4-4	0	3	3	0	0	0	0	2	24
D. Styles G	2	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
A. Harris G	14	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
K. Walton G	24	0-4	0-4	0-0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	0
TEAM		22-55	10-23	18-22	5	25	30	9	4	1	13	15	72
		40.0%	43.5%	81.8%

Tennessee

STARTERS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
O. Nkamhoua F	17	3-6	1-1	0-0	1	5	6	3	1	1	3	5	7
J. Fulkerson F	27	6-7	0-0	1-1	2	3	5	6	0	1	2	1	13
S. Vescovi G	31	6-12	3-6	2-3	2	7	9	3	2	0	2	2	17
K. Chandler G	32	6-13	2-3	0-0	0	5	5	8	1	1	2	2	14
J. Powell G	23	4-8	0-3	0-0	0	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	8
BENCH	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
J. Aidoo F	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
B. Huntley-Hatfield F	23	3-7	0-0	0-0	2	3	5	0	1	1	1	2	6
U. Plavsic F	13	2-3	0-1	0-0	0	2	2	2	1	0	0	3	4
Z. Zeigler G	27	7-10	3-5	1-1	0	2	2	5	2	0	0	3	18
V. Bailey Jr. G	6	1-4	0-1	0-0	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	2
TEAM		38-70	9-20	4-5	8	30	38	28	9	4	10	18	89
		54.3%	45.0%	80.0%

UNC Bright Spots

Brady Manek had 24 points and 3 rebounds.

Armando Bacot had 16 points, 12 rebounds, and 1 assist.

Needs Work

The Tar Heels have to be much better on the defensive end of the floor, on the interior, and on the perimeter. The guards are not getting enough ball pressure and not fighting entirely hard enough to get around screens, which have led to open driving lines, wide-open shots, and easy baskets around for the opponents. They also struggled to guard the three-point line and the UNC bigs are also not doing a good enough job playing help-side defense or with their post defense.

In addition, the UNC guards have to understand when their shots are not falling how to impact the game in other ways to help the team win. It seems as if when they are not scoring their effort in any other facet of the game drops dramatically, which is totally unacceptable and detrimental to the team.

The Tar Heels also have to do a better job of cutting down on their turnovers. They had more turnovers than assists in this game, which is never a recipe for success.

Final Observations

The Tar Heels now have 2 losses on the season and they were both to ranked opponents. It was the first time this season that the Heels have played back-to-back games and it must have gotten to them because they played their worst game of the season on Sunday afternoon.

They played sluggish all game long and played with absolutely no energy, effort, grit, or heart out there on the floor today. It was just a bad performance from the team overall and something that they need to learn from going forward.

The defense continues to be a huge issue as they allowed another team to score 90 points. However, today the offense was also very bad as Caleb Love, R.J. Davis, and Kerwin Walton all had bad shooting performances.

While this team does have a lot of talent and the potential to be a very good team, they must find an identity and establish roles for every player on the team to turn into the team they ultimately want to be. The coaching staff must also learn from these two losses as well and make the proper adjustments to improve the defense and make sure the offense does not get stagnant even when their perimeter shots are not falling.

They must tell the guards that if their shots are not falling to make a more constant effort to get their bigs the ball inside and make better decisions with the ball to cut down on their turnovers. Ultimately, the Tar Heels will learn from these bumps in the road early in the season and the tough non-conference schedule. It will benefit them tremendously later in the season because they will be battle-tested. Next up is UNC Asheville on Tuesday night.