UNC Tar Heels Basketball Team Struggle Again at Virginia
by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn
The North Carolina basketball team traveled to Virginia to face off against the Cavaliers on Saturday night. The Tar Heels played one of their worst halves of basketball of the season in the first half. The Heels only scored 18 points, while shooting 25% from the field. They could not find any rhythm on the offensive end and their urgency and effort were just not good enough on defense.
Virginia did not shoot much better in the first half, but the Cavaliers did make 6 threes before halftime. This allowed Virginia to stretch their lead to as much as 17 points before UNC would go on a run to cut the lead to 9 going into halftime. In the second half, the Heels’ offensive woes continued, shooting only 34% for the game. Their overall energy on both sides of the ball was just poor throughout the game.
The Heels struggled to get into their sets, find quality shots, and get the ball inside to their bigs. The Tar Heels did play adequate defense on the Cavaliers but could not play without putting Virginia on the free-throw line and allowing them to hit shots at the end of the shot clock. Virginia led the game from start to finish and gave North Carolina their seventh loss on the season.
UNC Game Stats
1 2 T North Carolina 18 30 48 #9 Virginia 27 33 60 North Carolina Pts FG 3FG FT REB A TO Min +/- 1 BLACK 0 0-4 0-3 0-0 3 1 0 19 -8 2 LOVE 4 2-9 0-3 0-0 5 3 1 25 -8 5 BACOT 7 3-7 0-0 1-3 10 2 0 25 -3 15 BROOKS 5 2-7 0-0 1-2 6 1 1 24 -8 24 WALTON 8 3-7 2-6 0-0 1 0 1 26 -4 0 HARRIS 1 0-1 0-1 1-2 0 0 1 10 -1 3 PLATEK 0 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 1 0 13 10 4 DAVIS 6 3-8 0-2 0-0 1 0 2 24 -9 11 SHARPE 6 3-8 0-0 0-1 7 3 1 19 13 13 KESSLER 9 3-5 0-0 3-4 5 0 0 12 -4 22 MILLER 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0 2 25 LEBO 2 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 2 34 FARRIS 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 2 35 MCADOO 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 2 TOTALS 48 20-58 2-16 6-12 41 11 8 34.5% 12.5% 50.0% Virginia Pts FG 3FG FT REB A TO Min +/- 0 CLARK 6 2-8 0-3 2-4 2 5 4 34 10 2 BEEKMAN 1 0-3 0-1 1-2 8 7 1 32 16 10 HAUSER 17 5-14 4-6 3-4 5 2 1 36 10 25 MURPHY III 12 4-5 2-3 2-2 0 1 0 25 23 30 HUFF 18 6-10 3-5 3-5 12 0 0 34 20 1 ABDUR-RAHIM 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 -2 13 MORSELL 2 1-3 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 8 -7 21 SHEDRICK 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 5 0 22 CAFFARO 1 0-0 0-0 1-2 2 0 0 3 -4 33 MCCORKLE 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 -2 53 WOLDETENSAE 3 1-5 1-4 0-0 2 1 0 20 -4 TOTALS 60 19-48 10-22 12-19 34 16 6 39.6% 45.5% 63.2%
UNC Bright Spots
Walker Kessler led the team in scoring with 9 points and 5 rebounds.
Needs Work
The Tar Heels need to be much better offensively. The guards need to do a better job of getting the team into their sets and getting the ball inside to the bigs. The guards also need to attack the basket more often and take better quality shots. When the guards are not aggressive, it allows teams to pack the paint and gives no room for the bigs to operate and be productive.
The Tar Heels also need to do a better job of finishing around the basket. There are missing too many layups and shots around the basket in this game
The Tar Heels must also do a better job of communicating and rotating on defense. There are too many instances where opponents are getting wide open layups, back-door layups, and wide-open threes.
They need to be much better at the free throw line. They shot 50% in this game and before this game had shot around 50% in the last five games, which is totally unacceptable.
Final Observations
The Tar Heels have seemed to take a couple steps back after taking a step forward as a team in their last performance. The Heels’ game on Monday against Miami was canceled due to Covid protocols and as a result their rhythm seemed to be off this game.
This is not the first time this has happened either. So, going forward if games happen to get canceled, they must replace those games as soon as possible. This team cannot afford to have an entire week in between games because they lose their momentum when that happens.
UNC played one of their worst games of the season today and it seems to be the trend when they go to play at Virginia every year. The Tar Heels have lost four straight games at Virginia in the last four years. Coach Williams needs to do a better job of getting this team prepared after big wins because in the next game their energy and urgency just do not seem to be there.
Garrison Brooks and Leaky must be better leaders for the team and have to step up their play if they want to reach their full potential as a team. The Tar Heels have shown flashes throughout the season of how good they can be but need to be more consistent if they want to make any noise in March.