Holliday: Miami puts the Heels back on the bubble

By Bob Holliday, WRAL Sports contributor

Legendary UNC Coach Roy Williams used to say, “Everything looks better when the ball’s going in the basket.”

Ironically I saw Williams pre-game in the elevator at the Smith Center, congratulating him of course on his virtuoso performance in the mascot suit as Ramses in the WRAL Super Bowl commercial. But I was certainly thinking of Williams’ mantra Saturday when the Tar Heels shot the lights out in beating Clemson. And shooting was a big factor in North Carolina’s critical home loss to Miami, though it wasn’t the only thing.

To put this game in perspective, UNC after all the team meetings that followed the bad loss at Wake Forest, put on a clinic against Clemson, which at that time was tied for first place in the ACC. The Heels moved up to 39 in the NET, and moved off Joe Lunardi’s bubble. Lunardi Saturday night listed Carolina as a number nine seed.

But with a chance to secure just their second Quad One win of the season against Miami, #32 in the NET, the Tar Heels came up short, like so many of their shots. Caleb Love hit a three the first time he touched the ball. Carolina did not hit another three until 11:43 in the second half, a string of rim shots and air balls, unusual even for this the worst three point shooting team in the ACC.

Miami, meanwhile, shot extremely well. This also was pretty eye-opening. UNC since the three point line was first created in the late 80’s, has struggled to defend the three point shot; but this Tar Heel team ranks second in the ACC in three point defense, allowing just over 32% from behind the arc. Miami, however, torched the Tar Heels for 6 of 13, lead by sharpshooter Nijel Pack. Pack buried four of six three point shots. Super forward Jordan Miller knocked in one of two—the other Hurricanes went one of five. Pack poured in 23 points, and Miller, the one player Coach Hubert Davis said post game his team had no defensive answer for, fired in 24.

This wasn’t about effort like the Wake Forest game. UNC did many good things defensively. Leaky Black held Miami’s leading score Isaiah Wong to just three field goals. Norchad Omier, who averages 14 points per game, scored just five. The Tar Heels forced the Canes into 13 turnovers while committing just 9. But there wasn’t enough defense to rescue the struggling offense.

Carolina kept pace in the first half despite missing 10 of 11 threes. After falling behind 16-10, the Tar Heels discovered they could attack the basket against the Canes. Puff Johnson scored on a drive. R.J. Davis drove all the way in for two scores. And as the Tar Heels drove, they found other close in scoring options, getting the ball to Love for a short jumper in the lane, and of course getting the ball to Bacot.

At halftime the Heels were 14-18 from inside the arc. Love had 12 points and Bacot 10. UNC trailed just 35-34. But after intermission, Canes Coach Jim Larranaga changed his defensive strategy.

“They were making layups on us,” Larranaga said. “We had to take that away.”

Miami mixed its defenses, showing some elements of the run and jump, trapping in both the back court and the front court, and packing the middle somewhat like Virginia’s Pack Line defense.

Also, the Canes’ players powered through screens, and no doubt in the second half, ineffective screening by the home team contributed to its down fall.

Bottom line, the UNC offense that matched baskets with Miami in the first half, was nowhere to be seen in the second. The Tar Heels looked ill prepared for the Canes’ defensive adjustments as the second half began. On Carolina’s first 10 possessions, the team missed five of six shots, committed three turnovers, and went just 2-4 from the free throw line.

“In the second half, we tried to attack, and they just did a better job of closing down the paint,” Davis said. “The only way that you can open that up is to make some perimeter jump shots and we just weren’t able to do it.”

UNC ended up 5-31 from three. Davis did not fault his team’s shot selection. Indeed, the Tar Heels tried moving the ball around the perimeter much of the second half. Problem was that rarely led to any good shots in the paint and they often wound up shooting threes anyway to beat the shot clock. So as the game went along players shot from deep early in the clock. They made a few but neither strategy was going to catch Miami with the Canes shooting 52% in the second half.

Miami built a 14 point lead, and this game honestly felt like it was going to be a blowout. To Carolina’s credit, the Tar Heels made steals and blocked shots and fought their way back into the game. The Heels got within four on Love’s three ball with 35 seconds left. But Davis used his final time out at that point and his team had to foul. Miami made the foul shots, finished 22-26 from the stripe.

UNC’s backcourt wound up with decent stats in the box score. Black, in addition to his defense on Wong, scored 13 points on 6-9 shooting with 9 rebounds. Davis scored 23 on 9-18 shooting, and Love tallied 20, albeit on 7-20 from the floor. But Bacot, who had so much difficulty finding space, finished with just one basket in the second half. His game total of four rebounds, was his lowest in two years. And then there’s Pete Nance, who did finally hit a field goal but is now 7 for his last 30. His flat jump shot has not found the range from beyond the arc in four games.

The Tar Heels did not get the boost from their bench that they got against Clemson. They also did not dominate the glass as they did against the Tigers. Miami, led by Miller, whom Carolina not only could not guard but also couldn’t box out, collected eight offensive rebounds for 14 second chance points.

Most of UNC’s remaining ACC games are against the league’s top teams. This veteran squad that made the decision to come back to Chapel Hill for another run at the NCAA Championship still has a chance to achieve that goal, but the margin of error is slim. Next up for UNC: a trip to NC State. It will be a match-up of the league’s worst three point shooting team in conference play against the number one three point defense.

Taking down the Tigers

For those Tar Heel fans who want a happier story, let’s flash back to Saturday.

Hubert Davis called Saturday’s game against Clemson the best of Caleb Love’s Carolina career, in his words, “an NBA first round draft pick” performance. Davis “loved” Love’s total game—the playmaking, scoring, his defensive work, hustle, leadership and even “the expressions on his face.”

Love scored the first points of the game at the free throw line, but the Tar Heels sputtered badly for the next three minutes and change.

Clemson caught Armando Bacot in a corner double team and that led to an R.J. Davis turnover. Hunter Tyson stole the ball from Davis on the next possession and fed P.J. Hall for a transition three. Clemson led 8-2, and the Smith Center crowd grew quiet, apprehensive even, in what had been billed as a must game.

Love ignited the turnaround. The first thing he did was rip a rebound away from Clemson big man P.J. Hall, and if he had not done that it would have been 10-2. Moments later, Pete Nance threw up an absolute brick early in the shot clock, leading to a Tiger fast break opportunity. Love rushed back and drew a charge from Chase Hunter. The building erupted.

Carolina scored two quick baskets and followed that by forcing a Tiger shot clock violation. More noise.

Hubert Davis then turned to his bench for several substitutions, but kept Love on the floor. DeMarco Dunn made a dramatic drive to the basket that beat the shot clock by a nanosecond. Dunn then fed Jalen Washington for a dunk. The freshman’s basket gave UNC its first lead since 2-0. More noise!

Then Love started dialing long distance. A three ball swished. UNC led 19-17. Love hit a monster step back from beyond the arc. 22-17. And moments after the under eight time out, Love hit a third three pointer to put the Tar Heels up 29-21.

Bacot had been held in check to this point, but Love’s shooting forced the Tigers to extend their man to man pressure. Voila! Mando now had room to operate. He finished the half with 10 points and 9 rebounds, with his team building a 42-33 lead at intermission.

Here’s the thing about Clemson. The Tigers will run when the opportunity presents itself, but this is a program built to play patient, half court offense with scores in the 60’s and 70’s. Two of the three ACC games Clemson lost prior to Saturday, came against Wake Forest, which scored 87 points and against Miami, which scored 78. Contrast that with Tiger wins: over NC State 78-64 and Duke 72-64. The Carolina game ceased to be a Clemson style game back at 8-2.

Behind Caleb Love, North Carolina completely took over the pace of the game in the second half. By my count, UNC scored four transition baskets in the second stanza. Clemson got caught up in the faster pace and twice got called for charging while trying to score on fast breaks.

Shooting woes have hobbled the Heels all during the conference season. Statistically, UNC is one of the ACC’s worst shooting teams, hitting just 42.7% overall (12th) and 29.1% from three (15th). Understandably, this poor shooting has led to lulls in scoring. But not against Clemson.

The Tar Heels moved the basketball for once, getting 17 assists on 32 field goals. And get this, after UNC’s dreadful beginning there was just one occasion where Clemson scored two straight baskets. UNC answered every other Clemson score with a basket of its own, and the Tigers couldn’t catch up.

UNC led 80-55 by the five minute mark. Davis emptied his bench soon after.

The Chapel Hill guys piled up 25 bench points against Clemson. No substitute made a better case for more playing time than Puff Johnson.

Johnson logged 18 minutes against the Tigers, just one less than the starter Nance, and P.J. acquitted himself well. He hit two threes, and scored a tip in, along with three rebounds, two assists, and a steal.

One other point; good as UNC’s offense was—48% overall and 46% from three—the Tar Heels were just as good at the other end.

Leaky Black held Hunter Tyson, one of the ACC’s very best players to one field goal on just two shots. Tyson hit a deep three early in the game when Alex Hemenway set a screen Black could not fight through. Remember Tyson averages 18 points per game in ACC play. To be held 15 points below his norm—that might have been the defensive performance of the year.

Also Love limited Clemson’s key backcourt player Chase Hunter to a subpar game. Hunter finished with 15 points, but he went 3-16 from the floor and just 1-8 from beyond the arc. He also committed two turnovers. The missed shots and the miscues led to even more offense for UNC.

But that win now seems like a long time ago.