As UNC gets set to open its NCAA Tournament run Friday afternoon in Charlotte against the No. 15 seed Lipscomb Bisons, head coach Roy Williams refuses to overlook his team’s first-round opponent—which is a good thing considering Lipscomb has similarities to Wofford, a team that pulled off a major upset against the Tar Heels earlier this season.
It may have been just a regular season game in the doldrums of mid-December, but it wasn’t that long ago that UNC suffered that shocking loss at the hands of Fletcher Magee and the Terriers.
Magee—one of the nation’s premier sharpshooters—led a disciplined offensive effort with a game-high 27 points in Wofford’s stunning 79-75 win at the Dean Dome.
A similar situation could present itself Friday if the Tar Heels aren’t careful.
Lipscomb sharpshooter Garrison Matthews is hoping to give his team a shot at an upset over UNC in the first round on Friday. (Photo via Lipscomb Athletics)
Lipscomb likes to push the pace on offense, take perimeter shots and averages 83 points per game. The Bisons are also one of just 25 teams that has a higher scoring average than UNC, and they have a star player in 6-foot-5 junior guard Garrison Mathews that could explode on the big stage given the Tar Heels inconsistency defending players like he and Magee this season.
Mathews is one of just 11 players in the country scoring at least 22 points a night and he’s tallied as many as 43 points in a single game this year.
While he does plenty of damage behind the three-point line—having made 89 shots from long range on the season—Mathews’ real strength, according to Williams, is getting to the free throw line. Only 10 players in the NCAA have made more than Mathews’ 198 foul shots, which not only gives his team points—but also gets opponents into foul trouble.
“There’s a lot of things that stick out they could give us problems with,” Williams told reporters at his press conference on Thursday. “Their ability to shoot the ball, ability to score, the pace they play.
“The one thing that really jumps out at me is Mathews has shot like 130, 140 more free throws than anybody on our team,” the coach continued. “That’s remarkable.”
For the Tar Heels, it will be a comforting return to a style they prefer after being grinded down to a halt by Virginia’s methodical pace in last Saturday’s ACC Championship Game.
Wofford gave UNC all kinds of trouble in December when not many people expected that at all coming into the game. (Todd Melet)
What it won’t be, however, is a break.
As talented as this UNC team has proven itself to be over the course of the year, the loss to Wofford showed that things can go extremely wrong if—or when—they do go wrong.
That’s not to say that the Tar Heels have a high probability of suffering an upset against Lipscomb, but it’d be irresponsible for them to look straight into the next round.
“We always go up and down every practice, so we’re used to running,” Williams said. “But this is a team that’s gonna run back at us.
“Yesterday in practice we had two different occasions where we didn’t get good defensive balance and the blue team lays it up,” he added. “I said, ‘Guys that’s what we’re gonna face tomorrow. We can’t give up those easy.’”
UNC has come a long way since that night in December and has seemingly been peaking at the right time recently. On top of that, the roster is full of players with national championship rings and Final Four experience.
But for them to get back to where they want to be—especially after coming up short in the ACC regular season and tournament–they have to take care of Lipscomb first.
“We didn’t win the [ACC] regular season, we didn’t win the [ACC] tournament, but we’re a pretty doggone good basketball team,” Williams said. “We’ve got a chance to win some games. And I believe if we play well and do the right things that we can play a lot.”
Cover photo via Todd Melet
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