Carolina Meets Louisville In Hall of Fame Coaching Matchup

The No.18 North Carolina men’s basketball team, 11-4 on the season and 1-1 in the ACC, looks to rebound from a loss to No. 13 Notre Dame with a quality victory over No. 5 Louisville, sporting a 14-1 record and 2-0 mark in conference, Saturday afternoon inside the Smith Center.

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UNC head coach Roy Williams doesn’t get carried away with breaking down the stat sheet. He says the only thing that really matters is who’s got more points at the end of forty minutes.

And last time out, it wasn’t Carolina.

“We were into it a little bit more, but holding somebody to 43 percent is not really that good. Let’s be honest. You can look down there all you want and dissect it, but the only stat that’s important is 71-70. The rest of it’s just junk. You got to write it because it’s your job, but 71-70 is the only thing that’s important,” Coach Williams says.

The Tar Heels will certainly be eager to wipe the sour taste of defeat out of their mouths and avoid a rare two-game slide at home. But the task won’t be easy against the Cardinals.

Carolina, though, may have found another game-changing weapon in its last outing, despite the losing outcome.

Junior forward Brice Johnson says assistant coach Hubert Davis has been calling for a difference-maker to make the effort plays that will ignite the rest of the lineup.

“That’s the one thing Coach Davis said during a timeout – we need one guy to be able to step up and show everybody what it means to go out there and get a rebound for us or be that guy to get a rebound on the other end,” Johnson says.

Coach Davis’ challenge may have been met by freshman Theo Pinson.

Pinson was the sparkplug off the bench, playing 12 second-half minutes and finishing with seven points and a season-high eight rebounds. All seven of his points and all eight rebounds came in the final 20 minutes of action as he rallied Carolina from an 11-point deficit to the doorstep of victory.

Against Notre Dame, one of the most prolific shooting teams in the country, Carolina struggled to knock down enough jumpers to stay close for a majority of the game.

But junior forward J.P. Tokoto says it’s UNC’s defense that needs to step up its level when the shots aren’t falling.

“It was simple because we knocked down shots. It wasn’t just layups. Guys were hitting jump shots [vs. Clemson]. Sometimes, the ball just doesn’t fall. It’s going to happen. When that happens, you got to adjust and get out on the defensive end,” Tokoto says.

Saturday’s showdown pits a pair of Hall of Fame coaches against each other. Just like Coach Williams, Louisville coach Rick Pitino knows how to guide a team to a national championship. And Coach Pitino will like his squad’s chances at making another deep postseason push again this year.

And why shouldn’t he? The only loss suffered by the tough-nosed Cardinals came to undefeated and top-ranked Kentucky.

But Coach Pitino insists his team, which can be a bit offensively challenged at times, remains a work in progress.

“We’re going to have a lot of bumps in the road. I can tell you that right now. You look at our record right now; it’s a good record, but we’re going to have a lot of bumps. That doesn’t concern me. Bumps are a part of every season. Come March, we need to be a very good basketball team. The good thing about this basketball is it has a high ceiling and a long way to go,” Coach Pitino says.

Without a doubt, the most dominant player on the Cardinal roster is Montrezl Harrell, who remains a strong candidate for National Player of the Year.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the game from a Tar Heel perspective will be how much playing time Pinson receives.

Coach Williams says it’s up to the freshman. If a guy’s playing well, he’ll stay on the floor.

“It’s pretty easy to tell because I left him in the game. I’ve always said the easiest way to stay in the game is to play well. If you play well, you get more chances,” Coach Williams says.

UNC leads the all-time series with Louisville 9-3 and won the last meeting, 93-84, in 2013 to claim the Hall of Fame Tipoff title.