Carolina played a football-basketball doubleheader Saturday that define where each program has to go this year, if not next season.
The Tar Heels won the expected game against Wofford (apparently the last small-college team they will play on Senior Day for the foreseeable future), giving quarterback Sam Howell a week to rest his left shoulder and us a chance to see who might be in Sam’s shoes next season.
The once-anticipated third season of Mack Brown’s second stint at UNC has one specific goal left that no one saw coming. His team has beaten N.C. State for the last two years and now can knock the improved Wolfpack out of its first ACC championship game by winning Friday night in Raleigh.
That would also give Brown bragging rights about the so-called State Championship he has coveted since his first tour in Chapel Hill. And by defeating a top 20 opponent, the Tar Heels could wind up in a pretty decent bowl with a chance to win eight games for the second straight year.
The 34-14 mismatch over now 1-10 Wofford was essentially a practice game to give starters fewer snaps and split the total 67 between back-up quarterbacks Jacolby Criswell and Drake Maye. The short sample size demonstrated that both have star capabilities.
Taking his mates to a 20-7 lead at the half, sophomore Criswell had one running touchdown and slightly better stats than true freshman Maye, who took over in the third quarter, had a bullet TD pass and showed some legs that reminded at least one person (me) of Trevor Lawrence. If Howell indeed enters the 2022 NFL draft, these guys will begin their epic battle in spring practice to see who wins the position for the fall.
The Senior Day crowd was light on a beautiful afternoon, which used to irk Brown in his younger days. But it was much more the opponent than anything else that kept people away, and they weren’t sitting home waiting for the 4 p.m. tipoff.
Hubert Davis’ Tar Heels are still looking for an identity and 6th-ranked Purdue was a valuable foe for mapping their journey toward March. It was different than we expected, with the good defense that drove the last win not carrying over to this one and allowing the opponent to score a season-high 93 points and shoot the highest percentage (55.7) since 2020.
North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis watches play in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Purdue, Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021, in Uncasville, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Armando Bacot, who dominated smaller College of Charleston Tuesday night, got into immediate foul trouble against the Boilermakers’ 7-footers and wound up playing only 17 minutes and proved as tame as he was a terror in his career game against the Cougars.
Luckily, Dawson Garcia proved to be the “stretch 4” as advertised with a Carolina high of 26 points, including three 3-pointers, and 8 rebounds before also fouling out. With Brady Manek in almost as much foul trouble as his fellow bigs, Garcia kept his team in it for most of the late afternoon at the Mohegan Sun resort in Connecticut.
Unfortunately, we got to see how important Leaky Black’s defense might have been against the Boiler guards, who torched the Heels from outside almost from the first minute. They wound up draining ten 3 balls, and the long Leaky could have defended some of that better if he hadn’t taken sick and left back in his hotel room.
Black recovered for the third-place game of the Tip-Off tournament against No. 17 Tennessee, which lost to 4th-ranked Villanova, but he couldn’t help an awful defensive performance in a one-sided loss to the Vols.
The highly-respected Matt Painter is in his 18th year as head coach at Purdue and can be as candid as he wants about his team that is among the picks to reach the Final Four and his much-younger opponent. He had a reason both combined to score 177 points.
“We’re not a very good defensive team, and Carolina’s not a very good defensive team,” he said after the 93-84 win. “At this time of the year, the offenses are ahead of the defenses. You have to become a good defensive team if you want to go somewhere.”
Davis lamented his players’ on-the-ball failures, which gave the Boilers better shots than you can give them and hope to beat them. He cheered his team’s determination to come back from deficits early in the game and midway through second half when the Heels actually took the lead on Garcia’s third 3-pointer.
The 6-foot-10 sophomore’s timely emergence kept the score relatively close, thanks also to a second straight outstanding shooting game by Caleb Love and RJ Davis’ return to his second-half form against Brown; each scored 18 points and combined to make four 3-pointers, go 6 of 7 from the foul line, grab 10 rebounds and dish out 8 assists with only 4 turnovers between them.
But it wasn’t enough for this tough, deep and talented member of the Big Ten that will vie for a conference, if not a national, championship. Purdue shot 18-for-28 in the second half with only two turnovers and finished with 21 assists against 34 made baskets. By contrast, the Heels failed to get to the foul line in the first half for the first time in six years and shot only 45 percent for the game.
Still, the new head coach liked outrebounding the beefier Boilers by six and committing only three turnovers in the second half after making 11 in the sloppy first when Purdue jumped out to a 10-point lead by hitting seven 3-pointers and sending the Heels to the locker room behind for the third straight game.
“This is a great opportunity for us to learn,” Hubert said, “and I’m encouraged that we can get a lot better and we’ve got a lot to improve on. This is kind of like the NBA, we have a next game. When you lose, as a competitor, the first thing you want to do is get back on the court to take the taste out of your mouth.
Davis’ guys need to come home and dispose of UNC-Asheville Tuesday night, so they will be 4-2 when Michigan, another Big Ten favorite, arrives in Chapel Hill on the first of December.
By then, we’ll know if Brown’s guys can call themselves state champions in football even if there is no such thing.
Featured photo via AP Photo/Gerry Broome.
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