There’s your Quad 1 win — Carolina’s first of this season and its first before March over the last two seasons.
However, in the NET rankings most determinative in landing bids to the NCAA tournament, the wire-to-wire win, 71-63, over sixth-ranked Virginia Saturday did not improve the Tar Heels a single point. They remained at 47 while Duke had a home win over unranked Virginia Tech and rose five NET spots from 30 up to 25.
Go figure.
Joe Lunardi, ESPN’s so-called Bracketologist, still has UNC among the “First Four Out” in his latest posting. Lunardi has never been perfect at predictions and gets altogether too much airtime on the numerous ESPN games this time of year.
Nonetheless, the Heels visit Florida State Monday night in a 48-hour turnaround that has “trap game” written all over it. The Seminoles are 7-11 (11th place in the ACC) and 9-20 overall after shocking No. 13 Miami in Coral Gables with a dramatic buzzer beater on a day when there were several of them in college hoops.
UNC can undo almost everything accomplished at the Nutsy Fagan Smith Center by losing to FSU (216 in the NET) and making the home finale and Senior Day this Saturday against Duke not exactly the silver bullet to the Big Dance.
In handing Virginia its second straight loss (the Cavaliers were beaten badly at Boston College Wednesday night and now have dropped to No. 28 in the NET rankings), Carolina did it in a weird but heart-warming way.
The shooting star turned out to be the beleaguered Pete Nance, who shook off his prolonged slump by hitting his first three triples in the opening 10 minutes and threw in his fourth at the buzzer to give Carolina a 42-26 halftime lead — its largest in an ACC game this season. With 8 more points that included 4-for-4 at the foul line, 2 rebounds, 4 blocked shots and a steal in the second half, Nance authored his best game as a grad transfer from Northwestern and key to UNC moving to 10-8 in the conference and 18-11 overall.
UNC graduate transfer Pete Nance turned in his second consecutive good game on Saturday after struggling for most of February. (Photo via Todd Melet.)
“It’s been really hard on me, but all I know is to keep my head down and keep working,” said Nance, after making national news for his favorite Lemon Oreo cookies he received at practice Friday from Hubert Davis — who has said all season that he is not superstitious.
Davis also claimed that he is not on social media, where over-the-top fans have been rough on Nance, but apparently has seen enough to call “criticizing kids absolutely disgusting.”
Meanwhile, Caleb Love, who is the muse of social media madness as the long-awaited key to a late-season surge, remained ice-box cold by shooting 2-for-12, 1-for-8 from the arc and missed all six of his shot attempts in the second half. Love did can five free throws in the final 47 seconds that helped thwart the Wahoos’ last gasp. He also added 8 rebounds and 2 assists to his 37 minutes, tying Nance with the most playing time.
Love’s only 3-pointer was a banker in the opening minutes. R.J. Davis hit two, and Puff Johnson came off the bench to swish two more, as the long-ball barrage equaled the nine Carolina made in the second half against Clemson before combining to make only 14-for-75 from the 3-point line in losses to Miami and N.C. State and the narrow win at Notre Dame.
The Heels shot 58 percent in the first half, their highest percentage of the season, three nights after shooting 18.5 from the floor in the first half in South Bend.
Other weird-ities about the game were that Virginia:
– Had six more points in the paint where Carolina usually makes its bones; the last time that happened was the January loss at UVA, when Armando Bacot went out after 78 seconds with an ankle injury. Because Bacot played only 25 minutes in this one due to foul trouble, including sitting out all but 30 seconds of the last eight minutes, the visitors also had three more second-chance points.
– Had the only two fast break points in the entire game. The last time UNC went without a single fast break point was against Louisville late last season.
– Had 8 points off UNC’s 12 turnovers, while Carolina failed to turn any of the opponent’s turnovers into points for the first time since 2016.
– Made only 5 of 11 free throws for 45 percent after coming in at 70 percent and missed a lot of chippies around the basket.
The Cavaliers are far from the offensive team that won it all in 2019 with NBA draft picks De’Andre Hunter, Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy and are a testament to coach Tony Bennett’s defense. But Carolina was more aggressive from the jump, holding the ‘Hoos to under 40 percent shooting for only the fifth time this season.
Underscoring the downturn that began in Roy Williams’ last two seasons, the Tar Heels last home win against a top 10 team was over Duke 79-70 on March 9, 2019. Since then, there have been three other games at the Dean Dome against top 10s, all losses.
However, this was Davis’ fourth win against a top 10 after two over Duke and one over Baylor at the end of last season, all away from Chapel Hill.
In the end, it came down to the outside shooting that has been Carolina’s nemesis for most of the season. After the game, Davis said “we just had to knock down more outside shots. Not necessarily 15 (like against Clemson) or nine in one half like we did tonight, but we have to make a healthy dose of our 3s.”
Despite all the other eccentricities of this game, getting the early lead and holding onto it indeed came down to the nine 3-pointers in the first half and the lone long ball in the second – another needed corner shot by Leaky Black, the elite defender and passer who took only three shots but blocked four of Virginia’s and added three assists, plus 8 rebounds.
R.J. Davis, the 6-foot point guard whom his coach jokingly called “2-feet-9” after the game, had a double-double with 10 boards and 16 points, plus 4 assists. Still, with Puff playing 24 minutes, it was basically a six-man rotation.
So: inexperienced depth hangs over this weird and wonderful win, not to be taken lightly on Monday night in Tallahassee.
Featured photo via Todd Melet.
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I agree on your assessment of Joe Lunardi. Too much airtime. Too much noise. I suppose some find him entertaining but in truth, his opinions make no difference come selection Sunday.