Art Chansky’s Sports Notebook is presented by The Casual Pint. YOUR place for delicious pub food paired with local beer. Choose among 35 rotating taps and 200+ beers in the cooler.
Carolina’s opening game in the Battle 4 Atlantis today should be an indicator.
Northern Iowa is an interesting opponent for several reasons. In 2015, the Panthers upset the No. 1-ranked Tar Heels in Marcus Paige’s so-called Senior Game (except the injured Paige did not play in his home state). You can call this season’s 1-2 UNI entry a one-man team because 6-5 junior guard Nate Heise leads the Panthers in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and blocks. So watch him.
But, a year ago, this is when Hubert Davis’ second UNC team learned a few things about itself at the Knight tourney in Oregon. The again top-ranked Heels struggled to beat Portland and went on a four-game losing streak that knocked them out of the polls, proving they were way overrated.
The almost completely different current team has, by and large, shown signs of moving up from No. 14 in this week’s rankings while yet to prove it can be both a strong starter and finisher. Stylistically, their first three games demonstrated more speed and teamwork but not yet the better outside shooting and sustained defense expected.
Can Carolina have the killer instinct needed to blow out inferior opponents like UC Riverside and when challenged in the second half put the game away like against Radford and Lehigh (of Northern Iowa’s ilk).
Don’t you need to be both to be great?
In the semis at Portland last November, they led Iowa State for the entire game, by 9 points with 5:36 remaining, and wound up losing by five. In the third-place game, the Heels had ample chances to beat what would be a Sweet Sixteen Alabama team before losing in four overtimes. Losses at tough road venues Indiana and Virginia Tech followed and the NCAA bubble watch began.
Davis has decided to use 10 players this year to try to build some depth out of the experience he had returning and the transfers he brought in. He has played 39 unique combos on the floor, and clearly three of them have shined.
Armando Bacot, R.J. Davis, Harrison Ingram, Cormac Ryan and Paxson Wojcik have outscored the opponent by 52 points while playing about half of the game together. Bacot-Davis-Ingram plus Elliot Cadeau and Jae’Lyn Withers are a plus-56 points in eight minutes their unit played. A slightly faster five of Bacot-Davis-Ingram-Ryan-Cadeau has a plus-61.5 margin over about 7 minutes.
Make no mistake, the grad/senior duo of Bacot and R.J. Davis have to be in there when it counts, as their efficiency numbers dwarf all other combinations.
The third-year coach can keep giving as many as 10 men minutes, but he is more likely to settle on eight or nine for most of the game and let them know how much they will play and exactly what he and his staff and their fan base expect of them.
Aren’t we anxious to see how they all do against the Power 5 foes that follow Northern Iowa?
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our biweekly newsletter.
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines