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The schedule is helping shield Carolina’s thinning bench.
As the season has progressed, the Tar Heels are still winning but gradually playing their subs less. And for the third straight year, it looks like they will finish in the 300s in terms of using their reserves.
The schedule is masking a lot of this, as Hubert Davis’ team is staying in front in the ACC standings by getting long breaks at the right time.
Carolina broke an eight-game losing streak at Virginia after a week off to prepare for the Cavaliers. The Heels won the brutally bad, 54-44 game in Charlottesville that looked like it set the sport back deep into the last century.
Thanks to R.J. Davis, they survived a Miami team that was playing without two starters in the 48-hour turnaround. Davis was spectacular with a career-high and Smith Center scoring record, but his coach was right when he said, “We needed every inch of R.J.’s 42 points.”
In those last two games, Carolina struggled to score late and won by making just enough free throws to hold on. At UVa, UNC had a total of six field goals in the second half. Against the Hurricanes, it was a dismal 12 of 21 from the foul line including missing five straight in the heat of crunch time. Now the Heels coming off a five-day break before Saturday’s home game vs. N.C. State.
Hubert still uses most of his reserves, but except for Seth Trimble they are not playing well and getting pulled in what has become a six-man rotation. Against Virginia, James Okonkwo and Paxson Wojcik were in the game for two minutes in the first half when a 13-point lead was cut down to 7.
Neither played in the second half and Jalen Washington, who had 6 rebounds and 4 blocks in the first half while Armando Bacot sat with two fouls, got back in for less than a minute as Mondo came to life. Against Miami, J-Wash got 7 minutes and had all zeroes in the box score except for 1 foul.
Jae’Lyn Withers played 9-plus minutes in the first half with 2 points, 3 rebounds and 3 fouls, but sparingly in the second half, coming back in with five seconds left after Bacot fouled out to make the decisive free throws.
The Wolfpack (17-11, 9-8) has just about played its way out of a second straight NCAA tournament bid by losing 7 of the last 11 but boasts four players averaging double figures led by the two dangerous D.J.s – Horne (averaging 17.5) who is shooting 43 percent from 3-point land, and the massive Burns who shoots 50 percent by banging his big body around the basket.
Clearly, this is another possible trap for the Tar Heels, who are trying to maintain at least a one-game ACC lead going to Duke in the regular-season finale next Saturday and need to get more from their bench down the stretch of games and the schedule.
Featured image via Todd Melet
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.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 newsletter.
I don’t really see a problem here. We’re one game up in the ACC with three to play. I trust Coach Davis to play the guys he thinks will give us the best chance of success. The constant second guessing is getting tiresome.
2nd that.
I agree, if Art looks back historically, coaches settle on less subbing to solidify their run for the playoffs, in otherwise use the better players