Nothing like a 20-point win over the league leaders to get the vibes back in check.
That’s exactly what happened in the Smith Center Saturday afternoon, as the UNC men’s basketball team played its best game of the season in a 91-71 win over Clemson. The win snapped the team’s three-game losing streak.
😁😁😁 pic.twitter.com/jZfJLu5Jie
— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) February 11, 2023
UNC’s “Big 3” of Armando Bacot, R.J. Davis and Caleb Love combined for 59 points in the rout, and checked multiple boxes that more often than not lead to success for the Tar Heels. Bacot registered yet another double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds, Love made six three-pointers for the fourth time in his career and first time this season, and Davis made multiple threes for the first time since the NC State game on January 21.
Davis and Love’s proficiency from downtown was part of a team-wide three-point barrage: Carolina shot 15-33 on threes, which sets season highs in both threes taken and threes made. The Tar Heels hadn’t made at least 10 in a game since January 17 against Boston College.
“I knew coming in that we all were gonna have a great game,” said Love, who recorded back-to-back 20-point games for only the third time in his career. “We had team bonding at Duwe [Farris’] spot last night. Being together helped us enjoy each other’s company. Coming into this game, we felt great.”
Team bonding was a common theme among the team’s postgame comments, as R.J. Davis revealed he had called a players-only meeting this past Thursday following the humbling loss at Wake Forest.
“I just had to, as a leader of this team,” Davis said. “Just to voice my opinion, but also hear from everybody else. Also, to take a different approach to things. Not always having to scream at each other, trying to kill each other in practice… it really brought us together. It went really well.”
“We did a lot of soul-searching,” Bacot said. “Just being honest with each other. But… consistency has been our problem all year. I’m not satisfied.”
Hubert Davis had a method of his own he turned to in practice.
“I made some of the guys put on a 15-pound heavy vest,” he said. “Throughout all of practice, they were trying to figure out why I was singling out certain players… I told them, ‘This is what we’re playing with. You’ve gotta put that stuff down.'”
It’s fair to say Davis’ unorthodox approach worked wonders. UNC’s 91 points scored are its most in ACC play, and its 47.8 shooting percentage the team’s best since the first Wake Forest game on January 4. In addition, the Tar Heels got 25 points from their bench, a critically important stat when considering the team will play Miami in just 48 hours. Puff Johnson led all Carolina reserves with eight points, including a pair of three-pointers, for his most productive outing since scoring 12 at Louisville on January 14.
“Having [Johnson] in the lineup… it’s huge,” Davis said. “It hurts us when Puff is out of the rotation. But when he’s healthy and he’s able to play, he gives us some really good minutes.”
But more than simply playing good basketball, Davis said seeing his team having fun again struck a chord with him.
“I was emotional during the game and after the game,” said head coach Hubert Davis. “Because they were playing with a sense of joyfulness. You could just see it… it wasn’t just when they made their play, it was when their teammates made a play. It’s always a wonderful and beautiful trait to be able to celebrate other people’s success.”
Now comes the real challenge: bottling up this energy and using it again Monday night against a Miami team looking like one of the ACC’s few locks for the NCAA Tournament. Nobody in Chapel Hill has forgotten what the Hurricanes did to the Tar Heels last season: a 28-point shellacking in Coral Gables that signified one of the low points of the year.
When asked about transferring Saturday’s performance to Monday, Bacot thought for a moment before giving his answer:
“Pray.”
Featured image via Todd Melet. For a full photo gallery of the game, click here.
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