These Tar Heels never really took anyone’s best shot a year ago.
They weren’t the old Carolina that was at or near the top of college basketball with a Hall of Fame coach, and their uneven regular season left them on the outside of the NCAA bubble looking in. Then came the postseason, where every team gets every opponent’s best shot.
So when the Heels got hot in the Big Dance, they were trying to give opponents THEIR best shot to stay alive. I thought about that when Portland, a 15-point underdog, started off making almost everything on Thursday.
This was Carolina’s first road trip as the top-ranked team in the nation. The Tar Heels have had all the hype since beating Duke twice in the last month of the 2022 season. After a good outing against James Madison last Sunday, they might have taken the home-court Pilots lightly.
Here’s the memo: NEVER take any team lightly, while you are wearing NORTH CAROLINA on your chest. Especially on their home court.
Experienced Portland came out firing 3-pointers and made seven in the first half. The Heels seemed to be playing hard but had to be miffed at how many easy baskets they were giving up by being a step late or out of position.
The game was much tighter than the 89-81 final. The Pilots stayed close almost the entire way and had a five-point lead early in the second half on hot-shooting to that point, making their first four after intermission. At the under-16 timeout, Hubert Davis must have said “the hunger and thirst aren’t there.”
He must have said it again at the under-12 and under-8 TOs. By the under-4, Carolina had regained control of the game and a slim lead before outscoring Portland 13-6 on continued good shooting that netted 53.4 percent for the game. The difference was the Heels clamped down on defense, as the black-clad hosts missed 6 of their last 7 shots to surrender to UNC’s late surge.
Among the five starters who all scored in double figures, Pete Nance equaled his college high of 28 points, including a personal high of five 3-pointers, and R.J. Davis chipped in 6 on the decisive run. Only three points came from the bench, as the new “Iron Five” played 175 of the 200 minutes, not ideal with three games in four days in Oregon. By contrast, Portland got 25 points from its reserves who contributed 60 minutes.
Now the target on the Heels’ back is huge, as they get to face better and bigger teams than Portland for the rest of the Phil Knight Invitational and then three from the Big Ten, all on the road. Memo: No. 1s can’t afford to relax.
“They’re trying to figure it out,” Hubert said of his team. “They’ve never faced anything like this…the weight of other people’s expectations.”
Photo via AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer.
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.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines