Carolina beat the Syracuse zone – again!
The Tar Heels are the first team to defeat Syracuse nine straight times, snapping Cornell’s eight-game winning streak in the 1920s, making UNC’s new record even more amazing.
Syracuse has been deploying a zone under coach Jim Boeheim for decades. Unless the Orange get behind late in the game, they rarely play another defense. So, Syracuse must be pretty good at the zone, and Carolina pretty good busting that zone. And Roy Williams must be a pretty good zone coach.
The Heels came in shooting 28 percent from the 3-point line, which was last in the ACC. But it is no secret how Carolina beats the Syracuse zone: a man at the high post and a man at the low post, everyone moving the ball crisply until someone gets free in the corner or up top.
Christian Keeling and Cole Anthony burnt the Orange from those spots all afternoon at a suddenly-silent Carrier Dome, where Tom Brady, Julian Edelman, and Jimmy Fallon sat at the scorer’s table, supposedly cheering on the ‘Cuse.
They saw a home team that couldn’t stop UNC from canning those open shots to the tune of 11-for-26, 43 percent. And they saw an opponent winning back-to-back games for only the second time in 2020 but now may be the most dangerous last-place team in conference history.
Keeling, whom Williams acknowledged was intimidated early in the season by the speed and size of ACC competition apparently took his coach’s advice and “played basketball.” He now looks like the scoring ace he was at a mid-major.
Anthony, who was the subject of debate over whether he should return after his knee injury, is looking like the sure NBA lottery pick he was coming out of high school.
With the Garrison Brooks still a double-double waiting to happen, Carolina now has a version of The Big Three that it has lacked for most of the season. Senior night is Tuesday against Wake Forest, the regular-season finale Saturday against Duke and the ACC tournament next week. Clearly, these Heels are more anxious than ever to keep playing.
They not only beat the zone Saturday; they were in one.
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