What is the answer to Carolina’s inconsistent execution?
Going into Saturday’s regular-season finale with Duke, Tar Heel fans are understandably vexed by which team will take the court to play the Blue Devils on Senior Night.
Will it be the guys who played well enough to win 15 games, or the unmasked men who laid enough eggs to fill a half-carton at Harris Teeter? With some five-star talent throughout the lineup and the best-rebounding margins in college basketball, it is a vexing question.
In the first game against a Duke team that is better now than that night in Cameron, Carolina needed 25 points and 9-of-16 shooting from Caleb Love to escape with a four-point win. The Heels got the Blue Devils in foul trouble, especially their star Matthew Hurt who had only 7 points after playing just 21 minutes.
Although Hurt also fouled-out in Duke’s two overtime losses to Louisville and Georgia Tech, UNC cannot count on that happening again. And with the emergence of 7-foot freshman center Mark Williams, who had 8 rebounds in only 14 minutes in Durham, the Heels will get a better battle inside.
The defense has to be good again against Hurt and certainly tougher than it was against Buddy Boeheim in Syracuse Monday night. Boeheim, the coach’s kid, had 18 points in the first half at the Smith Center in January before failing to score in the second half.
In the rematch, Boeheim lit them up again, this time for 26, including six 3-pointers, when UNC knew he was the only reliable Orange outside shooter. Leaky Black and several others took turns on Buddy, who relocated enough to continue getting open looks.
Roy Williams isn’t a gimmick coach, so he kept what has helped him win 900 games, that is a collapsing down low defense and hoping to cover up the outside shooters. It failed miserably after Boeheim got hot, and afterward Roy allowed that they “helped off” too much.
Hurt presents a different problem because he is 6-9 and can score from both the block and behind the arc. Who will chase him outside, and contest his high, quick release? Duke runs too so the teams will score plenty of points. But history shows that cooling off Love this time will be easier than stopping Hurt next time.
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