Quick Hitters - North Carolina vs. College of Charleston

Isaac Schade presents Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 79-60 season-opening win over College of Charleston on Wednesday evening.

Author:
Isaac Schade
Nov 26, 2020 12:11 AM EST

Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 79-60 season-opening win over College of Charleston on Wednesday evening.

Highlights:

Condensed Game:

As expected in the first game of the 2020 basketball season, with Carolina coming off a 14-19 season, having played no exhibitions, no secret scrimmages, relying heavily on freshmen, and still smack dab in the middle of COVID-19 protocols, there were moments where the Tar Heels looked great and others where they looked like a team seeing its very first action against a team in another jersey.
The Tar Heels looked like they might run away with the game right out of the gate. Garrison Brooks scored the first two points of the season and Charleston responded with two free throws. From there, Carolina went on a 14-0 run while Charleston missed their first 11 field goals. The Cougars finally scored their first non-free throw points with 11:22 left in the first half.
To their credit, College of Charleston responded well and used an 11-3 run early in the second half to take a 43-42 lead with 15:00 left. How did the Tar Heels respond? They went on a 17-0 run to ultimately put the game out of reach. The first 12 points of that run were all scored by freshmen (three each for RJ Davis and Caleb Love; six for Day’Ron Sharpe).
Many were curious to see what five players Coach Williams would place in the starting lineup. The quintet ended up being the all-freshman backcourt of Caleb Love and RJ Davis, with Leaky Black on the wing, while Garrison Brooks and Armando Bacot held down the frontcourt. It will be interesting to see what happens when Anthony Harris returns. He could potentially start at the two, allowing RJ Davis to come in off the bench for Caleb Love. Andrew Platek and Day’Ron Sharpe were the first two subs of the game.
With the start, Caleb Love became the third straight true freshman to start at point guard for the Tar Heels, following Coby White and Cole Anthony. Love had a solid college debut. He scored 17 points to lead the team, hit all eight of his free throws, perhaps most importantly had four assists and just one turnover, and recorded two steals.
There was a scary moment in the second half when Love took the bait on a pump fake and went flying through the air before landing in an unwieldy heap on the floor. He came off for a few minutes but eventually returned to the game, seemingly none the worse for wear.
Unfortunately, Garrison Brooks did not score the nine points he needed to reach the 1,000 point club. He totaled six points and will look to accumulate the remaining three against UNLV next Monday. Oddly Brooks scored all those points in the first 12 minutes of the game and was held without a point for the remaining 38. He did, however, pull down 11 rebounds.
The other Tar Heel with double-digit rebounds was Day’Ron Sharpe, who had quite the impressive collegiate debut. Sharpe recorded a double-double (13 points, 10 boards), had two assists, zero turnovers, one block, two steals, and went 5-for-6 from the free throw line. His first three defensive possessions in college resulted in a rebound, another rebound, and a block. Not too shabby. Here's his first college rebound, in which he just grabbed the ball from over a Charleston player's head:

UNC projects to have another dominant rebounding team. They finished the game +15, outrebounding Charleston 49-34. 17 of those were offensive which Carolina converted into 30 second-chance points.

Carolina had just nine turnovers, only three of which were attributed to freshmen. Really not bad for the first game of the season. The all-freshman starting backcourt of Love and Davis combined for five assists and just two turnovers.
Davis and Love both showed they are more than scorers. Each freshman had a highlight-worthy takeaway. Davis intercepted an inbounds pass from the baseline to half court and took it in for a layup. Love was on the floor multiple times throughout the night, including a play where he poked the ball away, tossed it to Davis, who eventually got it back from Kerwin Walton for a layup in transition. That’s three freshmen in on that fast break if you’re keeping track at home. Both of those plays are below:

After last year’s team struggled with both depth and scoring, it was nice to see four players score in double-figures (none of whom were named Garrison Brooks) and seven players record 20+ minutes with no one playing 30 minutes.
Last year’s team had the lowest three-point field goal percentage in Carolina history (30.4%), so the hope is for the 2020-21 Tar Heels to hit at a higher clip to open up the inside for the dominant bigs. Tonight was an inauspicious start in that category. UNC shot 4-for-18 (22.2%). Better days are ahead.
Keeping tabs on some of the other freshmen, Puff Johnson entered late in the first half and hit his first (and only) shot of the game, a three from the left wing. Walker Kessler didn’t play until the second half but finished with an efficient six points and four rebounds in just 4:23 of playing time.

We haven’t even talked about Armando Bacot, who finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, three blocks, and went 4-for-6 from the free throw line.

Roy Williams postgame press conference

Players postgame press conference

Garrison Brooks

Armando Bacot

Day'Ron Sharpe

RJ Davis

Caleb Love

Remember to check in for Quick Hitters after every North Carolina basketball game. Next up is the Maui Invitational (in Asheville, NC). The Tar Heels' first round game is against UNLV on Monday, November 30. Tip is at 7:00 ET on ESPN2.

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