Quick Hitters - North Carolina vs. Notre Dame (ACC Tournament 2nd Round)

Isaac Schade presents Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 101-59 win over Notre Dame on Wednesday night in the 2nd Round of the ACC Tournament.

Author:
Isaac Schade
Mar 11, 2021 2:53 AM EST

Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 101-59 win over Notre Dame on Wednesday night in the 2nd Round of the ACC Tournament.

Highlights:

Condensed Game:

Congratulations to Coach Roy Williams on his 902^nd career victory, moving him into a tie with Bobby Knight for third all-time in Division I.
The game turned on this: Carolina held a quite comfortable second-half lead although Notre Dame cut the margin to 12 (59-47) and had the ball with 15:00 left in the game and a chance to get the lead to single digits with a three. Instead, Walker Kessler blocked a shot (shocking!). The following sentence is not a typo: Over the course of the next 11 minutes of game action, the Tar Heels went on a 37-2 run to make the score 96-49. The run extended out to 42-4. Just absurd, and beautiful.
If you were the skeptic who thought Carolina wouldn’t score 100 points in a game for the second year in a row, you were dead wrong (please note how much sarcasm is dripping from that sentence). We all saw this coming, right? Given the see-saw game results of late, this was "scheduled" to be a “bad” game. Rather, the Tar Heels have now put together back-to-back really strong performances.

No, this was not the biggest margin of victory this season. The 42-point cushion over Notre Dame fell just shy of the 45-point beatdown of Louisville. However, a 42-point victory in the ACC Tournament is nothing short of historic.
The 101 points scored is the first time a team has cracked 100 in regulation in the ACC Tournament since Duke did so back in 1999.
Similar to the Duke game on Saturday, the Tar Heels essentially put this game away early. They built a double-digit lead with 9:45 remaining and never let Notre Dame cut the lead to single digits. That means the Tar Heels led by double-digits for 29:45 of this game. Against Duke, Carolina led by double-digits for 34:21 of game action. Overall then, over the course of the past two games, UNC has led by double digits for 64:06 of the 80 available minutes. That works out to 3,846 of the last 4,800 seconds, or 80.1 percent.
The big lead allowed Coach Williams to spread playing time around and get several starters some rest. Nine different players recorded double-digit minutes, with no one playing more than Leaky Black’s 27:39. This level of rest will be immeasurably helpful tomorrow against a fully-rested Hokie team.
It wasn’t just rotation reserves receiving more minutes, the walk-ons got a good bit of playing time as well. Ryan McAdoo, Walker Miller, and KJ Smith all checked in just after the final media timeout. Sterling Manley and Creighton Lebo each got in as well. Manley recorded another dunk. Lebo had a basket, but it was waved off due to a “why did you call that?” traveling violation.
We haven’t even mentioned Garrison Brooks yet. As you’ll recall, he tweaked his ankle early in the Duke game. The ankle was bothering Brooks too much to play tonight. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. It’s just the second game he’s ever missed in his Carolina career (the other being Louisville last season).
With Brooks out, that means Armando Bacot, Day’Ron Sharpe, and Walker Kessler would each have to carry a heavier load. How did they do? Just fine, thank you very much. All three recorded double-doubles (the first of Kessler’s career) and shot a combined 21-for-31 from the field (67.7 percent).

Kessler came thiiiiis close to recording just the third-ever triple-double in North Carolina history, in only 21 minutes of playing time. Kessler finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds, and eight blocks. The block total is the most ever for a freshman in an ACC Tournament game. The previous record was six, held by both Tim Duncan and Mike Gminski. Kessler's shot-blocking prowess is such a welcome skill-set for a program that’s lacked a true rim protector for the past couple years. The freshman now has a combined 15 blocks in his past four games.

Also on Kessler’s stat line were two (live-ball) steals, one of which he took all the way back for a lay-up. Not to be outdone, Sharpe and Bacot led the break themselves on another play. They kicked out to Kerwin Walton, who missed a three, but of course, Carolina got the offensive rebound and eventually, Bacot scored. Here's the Kessler steal and lay-up, followed by Sharpe and Bacot leading the way:

Bacot, who had put up 18 points in each of the previous two games, went even further tonight, finishing with a game high 20, to go with his game high 13 rebounds.
Sharpe also continues to impress. Starting for the injured Brooks, he went out and recorded a career high six assists, falling four assists shy of his own triple-double. His passing and footwork is elegant, but he is a big man who can bully his way through traffic when necessary. What a great combination.
In the first meeting of the season, the Tar Heels crushed the Irish on the glass. Tonight was no different, and frankly, even more lopsided than round one. The last matchup produced a +21 rebounding margin for Carolina, the best of the season…until today’s +23 margin (54-31) eclipsed it. The Tar Heels fell just shy of the single game ACC offensive rebounding record, essentially because they shot too well in the second half (record was 27, they had 25). The final offensive rebounding percentage was 61.0, easily the highest this season (and the first time over 60 percent).
In the two games these teams have played, the Tar Heels have out-rebounded Notre Dame by a combined 102-58.
One of the big concerns in playing Notre Dame is their highly-rated offense which will drive straight at you and either take the lay-up or kick out for a three when defenders help. The Irish three-point shooting is usually kryptonite for Carolina. Tonight, however, the Tar Heels actually outshot their opponents from the three-point line, both in terms of percentage made (37.5-26.9) and number of makes (9-7).
One of the big talking points is that when Carolina plays well, it’s because the starting backcourt is running things well. Look no further than tonight's assist-to-turnover ratio: Caleb Love and Kerwin Walton combined for nine assists and just one turnover. That’s a successful model to build off of.
Each half started out with a Caleb Love three-pointer within the first 20 seconds.
After a four game stretch with no fewer than 19 turnovers in each, the Heels limited that category to just 11 tonight. If Carolina can just hold onto the ball, their 41 percent offensive rebounding rate will essentially allow them to stay in any game.
Free throw shooting got off to another tumultuous start, with UNC make just five of nine in the first half. The Tar Heels came out after halftime, though, and were perfect in all nine second half attempts.
The 50 points scored in the first half were the most in a first half this season.
The Tar Heel bench continues to play a major role. Tonight’s 45 points were tied with the Louisville game for most bench points (other than Senior Night when the bench points are skewed) in a game this season. In fact, here are the bench scoring totals dating back to the Northeastern game: 40, 45, 37, 37, 23, *73*, 45. Taking out 73, that’s an average of 37.8 bench points per game in the past six. Just for fun, if you add in the 73 bench points from the Duke game, the average rises to 42.9 bench points per game in the past seven.
Notre Dame started in a 2-3 zone and switched back and forth between that and man for the majority of the game. The young (and even younger without Brooks) Heels handled the change quite adroitly; which I think is fair to say given that they scored a season high in points.
North Carolina is typically a team known for their offense, but this year’s group grades out better on defensive efficiency. Following the Notre Dame game they are 54^th in offensive efficiency, but 15^th in defensive efficiency. Here’s an example, from the end of the first half, of great recoveries and close outs, resulting in an Irish turnover on the sideline. Here's the Notre Dame possession:

The Tar Heels will play Virginia Tech on Thursday evening, with the Hokies coming off a long COVID pause. How will they look? We will have to wait and see.

Box Score

Roy Williams postgame press conference

Players postgame press conference

Day'Ron Sharpe

Armando Bacot

Walker Kessler

Remember to check in for Quick Hitters after every North Carolina basketball game. Next up is the Quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament against Virginia Tech on Thursday, March 11. Tip is at 9pm ET on ESPN.

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