Quick Hitters - North Carolina at NC State

Isaac Schade presents Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 79-76 road loss to NC State on Tuesday night.

Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 79-76 road loss to NC State on Tuesday night.

Highlights:

Condensed Game:

• Carolina is 32-4 vs. NC State in the Roy Williams era, including winning the last five straight. That streak ended tonight. Coach Williams will be champing at the bit to get a victory in the rematch back in the Smith Center on January 23.
• Unbelievable, but true: the Tar Heels have surrendered a double-digit lead in six of their last seven games. Tonight’s loss was the only one of those games in which they didn’t hold a lead at some point after going down by double-digits. The Heels scored the first bucket of the game, so technically they have held a lead at some point in every game.
• UNC cut the lead to 63-62 with 8:38 left in the game on an Andrew Platek lay-up and free throw. From there, State went on a 14-2 run to take a 77-64 lead with 5:13 to go. It appeared that Carolina ran out of gas after working so hard to get back in the game. However, they reeled off their own 9-0 run to cut the lead to four. UNC then had four shots to cut the lead to 2, but just couldn’t connect. It felt like every time the team got close, they would clench up, take a rushed shot, or an ill-advised one. Down the stretch, Carolina was 0-for-7 from the field.
• Even after some back and forth and missed free throws on the part of NC State, Carolina had two shots to tie in the final 10 seconds, but Davis and Love both missed three-pointers. 
• So what’s the problem? Why does the same thing keep happening over and over? The word Coach Williams used tonight sums it up nicely: urgency. The Tar Heels haven’t found a way to play with a sense of urgency until they have to because their backs are up against the wall. The UNC head coach would like his team to find a way to play with the same defensive intensity for 40 minutes that we witnessed over the last five minutes.
• Part of the issue with urgency is valuing the basketball. Carolina coughed up the ball seven times in the first ten minutes of the game, but then just once in the remaining ten minutes before halftime. It was in that stretch that the Heels cut the lead from 17 to seven. Unfortunately, the problem wasn’t fixed as the number of turnovers in the second half grew from eight to 10, for a total of 18. Aside from Kerwin Walton and Puff Johnson, every other player who stepped on the court had a turnover.
• In good news, every player that played scored a basket and every player that played grabbed a rebound. That level of healthy diversity of scoring and rebounding is something positive for the coaching staff to build on.
• UNC is still struggling to find reliable outside shooting. Today’s percentage was a paltry 16.7 percent (2-for-12). The Heels hit two deep balls in the first half but were 0-for-6 post-halftime. Overall, the team is shooting 25.6 percent from three.

• There was concern over RJ Davis’ availability after he missed a good portion of the Kentucky game, but he started and played just shy of 36 minutes.
• Carolina wound up outrebounding the Wolfpack by 11, but only had a one rebound advantage at halftime. Once again: this team must find a sense of urgency from the tip.
• One of the bright spots was Walker Kessler. Kessler’s box score doesn’t show anything overly substantial in terms of scoring: three points on 1-for-1 shooting. However, he added six rebounds, three steals, and three blocks in just 12 minutes. Additionally, the freshman made multiple hustle plays, including diving on the floor after a ball. When Kessler gets all 7'1" of himself down on the court, it undoubtedly invigorates his teammates.
• Watching Walker Kessler block a shot is quite entertaining. All he has to do is stick his hands up and he dwarfs other players. Often it feels like the opponent will take a shot and he just catches it out of mid-air.
• Andrew Platek continues to provide wily veteran leadership. In addition to scoring eight points on 3-for-4 shooting and grabbing three rebounds, he also drew three first half charges, two of which were on back-to-back possessions just before halftime. He also had a tap-out for an offensive rebound on a missed Carolina free throw.
• Platek did make the mistake of fouling jump shooters on two different occasions.
• Leaky Black has recorded at least one steal in every game this season and is averaging 1.5 steals per game. One of his takeaways tonight was a play where he appeared to just reach in and take the ball away from his man as he guarded out on the wing.
• Armando Bacot continues to shoot the ball efficiently. Tonight he was 7-for-9 from the field, bringing his season percentage up to 74.5. He’s taken 47 shots and missed just 12 all season.
• State was on fire in the first half. With 4:33 left before halftime, they were shooting 5-for-6 from three and 18-for-29 (62.1 percent) from the field.
• The refs had a rough go of the last few minutes of game action. State coach Kevin Keatts was upset about an overturned out-of-bounds call. As he continued to argue over the next several minutes, he was out of the coach’s box and Roy Williams tried to get the officials to call a technical, which they didn’t. On one of State’s final possessions, the ballhandler had a traveling violation that went uncalled (Chris Webber flashbacks anyone?).
• Once again, the Tar Heels did a great job of fighting back and doing what they could to secure a victory, but it was too little, too late.
• Carolina now has just over a week before they play at Georgia Tech on December 30. It will be interesting to see what creative ways the coaching staff can come up with to help preach urgency to the team. 

Box Score

Roy Williams postgame press conference

Players postgame press conference

Armando Bacot 

RJ Davis

Remember to check in for Quick Hitters after every North Carolina basketball game. Next up is a road game against Georgia Tech on Wednesday, December 30. Tip is at 8:00pm ET on Regional Sports Networks.

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