CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — No. 1 North Carolina didn’t show much of the offensive explosiveness that helped it reach the national championship game last season in its opener against UNC Wilmington on Monday night.
What the Tar Heels showed in their 69-56 victory over the Seahawks, is that they’ll be able to win without relying on simply overpowering teams offensively.
Carolina (1-0) looked like a team of players very much learning to play with each other instead of a team that returned four starters. The Heels didn’t seem to have much of an emphasis in halfcourt play, and at times seemed to overshare the ball.
Senior forward Armando Bacot, who led the team in scoring and rebounding last season, had trouble handling UNCW’s double teams in the post. His two turnovers came from trying to dribble or pass out of them.
The Heels, who shot 35 percent from 3-point range last season, made just 2 of 10 from behind the arc.
Love and R.J. Davis tied with a team-high 17 points, while Bacot added 16 points and nine rebounds.
Here’s what we learned from Carolina’s win:
Defensive minded
Carolina limited the Hawks to just 21 points in the first half and 29 percent shooting from the floor for the game.
Carolina looks like it has the potential to be a much better defensive team than it was last season. The Heels are more athletic including the reserves from off the bench and have a lot of length in a lot of places.
In the first half alone, guard D’Marco Dunn and Bacot blocked shots on consecutive attempts from UNCW players. Freshman guard Seth Trimble harassed Eric Van der Heijden into a turnover when he had no where to go with the ball just before halftime. Love anticipated a skip pass by Donovan Newby and raced down the floor for a basket.
Despite the Seahawks starting the game making 5 of 9 shots from the field, the Heels held them to just 4-for-16 the rest of the half and turned eight UNCW turnovers into 11 points.
It was much of the same in the second half when UNCW cut their lead down to 10, Tyler Nickel blocked a Trazarien White shot that led to transition and Trimble finished with an and-1 opportunity on a layup.
The bench will be a thing
Hubert Davis spent much of the offseason talking about the need to develop depth after relying very heavily on the starters for the closing stretch of last season. Monday’s game showed how dedicated he is to doing so.
Both Styles and Dunn were the first subs in just six minutes into the game. Trimble and Nickel, a freshman, also played throughout the game.
When Bacot picked up his fourth foul with 11:06 left, forward Pete Nance was their only big on the floor and Trimble joined the starters for a three-guard lineup. Trimble scored all four of his points during that stretch.
It should be noted that Carolina can, and likely will, go deeper in non-conference play. Junior forward Puff Johnson did not play due to right knee soreness that also kept him out of the Heels’ Oct. 28 exhibition game against Johnson C. Smith. Davis said freshman forward Jalen Washington was being brought along slowly while he continued rehabilitating a knee injury from high school.
Nance is not Manek
Brady Manek transferred from Oklahoma and his 3-point shooting as a stretch-4 helped Carolina keep defenses honest. Nance, who shot 45 percent from 3-point range last season, is not the shooter than Manek was.
Nance scored six points with three rebounds in his debut as Tar Heel. The graduate transfer from Northwestern said before the game that he wanted to do whatever it takes to help the team win.
He did that on Monday, but could stand to be more assertive on offense. Nance only had three shot attempts and didn’t appear to be the main option in any set.
