CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A laminated piece of paper now residing in North Carolina coach Hubert Davis’ office just may be the key to the Tar Heels’ season. In the short term, it was definitely what inspired their 80-64 win over James Madison on Sunday at the Dean E. Smith Center.
Carolina played three, mostly lackluster performances, in its wins to open the season. So Davis asked the team after Thursday’s practice to write down three to five traits they wanted as their identity this season and present it to him on Saturday.
He thought he’d need to remind them of their assignment, but the team presented him a printed list. Davis didn’t want to disclose what the list said, but said he was moved by it because of how well thought out it was.
“It’s important to know what you want to look like,” Davis said, “so that when you go out there, you can actually do the things that are necessary to put yourself in that position.”
Davis said it represents a covenant and he plans on having duplicates blown up for the locker room.
“They worked on it together, it was extensive, it was well done, it was professionally thought about,” Davis said. “I was very, very proud of them. I was expecting a piece of paper with you know, just some scribbles. But it was great.”
It was no coincidence that the Tar Heels (4-0) played their best game so far.
Senior forward Armando Bacot played more to his identity against the Dukes (4-1) and Carolina did too.
Bacot’s back
Bacot recorded his first double-double of the season, scoring 19 points and grabbing a career-high 23 rebounds. He had a total of 24 rebounds combined through the Heels’ first three games.
“I knew this game I would come in and play amazing and be great,” said Bacot, who trails only Billy Cunningham (60) and Antawn Jamison (51) in program history with 50 double doubles. “My confidence never wavers. Whenever I do something bad, I always try to find a way to fix it and I kind of got a chance to correct a lot of the things that I was doing. I just need to keep it up.”
The Dukes ranked eighth nationally in offensive rebounding percentage at 44.2 according to Ken Pomeroy. But the Heels kept them to just seven second chance points on nine offensive rebounds, which measured to an offensive rebounding percentage of just 20.0.
Leaky Black helped out too with a career-high 12 rebounds as Carolina’s efforts on the boards helped nullify what had been a strength for JMU. Bacot said when the Heels are able to rebound like they did with a plus-16 (50-34) advantage, they’re hard to beat.
“I did a lot better job of getting low position, but really, I didn’t post as much, I was just getting it off the offensive glass,” Bacot said. “And that’s something that I struggled with the first few games but when I’m doing those type of things, getting offensive glass, it makes the game a lot easier for me and everybody. I think that’s just our blueprint.”
Defensive priority
The Tar Heels out to make defense part of their blueprint. The Dukes entered the game second nationally in scoring offense by just a tenth of a point behind Arizona averaging 105.2 points per game.
JMU had twice shot more than 60 percent from the floor this season, but Carolina held them to a season-low 34.8 percent from the field.
UNC guard Caleb Love said it was one of the best defensive outings of the last two seasons and he rattled off a list of why he felt that way:
“Just helping the helper, having our guy’s back and knowing if somebody gets beat, we got to help out — and we got help on the backside as well,” Love said. “Talking, sticking to our principles, knowing the game plan, knowing the scout, knowing who would guarding, personnel — we definitely took a step forward.”
Carolina shut down the Dukes’ two best 3-point shooters. Vado Morse shot 52 percent from behind the arc and had a team-leading 13 makes on the season. Noah Freidel was shooting 47.4 percent from 3 with nine makes this season. The two combined to go 2-for-17 from 3 against the Heels.
Playing with the lead
As good as Carolina looked in running out to a 19-point halftime lead, it didn’t match JMU’s intensity to start the second half. The Dukes seemed rejuvenated by its fullcourt pressure and went on a 12-2 run.
They had two 3-point attempts by Morse and Freidel that could have cut it to six, but both misfired.
Carolina had gotten away from what worked so well in the first half, when it shared the ball offensively. The Heels had 10 assists on 15 made baskets in the first half, but the Dukes’ 1-2-2 zone pressure made them resort to a lot more 1-on-1 situations in the second half.
“They played that 1-2-2 and they didn’t get any steals from it, but it kind of takes you out of rhythm,” Davis said. “And it did take us a little bit out of rhythm. That’s something that we need to improve on, because teams are going to do that against us.”
The Heels didn’t have an assisted basket in the second half until R.J. Davis, who led the team with 21 points and five assists, found Puff Johnson in the left corner for a 3-pointer with 4:43 remaining in the game.
“Today was just a together type of game,” R.J. Davis said. “We all played together and that was the main message going into this game was just to play Carolina basketball, get back to what we were doing and to have fun.”
