Sharing the Ball: Heels beat Davidson Wildcats 90-72
The North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team played a home game in Charlotte yesterday against the Davidson Wildcats. It was an entertaining game that featured two teams trying to win in two different ways. North Carolina tried to use its superior size to get high chance shots down low. Davidson tried to use a lot motion and screens to open up three point shooters.
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A lot of people have gleaned on to the idea that this was Kennedy Meeks’ homecoming of sorts. The big Tar Heel did lead the team’s scoring with 19 points, and Davidson had few answers for him when he got deep in the post. Yet I think that misses the point of what I saw in this game.
The answer to what I saw was Marcus Paige’s assist numbers. Paige played most of the game, and scored most of his points in the second half. He shot some threes and reached 13 points during the game. Yet he only had four assists. What was that about?
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The answer to that question was that the Tar Heels moved the ball around well without Paige having to direct where the ball went. Sometimes that led to JP Tokoto playing heroball, but most times it was refreshing to see them finding each other instead of playing through Paige. A number of Heels started the break or brought up the ball. Tokoto and freshman forward Justin Jackson had four assists each as well.
It will be interesting to see this concept continue to evolve. Ball movement like that can keep the opponent on their toes and make it harder to game plan around Paige.
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