North Carolina Tar Heels roll ECU, 108-64

The North Carolina Tar Heels played the East Carolina Pirates yesterday in basketball and got a result that will stun exactly no one, winning comfortably by a score of 108-64. Yet this is one of those games where the box score does not tell the full story, and had some surprises in it when I looked at it today.

The JP Tokoto Show

Tokoto’s line was not surprising to me. He finished with nineteen points and eight assists. With the attention given to Marcus Paige, it often seemed like Tokoto was running the offense for the Heels. He shot well from the field and even looked like he had improved his free throw delivery, going 5 of 5 on the night.

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Big on The Boards

ECU is a team that is built more like Butler than some of the other squads than the Tar Heels have played. Brice Johnson pulled down seventeen rebounds and Kennedy Meeks had eleven. This was important for the Tar Heels, because they had allowed too much board coverage by Iowa.

Brice As Nice?

If I had been asked who the star of the game was, I would have pointed to Kennedy Meeks. He was impactful whenever he was out. He is turning into a low post scorer and finisher that the Heels have
lacked. Yet Brice Johnson outscored and outrebounded Meeks in the ECU game. Johnson was the recipient of good passing, but he also showed some physicality out there.

North Carolina Tar Heels Pass the Ball

Key pinpoint passing was key to the Tar Heel offense. Tokoto, Paige, and others made the right pass and the extra pass to set up some easy baskets. It will be interesting to see if this kind of performance is repeatable. The next opponent is number 1 Kentucky.