North Carolina Basketball: No Traction Against Kentucky
The North Carolina Tar Heels ran into a buzzsaw yesterday, and though they tried to react they never good get the game close enough to make interesting. The Kentucky Wildcats kept the margin on the side of twelve that winners want. Ultimately Kentucky won by fourteen.
North Carolina Basketball: Fouls Problem, But Not Real Problem
The seeds of defeat hit rather early. One was the first half foul disparity. The biggest issue was probably Kennedy Meeks’ first foul which was repeated constantly by both teams throughout the game, but only called that once. Meeks ultimately gained a second foul that limited his first half effectiveness.
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The referees deserve credit for calling out gamesmanship when they saw it. They called fouls on Trey Lyles and Kyle-Anthony Towns when the pair was either flopping or trying to pull down Isaiah Hicks. I understand coaching flopping and trying to game the block/charge line (I remember Shane Battier), but I don’t understand doing it when you are the bigger team. Kentucky will be bigger than anyone they play this season. Little guys can pull that stuff. Big guys? Really?
Since When Could Kentucky Not Shoot Threes?
One surprise to me was the revelation that North Carolina was anticipating that Kentucky would shoot a lot of threes. That made no sense to me. I remember Aaron Harrison jacking threes last year and hitting at least one game winning three. So he will shoot them, and the Kentucky shooters were open enough that they got clean looks. That kind of goes against the point of having perimeter length like JP Tokoto or Justin Jackson if you are not going to contest those.
The other three point guys were Devin Booker and Tyler Ulis, who were recruited to do just that. They had missed the Columbia game because of injuries, but the Heels couldn’t have gambled that they were simply not going to play, could they?
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For the Heels, they got a good game from Brice Johnson and a good second half from Marcus Paige. It seems the post rotation now has decided roles. Johnson and Hicks are the power forwards. Meeks and Joel James are the centers. The Heels never found the consistency to come back all the way. However I don’t blame the foul situation for that, just that they never really found a way to break the Kentucky defense.
The Heels will play UNC Greensboro in Greensboro on Tuesday, followed up by a trip to Chicago to play Ohio State on Saturday.