North Carolina Tar Heels: Three Observations from Wed.
The North Carolina Tar Heels have some explaining to do after their home loss to short-handed Duke.
The North Carolina Tar Heels lost to the Duke Blue Devils on Wednesday night in a close score of 74-73. To most observers though the end of the game should go down in the files of the absurd. Not because of strange officiating or clock errors, but how North Carolina would in the words of former Cardinals Coach Dennis Green ‘let them off the hook.’
The game was a pretty clear case of what had to be done. Undermanned Duke was deploying a Villanova style game plan without forward Amile Jefferson. That lift became more difficult when junior Matt Jones left the game with a bum ankle. Then Marshall Plumlee was lost for stretches because of foul trouble and the Tar Heels could not put Duke away with Duke hanging around four points back until the end of the game.
So how do you explain it? Here’s my attempt in the nicest way possible.
1. Failure to defend playground ball
There was no sophisticated offensive game plan for Duke. Much of the game was simply letting Grayson Allen and Brandon Ingram drive into the lane and see what happened. What happened is that they made a lot of those shots. There were no sophisticated passing schemes or whatever, just an occasional three pointer.
More from North Carolina Tar Heels
- NC Colleges Provide Coronavirus Results from Athletic Departments
- UNC Football gets Commitment from Top Cornerback
- Four North Carolina players selected in first round of MLB Draft
- UNC Destroyed by Coach Duggs and Tennessee in NCAA Football 14
- UNC Basketball: Former Tar Heel star calls out Roy Williams
2. Brandon Ingram
The injury to Matt Jones did one nice thing for Duke, it prevented the Heels from hiding one of their posts on Jones and letting Justin Jackson or Theo Pinson guard Ingram. Ingram regularly attacked Brice Johnson and Isaiah Hicks when they had the assignment on Ingram. Ingram’s twenty points were also a result of him just shooting over people with his long arms.
More from Old North Banter
- Carolina Panthers: Secondary battles to watch in training camp 2020
- Carolina Panthers: 2020 training camp kicks off on Tuesday
- NC Colleges Provide Coronavirus Results from Athletic Departments
- Court alleges Zion’s Stepfather received $400k
- UNC Football gets Commitment from Top Cornerback
3. Failure to Ride the Horse that Got Them Here
In the first half, no one was as devastating as Johnson was. Duke had no answer for him and they did not pretend to. Plumlee got his fourth foul in a quick stretch in the second half, but there was not really an attempt by the Heels to attack that weakness as much as they should have. Instead the indecision of Nate Britt and even Marcus Paige doomed some possessions to mere turnovers.
Now Johnson did not play great in the second half, but there is not much reason why the team could not have tried to work the ball in more to Hicks or Kennedy Meeks.
That’s about as far as I can go with this right now. The Tar Heels have a lot of egg on their face and they still have to play a good Miami team tomorrow.