North Carolina Tar Heels: On to Philly
The North Carolina Tar Heels had to wake up to beat the Providence Friars, but they did and got the victory.
The North Carolina Tar Heels defeated the Providence Friars 85-66 to advance to the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA Tournament. It was a game that looked like a lot like the game against Florida Gulf Coast. There was another slow start by the Heels and another second half salvage effort that broke the game open.
Providence played an interesting style sort of reminiscent of the Charlotte Hornets. Ben Bentil and Rodney Bullock were quite at home drifting to the outside in search of better options against their Tar Heel defenders. Bentil fired a number of threes to show his comfort and made three or four by the time the game was over.
Bentil scored twenty-one points of all types, but his impact and the impact of star guard Kris Dunn were limited by fouls. Both picked up four fouls by the halfway point of the second half. Dunn had sat much of the first half with two fouls. Bentil left the game with eight minutes to go with his fifth. Dunn became the main man at that point. He scored nineteen of his twenty-nine points in the second half.
Yet it was the defense on Dunn that arguably turned the game. The Heels experimented with Marcus Paige on him early, but then opted to put a longer defender on him for the rest of the game in the form of Justin Jackson. Yes, Dunn still scored but his effort was suppressed and he had to navigate the larger defender.
For the Tar Heels offense, the game turned when the ball started going consistently inside to Isaiah Hicks and Brice Johnson. That was something lacking in the first half were the Heels shot too many jumpers. Hicks and Johnson got some moves against smaller defenders to beat double teams. The result was that Johnson scored twenty-one and Hicks scored thirteen.
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Rebounding also got better in the second half. Hicks had no rebounds at the break, but grabbed seven in the second half. Johnson had ten for the entire game. While lacking the number of blocked shots, Johnson did deliver an emphatic rejection in the first half.
Joel Berry also had a solid game and was joined by Jackson with fifteen points. Marcus Paige hit a couple three point shots and contributed twelve points for the game.
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The slow starts have to stop against future competition. The Indiana Hoosiers represent a total team upgrade over the Friars and they are just off a big hard fought victory over Kentucky. They are also next in a game that will be played at the East Regional host site of Philadelphia, PA. The Heels get no break in moving from Dunn to Yogi Ferrell.
That matchup will take place on Friday, giving the Heels some time to straighten out these quirks in a way that one day between FGCU and Providence did not allow. So the new tournament starts, and the prize at the end is a trip to the Final Four.