North Carolina Tar Heels: Winning the Ugly Way
- Whistles
The teams were put into foul trouble in the first half, but that was nothing compared to the first ten minutes of the second half. The Tar Heels continued to miss a number of free throws while Gonzaga’s worst free throw shooter, Przemek Karnowski, made most of his and their best free throw shooter Nigel Williams-Goss missed most of his.
Eric Montross made the comment on the Carolina radio call that perhaps the referees had not called a game with front lines this big, and that perhaps accounted for the number of whistles. There were clear missed calls in the game as well. Theo Pinson was credited with a blocked shot that he did not touch, but the referees gave the ball to Gonzaga anyway (cue Williams-Goss’ three for the lead).
North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball
A lot of people had to log time with four fouls. Gonzaga’s big freshman Zach Collins fouled out. I thought Gonzaga four man Johnathan Williams did too, but the ESPN box score only has him for four. Karnowski got his fourth by making contact with Joel Berry’s neck for a flagrant 1. Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks finished the game with four fouls each and Luke Maye could not stay on the court because he collected fouls so easily.
- The Post Game
Gonzaga’s offensive plan came to three things. 1. Post up people with Karnowski and Collins. 2. Shoot open threes when available. 3. Let Williams-Goss take all the big shots.
Karnowski and Collins could generally get their shots at will by backing down into Carolina post defenders. Maye was most vulnerable, but they did this against essentially anyone. If they had made more of these post shots, the game would have been more concerning. Fouls did slow them down and their backup Killian Tillie just did not have that kind of moves in him.
- The Gonzaga Late Game
Karnowski’s success when he wasn’t fouling was not returned to in the end game. The team basically turned the game over to Williams-Goss to bring them back. That was an oversight. Karnowski had Meeks with four fouls and a reliable post move and they never looked inside. Yes, there was a point where the game needed three pointers but they could lengthened the game and possibly fouled out Meeks, Hicks, or both. That would have meant having Maye in to guard the final possessions.
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The Tar Heels had several stretches where players tried to do things they could not normally do. Instead of plying possession by possession, the Heels would have periods where Theo Pinson would try to shoot threes. He wasn’t the only one, but Pinson’s seat-of-the-pants play had some of its more out of control moments. Then there were the sillier fouls like the one Tony Bradley got at the end of the first half.
- Jackson Hole
The Heels had leaned on Justin Jackson all season, but in this game Jackson could not find his long distance shot. This took away some of his impact, but the wing managed to score sixteen points anyway. Some were on offensive rebounds, one was on an inbounds play, some were floaters, and the last one was the runout dunk to make it a five point game after Meeks’ block. Jackson actually outscored Williams-Goss on the game.