All Tar Heels

Quick Hitters - North Carolina vs. Florida State (ACC Tournament Semifinals)

Isaac Schade presents Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 66-69 loss to Florida State on Friday night in the ACC Tournament Semifinals.

Isaac Schade

Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 66-69 loss to Florida State on Friday night in the ACC Tournament Semifinals.

Highlights:

Condensed Game:

  • A second second-half double-digit comeback of the season against Florida State wasn’t quite in the cards, but Carolina almost pulled it off. The Tar Heels overcame an 11-point halftime deficit to take as much as a five-point second half lead. UNC led by two with 2:10 left in the game, but couldn’t make the plays down the stretch to complete the comeback.
  • Given that Florida State was playing its first game of the tournament, and Carolina was on its third game in three days, the Tar Heels held up quite well. Perhaps though, the edge in freshness was just enough to put the Seminoles over the hump.
  • It would be nice to make it to ACC Championship, but never forget: Carolina lost in the ACC semis in each of the three National Championship seasons under Roy Williams.
  • The Tar Heels have been the epitome of a “second-half team” this season. They’ve trailed at halftime in 15 of their 28 games. All games combined, their scoring margin is -12 in the first half, but an eye-popping +188 in the second half. You have to think that much of this is attributed to the depth of the Tar Heels’ front line wearing down opponents, similar to a strong offensive line in football.
  • Missing 11 free throws in any game is painful; all the more so when you lose by three.
  • Armando Bacot has been Carolina’s most consistent player throughout the season. That trend continued in the ACC Tournament where Bacot averaged 16.3 points and 10.7 rebounds per game.
  • Garrison Brooks played for the second night in a row after sitting out the first game of the tournament with an ankle injury from the regular season finale against Duke. He hasn’t had much production in the two games, but his leadership is great to have back on the court.
  • Brooks is not the only banged-up Tar Heel. The week-long break before the NCAA Tournament will be a welcome opportunity to heal up aches, pains, nicks, and bruises after back-to-back physical games against Virginia Tech and Florida State.
  • This team has shared the ball well, but not tonight. For example, Carolina only had eight (8!) baskets in the first half and had assists on just two of those. The first assist came 15:39 into the game. In fact, for the game in total, it was the second-lowest assist percentage of the season at 39.1 percent (nine assists on 23 made baskets).
  • Shooting was an even bigger struggle. The Tar Heels produced their lowest field goal percentage of the season – 33.8 percent (23-68). The previous low was 34.4 percent (21-61) at Miami.
  • Kerwin Walton hit three three-pointers in a span of just 122 seconds, spurring on the Carolina comeback. Unreal. But don’t miss the other ways he affected the game: career-high five rebounds, two steals under the basket, post entry passes, and even finished in the lane over Koprivica.
  • The Tar Heels haven’t had a game this season with more offensive than defensive rebounds, but this was the second instance of the two totals being equal. UNC had 21 of both types of rebound. The other time was the first Syracuse game in which Carolina had 24 offensive and defensive rebounds.
  • Carolina now has 20-plus offensive rebounds in four of the past six games.
  • The ACC Tournament was a step in the right direction in the turnover department. After averaging 20 turnovers a game in the final four regular season contests, Carolina had 11, 11, and 12 in Greensboro. The 34 combined turnovers is the second-fewest in a three-game stretch this season.
  • Florida State is just so stinking long and capable of switching essentially everything at positions one through four. Their defense consistently pushed the Carolina offense outside the three point line and stopped the Tar Heels from establishing any sort of flow or coherent rhythm.
  • Both of these teams, more so than anyone else in the ACC, play deep into their bench. Each team utilized eight different players within the first 5:00, nine players in 5:30, and 10 players in 11:30.
  • Similarly, given this depth, particularly in the front court, Florida State is the only ACC opponent to feature the depth to compete with Carolina in their post rotation.
  • Anthony Harris checked in after first media timeout. His wrist must be okay (at least good enough for him to play). He made his presence known in Greensboro. Harris had a nice drive in the first half, weaving his way through traffic to finish with an acrobatic layup.
  • After the first media timeout, Coach Williams put an interesting combination of Love, Davis, Harris in the backcourt together. That’s a backcourt grouping we haven’t seen much this season (especially at that juncture of the game).
  • In the first half, on back-to-back possessions Carolina missed a free throw and got beat down the court for a dunk or layup. The first one took six seconds, the second took seven. That won’t be fun to review in the film room.
  • How do I say this diplomatically? The referees, ummmm, had a difficult time properly adjudicating this game. I’m not going to blame the loss on the referees. I’m not going to list off all the potential missed or erroneous calls. We’ll just let this be an example: With 10:25 left in the first half Bacot put up a shot that was blocked, but he was fouled. As the ball sat on the rim (clearly and with video evidence), FSU’s Koprivica tapped the ball off the rim. The goaltending was not called and Bacot was awarded two free throws instead of the basket plus one free throw. This is going to sound like an exaggeration, but it’s not: this was probably the most egregious example of a missed goal tend I’ve ever seen. That play alone doesn’t lose the game, but two extra points in what turned out to be a three-point loss would have clearly changed how Roy Williams approached the end-of-game scenarios. See the play for yourself: 
  • Heading into March Madness, the Tar Heels are projected to be somewhere between a seven and a ten seed. 
  • Reminder #1: the NCAA Tournament Selection Show will be Sunday at 6:00pm ET on CBS.
  • Reminder #2: the March Madness schedule is different this year. First Round is Friday / Saturday instead of the usual Thursday / Friday. DON’T TAKE A VACATION DAY ON THURSDAY! Read all about the adjusted schedule here and here.

Box Score

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Roy Williams postgame press conference

Players postgame press conference

Caleb Love 

Armando Bacot

Remember to check in for Quick Hitters after every North Carolina basketball game. Next up is the NCAA Tournament. The Tar Heels will find out their opponent and game day / time on Sunday, March 14. The Selection Show is at 6pm ET on CBS. Carolina will either play on Friday, March 19 or Saturday, March 20. Stay tuned to All Tar Heels as more details emerge.

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Isaac Schade
ISAAC SCHADE

I grew up in Atlanta knowing that I was going to be the next Maddux or Glavine or Chipper. Unfortunately, I never grew six feet tall, ran 4.4 in the 40-yard dash, threw 90 m.p.h. on the radar gun, or hit 50 home runs. So I had to find a different way to dive head first into sports - writing about it. My favorite all-time sports moment? 1992. NLCS. Game 7. Sid Bream. Look it up. Worst sports moment ever? Two words: Kris. Jenkins. I live in the bustling metropolis of Webb City, MO, where ministry is my full-time job. I spend my free time with my wife, Maggie, and my two children, Pax & Poppy.

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