Quick Hitters - North Carolina vs. Louisville

Isaac Schade presents Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 70-63 home win over Louisville on Monday evening.

Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 70-63 home win over Louisville on Monday evening.

Highlights:

Condensed Game:

• I’ve typed some variation of this sentence a lot this season: It wasn’t pretty but North Carolina picked up their 20th victory of the season; the 62nd time in history the Tar Heels have done so. Congrats to Coach Davis for reaching the 20-win plateau in his first year.

20 wins in his first season for the head man! let’s keep going!

— Caleb Love (@caleb2love) February 22, 2022

•  The win itself doesn’t really do anything for Carolina’s resume, but avoiding the loss is important. Put another way, it’s not a Quad 1 win, but it’s also not a Quad 3 loss. Perhaps it’s easier to think of this game (plus NC State and Syracuse upcoming) as “can’t lose” games rather than “must win” games.
• Caleb Love played the entire 40 minutes. Going back through the 2016-17 season, I haven’t found another example of a Tar Heel playing every second of a regulation game. Combined with Saturday, in the past two games, Love has played 78:28 of a possible 80 minutes. Thankfully, the team doesn’t have another game until Saturday, but once again has a Saturday-Monday turnaround.
• With that in mind, let me also say: Carolina has to start getting more from the bench. Combined between the Virginia Tech and Louisville games the bench has scored a combined five (5!) points.
• Ho-hum, with his 12 points and 15 rebounds, Armando Bacot picked up his 21st double-double of the season and 39th of his career. He’s tied with Antawn Jamison for third on the single season list and tied with Lennie Rosenbluth for eighth on the career list.
• Bacot now has 15 rebounds in each of the last two games and has hit that mark seven times this season. The only Tar Heels to have done so more are Billy Cunningham (three times) and Doug Moe (1961).
• It’s become a bit of a concern that Carolina tends to forget to make entry passes to Bacot throughout the game. Eight of his 12 points came as the direct result of his own offensive rebounds. In the first half on Saturday at Virginia Tech he had just one shot attempt; in the second half against Louisville he had just two. There has to be more urgency to get shots for Bacot.
• Another negative trend to keep an eye on: In each of the last five games, Carolina has had at least 13 turnovers. The Tar Heels have to rein that in. Speaking of which…
• The good: Caleb Love had five assists. Carolina is now 12-0 this season when he hits that mark. The bad: Caleb Love had seven turnovers tonight, a career high.
• Here’s another positive in Love’s ledger: in the last two games he is 8-8 from the free throw line in 1-and-1 situations in the final minute of the game. But he’s not the only Tar Heel shooting well from the charity stripe…
• In the past two games, the Tar Heels have shot 24-28 from the free throw line, which translates to 85.7%. That’s number has to provide Coach Davis with enormous confidence. For the season, Carolina is sitting at 75.8% as a team. If the season ended today, it would be the third-highest team free throw percentage in recorded UNC history (dating back to the 1952-53 season).
• The largest lead for either team was UNC’s seven-point margin for the final 19 seconds. Prior to that, the entire game had been played within a six-point window.

• Given all of Leaky Black’s athleticism, it’s curiously rare that he’ll throw in a highlight-reel dunk. But tonight, after having just hit a game-tying three, he had a vicious one-handed jam in transition to put Carolina ahead 45-43.
• In each of the past three games, Carolina’s first points have come via a Brady Manek three. The super senior hit three from deep within the first eight minutes tonight and is tied with Love for the team lead this season with 63. I said it in Saturday’s Quick Hitters and I’ll say it again – “Where would Carolina be without Brady Manek?”
• Louisville scored precisely zero points in the final 2:57.
• Good to see Cam Johnson at his second-straight Carolina game while taking advantage of the NBA All Star Break. This time it was not Kenny Williams with him, but rather Luke Maye.
• Speaking of Cam, Puff Johnson does so many little things well. Hopefully his three-point shooting will catch up to Cam-level, but for now he’s earning his keep but making good, smart basketball plays.
• In what was likely the most aesthetically pleasing offensive play of the night, Carolina led by one with just north of 90 seconds remaining. RJ Davis drove right and found Brady Manek cutting baseline behind an unsuspecting Cardinal defender. Armando Bacot’s man rotated over from the weak side of the basket leaving Bacot wide open for a monster dunk off a nifty pass from Manek. Here's video of the play:

• The Tar Heel starters now get some time to rest their weary bodies before making the trek to Raleigh on Saturday to hopefully make Roy Williams a happy man. 

Box Score

Hubert Davis postgame press conference

Players postgame press conference

Armando Bacot 

Caleb Love 

Brady Manek

Remember to check in for Quick Hitters after every North Carolina basketball game. Next up is a road game against NC State on Saturday, February 26. Tip is at 2:00pm ET on ESPN or ESPN2.

.@UNC_Basketball's next 🏀 game:

• at NC State (@PackMensBball)
• 🌎 = Raleigh, NC
• 🏟️ = PNC Arena
• 📅 = Saturday, February 26
• ⏰ = 2:00pm ET
• 📺 = ESPN or ESPN2
• 📻 = https://t.co/RcdIVnv9nQ#UNCatNCState

— Isaac Schade (@isaacschade) February 22, 2022

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