Quick Hitters - North Carolina vs. Virginia Tech (ACC Tournament Semifinal)

Isaac Schade presents Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 72-59 loss to Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament semifinal on Friday night.

Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 72-59 loss to Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament semifinal on Friday night.

Highlights:

Condensed Game:

• I posed the question yesterday: With Virginia Tech desperate for wins in order to make the NCAA Tournament and Carolina (seemingly) already safely in, would the Tar Heels be able to match the Hokies’ intensity? The answer, it turns out, was no. 
• In confoundingly similar fashion to some of Carolina’s uninspiring performances from earlier this season, the Heels simply weren’t tough enough and didn’t match Virginia Tech’s physicality.
• The Tar Heels have lost nine games this season, eight of which are by a margin of nine or more points. The average margin of defeat is 16.9.
• The first 19:39 of the game was played with neither team leading by more than five points. On Tech’s last possession of the first half, Keve Aluma hit an end-of-shot clock three to put the Hokies up six. Caleb Love missed a lay up on the other end the Heels were down by that same six at the half and VT had all the momentum. They proceeded to reel off nine straight points at the beginning of the second half to build a 15-point lead. The game was essentially over at that point as the Heels never got the lead back down to single digits.
• Seriously, how versatile is Leaky Black as a defender? In the last three games he’s guarded three completely different players in Duke’s Paolo Banchero (6’10”, 250), Virginia’s Kihei Clark (5’10”, 172), and Virginia Tech’s Justyn Mutts (6’7”, 230). Remind me again why he’s not the ACC Defensive Player of the Year?
• Unfortunately the Tar Heels’ best defender picked up two fouls in pretty quick succession in the first half and sat for the final 8:40 of the first half with the score tied at 14. UNC kept it close with Leaky on the bench until that Aluma three, pushed the halftime lead to six.
• Armando Bacot, despite being aggressively double-teamed all night long, still managed to record his 25th double-double (19 points, 14 rebounds) on an extremely efficient 9-10 shooting.
• Bacot also hit two rebounding milestones in the game. He hit the 400-rebound mark for the 2021-22 season, becoming just the second Tar Heel to ever do so (Brice Johnson, 2015-16). Bacot then grabbed his 900th career rebound, becoming the 13th Tar Heel with that distinction.
• Next in Bacot’s sights is the single-season rebounding record. Johnson finished with 416 in his record-setting senior season, while Bacot currently has 412. He should easily surpass that mark in Carolina’s first NCAA Tournament game.
• Curiously, it was another poor shooting night for the Caleb Love / RJ Davis backcourt. The duo combined to shoot 5-27 from the floor, a night after shooting a combined 6-23. That means Carolina’s backcourt shot 22% from the field in the ACC Tournament.
• Love did, however, do a good job taking care of the ball for the second night in a row. In Carolina’s two ACC Tournament games he registered nine assists but just one turnover.
• Davis and Love weren’t the only ones to shoot poorly. Brady Manek didn’t make a three, which snapped a streak of 23 straight games dating back to the game against Elon back on December 11. Additionally, Manek had been riding a three-game streak of scoring at least 20 points. While he did get to double-digits, he failed to make it all the way to 20.
• As a team, Carolina went 10-49 (20.4%) from the three point line in Brooklyn. 
• On the flip side, UNC has not only continued their stellar free throw shooting, but has grown their percentage. Following this game, the Tar Heels have made 461 of 597 attempts, good for 77.2% and second place all-time for a Carolina team.
• Just when you think you have Coach Davis’ substitution patterns figured out, he gives Kerwin Walton minutes in both halves. Unfortunately though, Walton got cooked on the defensive end. The Hokies specifically targeted him in one-and-one situation.
• One of my keys to the game was to see if the Heels could avoid a VT three-point barrage. While UNC took more threes, the Hokies made more threes. VT finished 9-20 from deep, while the Heels were 3-26. Yikes. Nine made threes isn’t exactly “barrage-level”, but it does outscore UNC’s made threes by 18.
• At the end of the day the Tar Heel offense looked aimless for the majority of the game. They had no rhythm and allowed Virginia Tech to dictate the terms on that end of the court. The Hokies took away things Carolina wanted to do and UNC was never able to solve how to make the proper counter moves. With VT clogging up the lane, perhaps involving ball screen action in the middle of the floor to free up some of that real estate would have helped.
• The Hokies were also able to dictate the pace of the game in a rather deliberate fashion. Given the depth of the Carolina deficit and the slow game pace, the Heels essentially didn’t have enough possessions to make up the gap.
• Nothing for Carolina to do now but sit around and wait for Selection Sunday to learn the details of their first NCAA Tournament game and opponent. If I were putting money on it, I would say Carolina will be an eight or nine.

Box Score

Coach Hubert Davis & Armando Bacot postgame press conference

Remember to check in for Quick Hitters after every North Carolina basketball game. The Tar Heels will find out on Sunday their destination and opponent for the NCAA Tournament. They will be in action either Thursday or Friday.

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