What we know about UNC after comeback win over No. 23 Ohio State
Beating its first ranked opponent in a dramatic fashion at Madison Square Garden of all stages, UNC provided some more insight about its identity in a 89-84 comeback win over No. 23 Ohio State.
UNC found itself down as much as 14 points in the first half, but it slowly chipped down the deficit, tying the game at 72 with just over two minutes to go. The two teams went back and forth down the stretch until the game fell into the hands of Pete Nance, who saved the Tar Heels from another loss by hitting a turnaround jumper to send the game into overtime.
The Tar Heels closed out the win in the extra period, moving to 8-4 on the season and securing their first Quad 1 victory. All year, this team couldn't win games against quality opponents, especially when it came down to the last few possessions. With the schedule becoming more challenging as ACC play approaches, there was concern about how UNC could salvage the season before March, but the win over the Buckeyes indicated this team is headed in the right direction with a very long way to go.
In the Tar Heels' shaky wins and disappointing losses this season, the pressing issues have been on offense, starting with poor ball movement.
UNC played a lot of selfish basketball early on, struggling to rack up assists and get open looks due to a lack of passing.
It hit rock bottom after the loss to Indiana when the Tar Heels only recorded five assists. However, the ball movement has improved since then.
It made a huge jump against The Citadel when UNC constantly made the right pass for the right shot in one of its best offensive performances of the season. The Tar Heels accumulated as season-high 24 assists in the win.
Against Ohio State, UNC eclipsed 20 assists for the second time in a row, showing some consistency in its offensive approach. All afternoon, Caleb Love found Armando Bacot at the rim for easy buckets as he recorded a season-high seven assists for himself.
Doing this against a quality opponent is a good sign for the Tar Heels as they appear to finally understand the importance of getting the whole team involved. Three players finished the game with over 20 points for the first time this year, which included Bacot with 28, Love with 22 and RJ Davis with 21.
Despite that improvement, UNC is far from where it wants to be shooting-wise. It's apparent from the Ohio State game that the team needs to significantly improve in shot selection and three-point shooting.
Shot selection has been an issue all year with players settling for ill-advised threes or highly contested shots. It almost cost the Tar Heels the game when a missed three by Leaky Black allowed the Buckeyes to take the lead in the next possession with just 31 seconds left in regulation.
The early deficit can be attributed to poor shot selection as well. UNC consistently missed threes throughout the game yet went on stretches where it kept shooting from deep instead of finding the best shot on the inside.
As far as three-point shooting, the Tar Heels shot an abysmal 21.4 percent on Saturday. Because shooting from beyond the arc has been such a weakness, that is only their fourth-worst three-point percentage all season.
The three-point numbers have been disappointing this year, considering there's multiple players on the team that have proven to be pretty good from deep. Although Nance came up big with the heroics at the end of regulation, he missed all six of his attempts from deep.
Plus, failing to hit threes hurts more when UNC struggles to defend them. Ohio State became the Tar Heels' ninth opponent to out shoot them from deep, hitting 37.5 percent of its attempts.
UNC should feel good about this win, overcoming its own offensive deficiencies to come out on top against a ranked opponent. Once more improvements are made to become more consistent from deep and better with offensive decision making, this team can play its way back into the top-25 and build momentum through ACC play starting on Dec. 30.
