Taking A BC Powder

I am having a hard time getting a good feel for this Tarheels team. They were a good shooting team until about five games ago and then they couldn't throw it in the ocean from the beach. The Tarheels finally shot over 50% against Boston College. They play great defense at times and force 23 turnovers against Boston College. Then they have defensive lapses and allow a BC player to go steaming right down the middle of the lane twice for dunks. Marcus Paige was a preseason All-American and has averaged less than six points a game over the last five games. The good news is that the Tarheels keep on winning. The better news will be seeing how good they can be when they find their identity.

Living On The Edge

The North Carolina Tarheels continue to live on the edge. They have not been playing their best basketball but remain undefeated. They built up a 20 point lead in the first half against Virginia Tech and had to hold on at the end to win 75-70. A shooting slump has infested the entire Tarheels team like a bad case of the flu. The team shot 3 for 23 from the three point line and only hit 37.8% of its shots for the game. Marcus Paige's shooting slump stretched into his fourth game as he only hit 2 of his 10 and 0 for 5 from the three point line. Brice Johnson has been the most consistent scorer among the Tarheels this season and he posted 19 points and 17 rebounds and blocked three Hokies shots.

The Tarheels defense was worthy of note against the Hokies with 11 steals and they forced 14 Hokies turnovers and blocked seven shots. They also held the Hokies to 40% shooting and outrebounded them 48-33. The schedule for the Tarheels turns much tougher after the game Saturday against Boston College and the Tarheels depth and talent may not be able to overcome the poor shooting they have suffered from of late against the likes of Louisville and Duke.

Not The Same Hokies

I have to admit, I know nothing about this years Virginia Tech basketball team except what I have seen on the scoreboard and in the standings. A 4-2 record in the ACC with those two losses coming at Duke and at Notre Dame is impressive enough and throw in a win against a highly ranked Virginia team at home, and the Tarheels have a game on their hands. Virginia Tech's statistics do not jump off the page. As the saying goes, the game is not played on paper and Virginia Tech has taken those lackluster stats and consistently won with them. The Tarheels always have problems with teams that play a slower tempo and play primarily a zone defense. Marcus Paige is in a slump and the Tarheels are only shooting about 25 percent as a team from the three point line in ACC play so you can't depend on the Tarheels to shoot them out of the zone. The Tarheels under Roy Williams have never relied on that philosophy anyway.

Beatable

Wake Forest basketball head coach Danny Manning is right when he said that the North Carolina Tarheels are "beatable". The North Carolina Tarheels are winning in spite of the fact that their perimeter game has gone on an early spring break. Guard Marcus Paige has only scored eight points in his past three games on 3 for 25 shooting and 1 of 17 from the three point line and all three of those games the Tarheels won by double digits.

The Tarheels have won all six of their ACC games thanks in large part to their inside game. Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks, and Isaiah Hicks have all had career games since the ACC season started. Joel Berry II has been the only consistent perimeter threat because of Paige's season long slump. Paige's slump is concerning but the Tarheels keep winning. Justin Jackson is also in the throes of a slump. For the Tarheels to keep winning and to go deep into the NCAA tournament, the Tarheels will have to get over their team wide case of the "yips" from the three point line. In today's game you have to be able to hit the three with something better than 25 percent consistency.

A Deep Bench

The North Carolina Tarheels have a deep bench, the deepest in the Atlantic Coast conference. They have nine players that average more than ten minutes a game although those numbers are slightly skewed because of injuries to Marcus Paige and Kennedy Meeks. Throw in freshmen Luke Maye and Kenny Williams and the Tarheels can go eleven deep in a pinch. That is a great luxury to have.

I have seen the boxscores from other ACC games and there are several teams that only go seven deep. In Duke's loss to Syracuse, both teams only used seven players. The last man off of the bench for Duke only played two minutes. North Carolina State only used seven players in their loss to North Carolina. ACC leading scorer Anthony Barber only had nine points against the Tarheels, none in the second half. Barber averages over 37 minutes a game. The Tarheel defense had something to do with holing him scoreless in the second half but Barber also knew he wasn't coming out of the game.

As the season progresses, you have to worry about fresh legs especially come ACC tournament time. In a four day format like the ACC now has, that is a brutal stretch of games if you only have two players coming off the bench. Fresh legs do not guarantee wins at the end of the season but I would rather have them than not.

The Man In The Middle

Kennedy Meeks was the latest North Carolina Tarheel post player to have a big game and it happened in his return to the starting lineup against North Carolina State. Pound for pound, the Wolfpack has more size in the middle. Meeks athleticism got the State big men in foul trouble and they both fouled out of the game, Meeks scored 18 of the Tarheels 38 points in the second half and Meeks totaled 23 for the game.

Since the start of ACC conference play, the Tarheels post players have come up big because the North Carolina perimeter game has gone colder than a January day in the North Carolina mountains. The Tarheels are only shooting a little over 25 percent from the three point line in ACC play but Brice Johnson, Isaiah Hicks, and now Kennedy Meeks have all had career games during the Tarheels 5-0 ACC start.

A Little Magic

Brice Johnson showed he had a little bit of magic to his game with a career high eight assists against Syracuse and most of those assists were passes to Isaiah Hicks against the Syracuse zone for dunks or layups. Hicks tied a career high in points with 21 and set a career high in rebounds with eight. Johnson and Hicks games offset the Marcus Paige's lowest point total of the season with three.

Johnson's career high is assists comes the game after his career best 39 points and 23 rebounds against Florida State and for his efforts for the week, Johnson was named the ACC player of the Week for the second time this season. The Tarheels improved to 4-0 in the ACC for the first time in Roy Williams 13 seasons as the North Carolina head coach.