Quick Hitters - North Carolina vs. Duke

Isaac Schade presents Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 87-67 home loss to Duke on Saturday night.

Author:
Isaac Schade
Feb 6, 2022 3:17 AM EST

Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s ?-? home win/loss against/to/over Duke on Saturday night.

Highlights:

Condensed Game:

The first home loss of the season for Carolina unfortunately comes at the hands of the bitter rivals from Durham. The Blue Devils built a 20-point lead less than 10 minutes into the game and UNC was never able to get the lead back to single digits. For the second time this conference season the Tar Heels had an opportunity to join other teams atop the conference standings, but for the second time this season Carolina lost that game by 20-plus points.
The outcome was essentially decided by the first media timeout. Those first four minutes were more or less a microcosm of what was to come. At that point Duke led 15-5, Armando Bacot was on the bench with two fouls, Duke was 6-7 on field goals and 2-2 from three, and Carolina was just 2-9 on field goals and 1-6 from deep.
On paper, Carolina appeared to have some matchup problems guarding Duke. Sometimes those “on paper” issues don’t come to fruition. Tonight they did. I assumed that either Leaky Black or Brady Manek would guard Paolo Banchero. However, Armando Bacot actually drew the defensive assignment on the presumptive top-three 2022 NBA Draft Pick. UNC needed Leaky Black to clone himself so as to be able to guard both AJ Griffin and Banchero. Initially Black was on Griffin, but ultimately moved to Banchero as the Tar Heels needed to adjust defensive assignments following Bacot's foul problems. Black did a more-than-serviceable job against Banchero, blocking two shots, disrupting ball handling, and forcing difficult shots. However, this defensive switch freed up Griffin to pour in a career high 27 points against Brady Manek, an inferior defender.
Carolina managed just 24 total rebounds, the lowest total in nearly eight years. On March 8, 2014 the Tar Heels grabbed 18 at Duke.
10 minutes and 17 seconds of game time had already elapsed before an Armando Bacot bucket gave Carolina double-digit points.
In his freshman season, Caleb Love lit up the Blue Devils, averaging 21.5 points and seven assists in the two matchups. Tonight it was just eight points and four assists on 3-10 shooting. Love is mired in a shooting slump. In the last seven games, Love is shooting 26.5% from the field (27-102).
I want to point out that I don’t think Love is being intentionally selfish in his play, but rather is unnecessarily trying to shoulder too much of the offensive load on his own. He’s pressing. There are enough offensive weapons on this team that he could be infinitely more impactful by finding ways to be a more consistent facilitator and then pick and choose moments to call his own number.
Not everything was bad – for example the Heels committed just eight turnovers. Unfortunately (and not to pile on the Tar Heel sophomore guard), Caleb Love was responsible for half of those.
Perhaps the biggest encouragement of the night was that Carolina could have easily folded down 23 midway through the first half. However they showed resolve and fought back and responded and got the lead down to 11 by halftime. RJ Davis even had a couple shots to get the halftime deficit down to single-digits. But it was not to be and any momentum the Heels built up was immediately erased coming out of halftime. The Blue Devils went on a 12-0 run to start the second half and UNC’s first points came 3:27 into the half.
For the second game in a row, Brady Manek did everything he could to carry the Tar Heels on his back. He led the team in scoring with 21, hit six threes, tied Leaky Black for the team lead in rebounds with six, played the entire first 35 minutes of the game, and had to try to chase AJ Griffin around most of the night. It was ultimately just too much to ask of the grad transfer and he looked spent before the second half even began.
Manek is on an absolute tear from three, providing the potent stretch four pick-and-pop firepower that Coach Davis hoped to find in the Oklahoma transfer. Over the last six games, he is shooting 51.1% (23-45) and the numbers are even more eye boggling in the last three contests – 57.7% (15-26).
Manek is now up above 40% from three this season, which, when paired with Leaky Black’s hot shooting of late, means that four of Carolina’s five starters are shooting 40% or above from downtown.
Perhaps one of the best segments of the game came in the final 70 seconds and simultaneously provided a glimpse at the potential future of Carolina basketball: D’Marco Dunn got an assist to Kerwin Walton for a lay-up, Puff Johnson drew a charge (continuing to show why he’s the type of player Coach Davis loves), Dontrez Styles completed an and-one, and Johnson got a steal and a subsequent assist to Dunn for a three. Sure, it was the final minute of a blowout loss and came against the end of Duke’s bench, but it was an 8-0 run to end the game.
For the second time in the last four games, Armando Bacot failed to record a double-double. We can chalk that up almost entirely to his early-game foul issues, which severely limited his minutes. The silver lining however, is that Coach Davis believed in Bacot enough to bring him back in midway through the first half (okay, so it was also out of necessity). Bacot was able to stay away from foul number three while also contributing. He drew a couple fouls, had a block, and scored a few points. The Tar Heels were at their best offensively tonight with Bacot setting screens (oh man, those screens were vicious!) at the top of the key and getting the likes of Mark Williams engaged in that action.

Bacot has matured by leaps and bounds with foul trouble this year, but it was inevitable that he would face foul issues from time-to-time. Tonight’s instance is where you really miss Dawson Garcia’s presence, who could have eaten some of those minutes and would have been a more athletic 6’10” defender, helping the Heels with some of their unfavorable matchups.
Trying to find anything at all to work, Coach Davis switched to zone with about 14:00 left in the game. The first possession worked well as AJ Griffin was lured into taking a deep three early in the shot clock. The problem was that the middle of a 2-3 zone is prime real estate for Paolo Banchero to camp out and go to work.
The Tar Heels will have to regroup quickly before heading out on the road to face Clemson on Tuesday evening. Rest and recuperation is going to be key given the short rotation. In addition to the aforementioned minutes that Brady Manek played toagainst Duke, Leaky Black has played 35-plus minutes in four straight games.

Box Score

Hubert Davis postgame press conference

Players postgame press conference

Brady Manek

Leaky Black

Remember to check in for Quick Hitters after every North Carolina basketball game. Next up is a road game against Clemson on Tuesday, February 8. Tip is at 6:00pm ET on ACC Network.

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