UNC Basketball: Tennessee Recap
?With a win on Sunday, Carolina improved to 10-1 on the season, the programs best start since its last national championship season in 2008-09. Tennessee though gave Carolina all they could handle inside an electric Smith Center on Sunday afternoon. The Vols behind the play of Robert Hubbs Jr built an 15 point lead in the first half. The Carolina offense, again without Joel Berry was out of sync most of the game. Carolina trailed at halftime for only the second time all season long, but responded in a huge way to being the second half.
There's a saying that the team that trails at halftime, in the first 4 minutes of the second half will prove if they have a chance to win or not. Roy Williams lit a fire underneath his team as they cut the lead to 2 and forced Rick Barnes to call a timeout. For the rest of the way the game was tight, but at the end of the day the Tar Heels had to much talent and experience and pulled out a 73-71 win. Freshman Tony Bradley blocked a potential game tying shot, and grabbed a rebound that effectively sealed the win. The Tar Heels won a game in which they shot only 40% from the field, 12% from behind the arc and 54% from the foul line. To win a game in which you clearly weren't your best and to overcome a sizeable deficit says a lot about this team. Let's now take a look at some positives, negatives and who the player of the game was from the win over Tennessee:
??Positives:
?1. Nate Britt's Defense:
The senior stepped up in a huge way defensively against Tennessee, recording 5 steals that led to easy points.
2. Offensive Rebounding:
Carolina dominated the glass against Tennessee as the held a 41-32 advantage. The Tar Heels recorded 22 offensive rebounds which they turned into 25 second chance points. Sometimes the Heels best offense was rebounding missed shots and converting them into easy buckets.
3. The Play of Freshman:
The rookies were huge in the win over Tennessee. Tony Bradley had a double double off the bench. Brandon Robinson displayed a savvy to his game, with passes and finishes near the rim.
Seventh Woods also showed some more explosiveness with finishes at the rim. Needless to say the young guys are developing just like most young players do under Roy Williams.
??Negatives:
?1. Nate Britt's Shot Selection:
While Nate Britt was great in defense, the senior had another bad shooting game. Britt was just 4-14 from the floor and took many questionable shots and failed to finish at the rim. He will need to be more efficient offensively, moving forward with or without Joel Berry
2. Free Throw Shooting:
In the previous game against Davidson the Tar Heels shot almost 80% of free throws. That performance did not carry over as the Heels shot barely over 50% from the charity stripe. The Heels will need to be more effective at the line moving forward, or it will eventually cost them a game.
3. Isaiah Hicks Fouls:
The senior up until the last couple of games has done a good job at limiting fouls and not commuting stupid fouls. Against Davidson Hicks had 4 fouls and against the Vols he fouled out in only 14 minutes. Let's hope this won't continue to plague him as the season goes along, because he's so important to this team.
??Player of the Game: Tony Bradley
?The freshman recorded a double double off the bench and blocked a game tying field goal attempt. This was easily the best game of the young center's career. Tennessee simply had no answer for him on the back boards as Bradley seems to grab every Tar Heel miss (there were a lot of them). Expect him to play meaningful minutes even when conference play rolls around.
??Up Next: Kentucky
?The Tar Heels travel to Las Vegas to play the Kentucky Wildcats as part of the CBS Sports Classic on Saturday. It's always fun when these two blue bloods meet on the court and I expect this one to be no different.
