When the field was announced last spring, it was clear that organizers had come up with another marquee field, as North Carolina, Florida and Temple were slated to join Navy for the season-opening doubleheader.
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Freshman Thomas Bryant had 11 points and nine rebounds for the Hoosiers, and six players scored in double figures for Indiana. North Carolina played without the services of senior All-American PG Marcus Paige, who is out for three or four weeks after breaking a bone in his right hand on November 3….
“We’ve been through a lot this season”, Scott said on his weekly Sunday teleconference. “With him out, everybody has different roles”. The expectation would be more of that as well as healthy doses of Brice Johnson and Isaiah Hicks.
ABOUT NORTH CAROLINA (1-0): The Tar Heels return four starters (including Paige) and their experience and depth showed against Temple as they dominated inside and outside.
Meeks, a 6-foot-10 junior, scored in the lane, connected on fadeaway jumpers and squared up from 15 feet.
But through mental and physical toughness, an outnumbered North Carolina squad kept Michigan’s 11 field players from getting a shot off. As the clock expired, the Wolverines remained scoreless, and the Tar Heels solidified their spot in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“To be able to score 75 points against a team the caliber of Duke is a good sign for us”, coach Tim O’Shea said.
Even though North Carolina entered the season at No. 1, the Tar Heels faced a few questions.
“We weren’t as good as we needed to be”, Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. Either way, it was a disturbing recurrence of what seem to be annual November issues for the Tar Heels, no matter how talented, no matter how experienced, no matter how many times they have been through this sort of thing before.
Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts. “We gave up way too many offensive rebounds”. Days after saying how defensive illegal substitution calls would be a focus, UM earned two in the first quarter. Likewise Nate Britt played well hitting three 3-pointers.
“Get the ball out and run”, Berry said.
To hammer home the point, Theo Pinson drilled a long-range jumper at the buzzer, turned around and strutted toward the locker room with the score 47-36. UNC has one of the nation’s top pass defenses but Brad Kaaya is second in the ACC with 2,132 passing yards.
The Tar Heels are a team to beat for sure in the ACC, at 8-1 overall with a flawless 5-0 mark in conference play.
Senior forward Jake Layman led the balanced Terrapins with 16 points, and sophomore guard Melo Trimble added 14, but they had plenty of support.
But MI caught on to North Carolina’s tactic. Jaylen Bond had two points on 1-of-8 shooting to go along with eight rebounds, while starting center Devontae Watson picked up three fouls in seven first-half minutes and never saw the court again.
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However, it wasn’t enough to overcome the lead that Williams and the Tar Heels surmounted early on.
