After two games at home head coach Roy Williams’ squad is once again on the west coast, as top ranked North Carolina (4-0) faces South Carolina (2-2) in the Continental Tires Las Vegas Invitational. The late night game, with tip off being 10:00 pm EST, will be televised by ESPN2, with the announcer team of Jon Sciambi and Jay Bilas. The two Carolinas, who first met in 1918, have not played one another in 15 years, and for coach Williams this will be his first time against the other Carolina. As with the previous three games this one is more about what the Tar Heels can and will do than and not so much about the opposing team. On the other hand for South Carolina, like many other teams, playing against the number one team in their nation is their national championship game, and UNC needs to be aware of that.
“I think the opportunity to play North Carolina is good,” South Carolina coach Darrin Horn said. “It’s just that, it’s an opportunity. They’re a good basketball team, it’ll be great stage. It will be one we don’t have to worry about our guys getting up for.”
One thing that needs to be said about tonight’s opponent is that their top scorer, Malik Cooke, who leads the Gamecocks with 11.8 points per game, is from Charlotte, N.C. and was a Tar Heel fan growing up. In all South Carolina had five players from the state, three from the Charlotte area. Geography aside, when you look at the stats of the two teams there is not much you can see that would give you a hint that South Carolina can keep up with North Carolina. And while this team does have several players 6’8″ or above they only have one senior on the roster, making me think that if UNC can take control of the game this one should be over before intermission.
Just like other games early this season the Heels need to put this one away before the end of the first half because when you give teams like the Gamecocks some hope they begin to believe, and that is not what you want with a team that has nothing to lose. To do that I feel the coaching staff will go to their front court trio of John Henson, Tyler Zeller and Harrison Barnes early and often. With Henson emerging as the early season leader and a constant double double threat the bigs for North Carolina this year should do well in most games they play, especially if the team can be above average shooting from beyond the arc. If you check out the grades I gave the players for their last game against Tennessee State you will see that the one starter that I feel needs to step it up a bit is shooting guard Dexter Strickland.
Of course I am still waiting for the free throw shooting to improve and to see if the squad can keep up shooting well from beyond the arc. On the defensive side there is not much to point at, with the one exception of too many slashers getting into the lane and being able to dish out for a three pointer. As the season continues and Carolina faces more high powered squad this could be a problem, and it would be best to nip this in the bud before it becomes, no pun intended, an achilles’ heel. For other teams these could be things that they have time to fix in time, for UNC they have less than ten days before they face two top 25 teams, as eleventh ranked Wisconsin comes to the Dean Dome for the 11th edition of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and then going to Rupp Arena to face second ranked Kentucky.
In Las Vegas the line has the Heels as 20 points favorite and I have a feeling that the only way that coach Williams’ does not cover that is more because of the jet lag than the opponents. Look for the team’s floor general, Kendall Marshall to once again have double digits assists as the bigs keep pounding the boards and score easily in the paint. Depending on the outcome Carolina will then play either Southern California or Or Nevada Las Vegas tomorrow night.
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