‘Dean Smith on steroids.’ How Roy Williams used UNC’s size to overpower NC Central.
Everyone from UNC fans to ACC fans to LeVelle Moton’s 7-year-old son, V.J., knows how the North Carolina basketball program operates under Roy Williams: lots of paint points, lots of rebounds and lots of lanky, talented big men to keep things chugging along.
But actually going up against the Tar Heels’ mountainous front line and executing a game plan offensively and defensively? Easier said than done, Moton said, especially on four days’ notice.
That much was clear in No. 16 UNC’s 73-67 win over N.C. Central on Saturday in a socially distanced Smith Center, as the Tar Heels (4-2) rode forward Armando Bacot (19 points, 11 rebounds) and scored 61 of their points either in the paint or at the free-throw line against the shorter Eagles.
“You have 15 feet of man inside the paint getting second-chance opportunities,” Moton said, laughing. “These guys are huge, man. I don’t know if TV does them justice.”
On the other side, Bacot, whose 15 first-half points single-handedly kept UNC in the game, had a simpler breakdown of why his team won virtually every battle down low to the tune of a plus-12 rebounding margin and 31 free throw attempts to N.C. Central’s eight.
“We just knew we needed to stay steady, be composed and play Carolina basketball,” Bacot said.
UNC’s Andrew Platek: ‘Our effort was terrible’
N.C. Central started out red hot in the first half of Saturday’s game, which was arranged via phone Wednesday by Moton and UNC head coach Roy Williams with the Tar Heels’ previously scheduled opponent, Elon, still in quarantine after a positive coronavirus case within the program.
Five Eagles players (including preseason MEAC first-teamer C.J. Keyser) combined to make seven consecutive shots early on. The resulting score — 19-8 N.C. Central with 11:38 to go — marked the fourth time in six games this season UNC has trailed by 10 or more points in the first half.
“If I had a good answer (as to why), I’d tell you,” UNC guard Andrew Platek said. “Personally, I think our effort was terrible.”
Enter Bacot, the 6-10 sophomore who bullied his way into the paint for four offensive rebounds, 10 free throw attempts and 15 points on 4-4 shooting in 15 crucial first-half minutes.
His aggressiveness was key in keeping UNC within striking distance — at times, Bacot alone was the offense, Williams said — and he scored six points during a 10-0 run over the last five minutes that put the Tar Heels up 30-28 at halftime on an Eagles team that had gone cold.
“’Mando, he dominated today,” UNC forward Day’Ron Sharpe said. “He was carrying us in the first half.”
Keyser, who had a team-high 19 points, kept N.C. Central alive in the second half — the senior guard’s body control while maneuvering pick and rolls was especially excellent — but the rest of the Tar Heel offense (namely, anyone but Bacot) gradually woke up. That was bad news for the Eagles.
And as the Tar Heels’ small lead gradually grew behind the contributions of freshmen Caleb Love (nine second-half points) and Sharpe (12 second-half points and three demoralizing alley-oops), so did their rebounding, free throw and points in the paint margins.
In other words, North Carolina basketball numbers.
“They were kind of small,” the 6-11 Sharpe conceded of N.C. Central, whose tallest forward that played consistent minutes Saturday, Justin Whatley, was just 6-8.
NC Central ‘way beyond moral victories’
How much did UNC feast low? Before Platek made the team’s first two 3-pointers midway through the second half, UNC had scored 49 of its 53 points either in the paint or at the free-throw line.
And once those two threes went down — UNC was 0-10 before them — N.C. Central was in a tough spot, considering Moton’s game plan focused around packing the paint and forcing young players (freshman guards Love and R.J. Davis) and shooters (Platek) to beat the Eagles instead.
“In the second half, I feel like the floor was more spaced out,” Sharpe said, speaking for himself, Bacot, Garrison Brooks and Walker Kessler. “In the first, there really wasn’t anything for us to do.”
After Platek made a wide-open layup after those consecutive 3-pointers, capping off his own miniature 8-0 run and putting UNC up 57-42 with 9:11 to go, Saturday’s game was all but out of reach.
The Eagles (1-3), who also got 13 points from Whatley and 11 from Nicolas Fennell, did make things interesting with a 9-0 run to end the game. That forced Williams to sub back in his starters, who had to break a final, suddenly important full-court press in order to dribble out the clock on the six-point.
Afterward, Moton — whose program is “way beyond moral victories” at this point, he said — could only shrug and joke about North Carolina’s 6-10-and-up frontcourt, led by Bacot, that put its stamp on the game basically everywhere.
“What Roy does is Dean Smith on steroids,” Moton said. “Sometimes, their best offense is a missed shot.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2020 at 4:04 PM with the headline "‘Dean Smith on steroids.’ How Roy Williams used UNC’s size to overpower NC Central.."