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By Adam Lucas
1. Carolina’s depth and skill overwhelmed Radford in an 86-70 win in the season opener.
2. The other faces can change all you want, but Armando Bacot remains a constant. The Tar Heel center scored 25 points and 13 rebounds in just 29 minutes. Carolina made a conscious effort to drive the ball into him early in the second half after leading by just five at the break, and he immediately helped extend the lead. Bacot led four players in double figures, including RJ Davis (13), Cormac Ryan (13) and Harrison Ingram (12).
3. Absolutely no question. Hubert Davis talked defense and rebounding in the halftime locker room. Radford shot 50 percent on 34 field goal attempts in the first half, and her five offensive rebounds turned her into seven points. They led Carolina in both categories in the first 20 minutes. Carolina ultimately caught the Highlanders in both categories and Radford shot just 35.5 percent from the field in the second half.
4. Carolina was too loose with the ball in the first half, turning it over eight times (with seven different players committing at least one turnover). However, some of these errors came from trying to figure out how fast you could go to meet Hubert Davis’ prescribed pace. This is an ongoing process that needs to be resolved. UNC finished the game with ten fast break possessions and reduced turnovers to just three in the second half.
5. Credit to Radford sophomore Kenyon Giles, who played with a lot of verve and backed it up. He made a “too small” gesture after hitting RJ Davis early and scoring nine points on 4-for-7 shooting in the first half. Giles, who was extremely impressed with himself for most of the evening, largely backed this up and finished with 18 points.
6. Here’s an encouraging statistic: Carolina played with ten players for at least nine minutes. It’s likely that this will be narrowed down a bit as the season progresses, but at least on this night it was nice to have so many options – and options that produced. Jalen Washington, for example, played only ten minutes – the fewest among those who saw action – but immediately grabbed two offensive rebounds and converted one into the basket in the second half. An 11th Tar Heel, James Okonkwo, came on late.
7. One advantage of Carolina’s depth: It allows Hubert Davis to play a little offense/defense with his substitutions. He did so late in the first half, taking Cadeau out with less than a minute to play and bringing in Seth Trimble, who had been excellent defensively against Giles early in the half (forcing him into a shot clock violation) and also one Shot blocked in transition. The Trimble-Davis-Ryan trio contributed to a turnover that led to Ryan Ingram passing through contact to net the ball, a move that seemed to change the momentum of the first half. Trimble had a similar momentum-changing defensive sequence in the second half; There is a place for him in this rotation, especially given the number of good guards Carolina has to defend in the ACC.
8. Some parts are clearly visible. The question will be how the Tar Heels fit together over the next few weeks. Jae’Lyn Withers, for example, came in and immediately caused problems in the passing lanes and also made a hard drive to the rim that he turned into a bucket. That’s an athletic presence that Carolina needs to some extent.
9. The effort to improve the gaming experience continues. On Monday evening, the new LED lighting system was unveiled as well as a variety of new spotlights and technical effects, including an improved team entrance and team introduction. We thank Ken Cleary and Ryan Schmitt for the significant work that helped maximize some of the building’s new features.
10. It’s obviously been a difficult few days for the entire Carolina Basketball family and especially for head coach Hubert Davis’ family. The head coach’s uncle, Tar Heel star Walter Davis, died last week. In his honor, the players wore shooting jerseys with “Davis 24” on the back before the game. Expect the coaching staff to pay small tributes to him at the next game and possibly throughout the season.
11. The Smith Center didn’t seem quite the same without the presence of John Schleich, who has overseen the building since it opened in 1986. He missed only six games and died in October at the age of 73. Maybe you did He noted that throughout the building other ushers and staff, including several family members of the coaching staff, wore pins in his memory.
12. A variety of Tar Heel alums at the game including Phil Ford, Mitch Kupchak, James Michael McAdoo, Marcus Ginyard, Joel James, JP Tokoto and several others.