‘Nobody’s gonna punk us.’ Against Kentucky, UNC basketball finally finds its toughness.
North Carolina sophomore forward Armando Bacot apologized for his language, not for his sentiment after the No. 22 Tar Heels’ 75-63 win over Kentucky in the CBS Sports Classic.
Bacot, who had a team-high 14 points and eight rebounds, still carries with him the ego bruises and scars from last year’s 14-19 season. He believes the Tar Heels didn’t always show enough fight last season.
“We went down early and they thought it would punk us, but it’s not last year,” Bacot told reporters after the game. “We’re not going for none of that (expletive) this year. Excuse my language, but we’re not.”
Carolina (5-2) may have figured out its identity is in its toughness, which certainly wasn’t the case last season. But the Tar Heels did the pushing against the Wildcats (1-5) and it’s a trait that seems to permeate even the newcomers on this team.
UNC freshman guards Kerwin Walton and Puff Johnson entered the game in what coach Roy Williams believed was the most critical stretch with several Heels in foul trouble and starting guard R.J. Davis hobbled by a bruised right knee.
Kentucky led 48-42 when Walton hit a pair of 3s and Johnson added a floater to power a 12-1 run as Carolina took the lead for good.
“No question in my mind that Kerwin and Puff gave us the biggest lift of the game,” Williams said in his postgame remarks.
Kerwin Walton finds his groove
Walton had a bad first half committing several lapses that cost UNC from a lane violation to a poor entry pass turnover and a bad foul. He shook that off to finish off the best game of his young career so far.
He had the reputation as a great shooter when he was recruited, but had only made 2 of his 9 attempts from behind the arc before facing UK. Walton was perfect in all three of his 3s and also made all four of his free throw attempts to finish with a season-high 13 points.
“I knew my time was coming,” Walton told reporters. “Throughout the whole season, all the games we play, I was just being patient, just trying to feel out my team, feel out my atmosphere.”
Freshman guard Caleb Love believes the feeling out process is coming to an end for UNC, even with six freshmen in the rotation. Love played arguably his best floor game with 11 points, six assists and just two turnovers.
“Our identity is just compete, playing smart, playing hard,” Love said in his postgame remarks. “One thing we got to do better (is) our pace and just getting better shots. But, yeah, I think we are finding our identity.”
Williams wasn’t pleased that UK got 14 second-chance points on 11 offensive rebounds in the first half. But the Heels did a better job in the second half allowing the Cats just five second-chance points on five offensive rebounds.
Kentucky’s primary frontcourt fouls out
UK was limited because its primary frontcourt players all fouled out of the game. Olivier Sarr, a graduate transfer from Wake Forest, and freshmen Isaiah Jackson and Lance Ware had averaged a combined 19 points and 18 rebounds for the Cats. They were held to a combined nine points and just below average with 16 rebounds. Sarr fouled out without making a basket, his two points came on free throws.
“We just knew we wanted to get him (Sarr) and Isaiah Jackson in foul trouble,” Bacot said. “That’s one of the main things we wanted to do and we do that by crashing the boards, posting hard and things like that. We knew that would just open up everything for us once we got them in foul trouble and obviously in the second half they had to keep rotating players and doing different lineups they wouldn’t usually do. It just made everything easier.”
Even 3-pointers seemed easier, which for a team shooting 27 percent from 3 on the season, hasn’t been something that’s happened to Carolina too often. The Heels made just three 3s in the second half, the final one came when Andrew Platek drilled one with six minutes left nursing a two-point lead and Kentucky never got closer the remainder of the game.
The Wildcats, off to their worst start since the 1920s, are playing a lot like Carolina did last season. They’re ultimately a team that hasn’t quite figured out how to fight through adversity. The Heels are confident those days are over for them.
“One thing this team doesn’t lack is competitiveness,” Love said. “We always gonna go out there and compete. We’re always gonna go out there and fight a battle. Like Armando said earlier, nobody’s gonna punk us.”