Emphasis on getting the ball inside paying off for Carolina
.JPG "North Carolina’s Day’Ron Sharpe (11) dunks in front of Pittsburgh’s Terrell Brown during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021, in Pittsburgh.")
North Carolina forward Day’Ron Sharpe committed a turnover in a recent game out of politeness. He could have maneuvered for his own shot, but instead tried to pass the ball to forward Armando Bacot. It was the kind of passive mistake that the Tar Heels’ frontcourt made plenty of times earlier in the season.
And the kind of mistake they haven’t made many times during their three-game winning streak. If there’s going to be a turnover, Bacot reminded the freshman, it needed to be because he was attacking.
The newfound aggression from the frontcourt helped the Heels (11-5, 6-3 ACC) get their second road win and match their ACC win total from last season. Bacot scored a team-high 21 points and Garrison Brooks added 16 as Carolina beat the Panthers 75-65 on Tuesday
“I definitely say as a trio we’ve been kind of finding our swag a little bit,” said Bacot, who also lead the team with 10 rebounds. “We’re just starting to know where each other likes the ball. That just makes it a lot easier when we all can play off each other in both the high post and the low post.”
Carolina’s post players seem best suited to deliver each other the ball. Bacot, Brooks and Sharpe combined for eight assists against Pitt -- five of which were on baskets made by another big.
That chemistry has help the entire team improve their shooting percentage. Carolina shot 60.7 percent from the field in the second half against Pitt, which was a new season-high. UNC has also put together back-to-back games of shooting 50 percent or better from the field.
Bacot, who leads the team in scoring, has been the most consistent of the three. But they’re almost interchangeable at this point. Sharpe had 16 points off the bench against N.C. State on Saturday to go with Bacot’s 17.
“Get the ball inside early and let the big guys work,” Brooks said. “It opens things up for the outside perimeter, so it helps them a lot.”
It’s a strategy that took some time for Carolina’s young guards to understand. It’s not that they wouldn’t pass the ball inside -- and they still have a problem with making entry passes -- it’s that they didn’t value it as the best shot.
UNC coach Roy Williams said he still had to emphasize paint touches at halftime at Pitt -- and that was with both Bacot and Brooks already having scored double figures in the first half.
“I look down here and Armando is 8-for-10 and Garrison is 8-for-11,” said Williams, of their final stats. “We’ve got to use our brain. Those guys should get more shots.”
The last time at least two of Carolina’s frontcourt players didn’t register double-digit shot attempts was in its loss to Florida State when Caleb Love and Kerwin Walton combined for 23 shots. Walton’s emergence has added a new dimension to UNC’s offense. Opponents have to guard him on the perimeter and it opens up spacing for the post players to operate.
Since their loss to the Seminoles, the Heels have done a better job consistently getting shots for their post players and it has resulted in three straight wins.
“Honestly, I feel like whenever we get one-on-one coverage, there’s a high probability that we’re going to score,” Bacot said.
Most teams don’t have a frontcourt trio like Carolina’s, that stands 6-foot-10 across the board, and can tap 7-foot-1 Walker Kessler if someone needs a break. Pitt plays small, which helps the 6-foot-6 Justin Champagnie operate in mismatches offensively at power forward. But it caught up to the Panthers against the Heels.
UNC used its size advantage to outrebound Pitt 37-29 and it scored 48 points in the paint for a second consecutive game.
“We can only get better from here,” Brooks said. “I think we’re hitting our stride at the right time.”