Tar Heels show off size and range in an exhibition win over Elizabeth City State
The opening offensive sequence of North Carolina’s 83-55 exhibition win over Elizabeth City State on Friday showed the familiar and foreign for fans returning to the Dean E. Smith Center.
Armando Bacot grabbed an offensive rebound, as Roy Williams-coached teams tended to do in bulk. But when the ball found Dawson Garcia in the left corner, the 6-foot-11 Marquette transfer buried a 3-pointer.
Carolina hasn’t seen a player of his size with that range shooting in some time and that will be a regular occurrence this season. Garcia finished with a team-high 17 points, including 2 of 4 from 3, and gave a glimpse of what the Tar Heels will look and play like under new coach Hubert Davis.
“These are the type of bigs that I that I like to coach, these are the type of bigs that I like to play, versatile bigs that can do a number of things out there on the floor,” Davis said. “Dawson, he can really shoot the basketball, but he’s also a gifted driver, he can finish in the lane. He’s an outstanding passer. And something that people are going to really figure out about Dawson is I think he’s the best defensive player as a big in the country.”
Garcia isn’t alone in being a big that can stretch defenses. Forward Brady Manek, a 6-9 graduate transfer from Oklahoma, is the tallest player in Big 12 Conference history to make 200 3-pointers in his career.
Manek shot 45 percent from behind the arc last season and looks to be off to a good start at UNC. Manek scored 16 points from off the bench and was 2 for 5 from 3-point range. But he also had three blocked shots and drew a charge.
“He’s a smart player; he knows how to play the game,” Davis said. “He’s always in the right spots on both ends of the floor. He’s not just a shooter as a basketball player. And I’m so glad that people are starting to see that and recognize that.”
The Heels shot 9 for 23 from behind the arc and had six different players make at least one. That’s a big change from last season, when the Heels shot just 31 percent as a team and never had more than five players in any single game make a 3. Their season-high for 3s last season was just 10, which they made at Florida State and at Duke.
Even Bacot, who had only one attempt from 3-point range in his previous two seasons at Carolina, made a 3-pointer from the top of the key. The junior forward said when he glimpsed at Williams, who now has season-tickets like a regular fan, his shot prompted a smile and laughter.
Davis used an eight-man rotation for the opening 25 minutes of the game before he went deeper into the bench. He especially wanted to get Garcia a lot of time because he said the sophomore had food poisoning and did not participate in the team’s secret scrimmage at Florida.
The starting lineup on Friday was Bacot, Garcia, Caleb Love, R.J. Davis and Kerwin Walton. R.J. Davis and Love rounded out the Heels’ double-figures scorers with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
But that may not still be the lineup for the Heels season opener against Loyola (Md.) on Tuesday. Bacot said the starters for ECSU were determined by their defensive grades during practice, but the lineup isn’t permanent. Carolina is deep enough to use a lot of different combinations including senior forward Leaky Black or Manek.
“I feel we’re kind of like a puzzle with just a bunch of different pieces of all the types of shapes that are just coming together and meshing,” Bacot said.
The new era of UNC basketball begins on Tuesday, but with it the players have kept the same old expectations.
“A national championship contender, for real, I expect nothing less from us,” Love said. “I feel like we come in every day and practice. And now in games. I feel like we just are so focused and know what we got to do to get to that point.”
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 9:57 PM.