Kentucky is the new Tennessee for UNC basketball after ‘embarrassing’ 98-69 loss
North Carolina coach Hubert Davis uttered the words after being thoroughly dismantled in a 98-69 loss to No. 21 Kentucky that no coach ever wants to admit, much less say out loud, about his team:
“They were tougher than we were.”
Tougher defending. Tougher going after rebounds. Tougher going after loose balls. And that lack of toughness was especially disappointing for the Tar Heels because they were in the same position after their 89-72 loss to Tennessee.
Davis lamented last month about coaching effort after allowing the Volunteers to score 54 points in the paint. The same happened Saturday at T-Mobile Arena as the Wildcats (8-2) duplicated those 54 points in the paint.
“They played harder than us and if you want to compare it to Tennessee, from my perspective, that’s the part that I was shocked by,” Davis said. “Talking about energy and effort — not just in a game against Kentucky, just in a game in general — I don’t get that. I was shocked by it against Tennessee and I’m shocked by it today.”
UNC (8-3) had an excuse against Tennessee, because that game was played the day after a grueling loss to Purdue. There was no silver lining in this beat down in the desert.
Yes, the Heels were supposed to play UCLA. But Kentucky boarded its flight still thinking it would face Ohio State. Both teams had the same amount of preparation time, as the matchup was hastily put together when the Bruins and Buckeyes both backed out due to multiple positive COVID-19 tests in their respective programs.
But one program clearly played with more urgency and that was Kentucky.
“It shows that we can’t take any nights off,” UNC sophomore guard R.J. Davis said. “We have to be a high-energy, aggressive team every time you step on the floor. I mean, this one is definitely embarrassing. That’s all I have to say.”
Carolina was looking to show how it’d improved since the last time it lost this bad. It was on a five game winning streak and had held opponents below 65 points in each of those wins. But now it appears there’s a big gap between Chapel Hill and being in the top 25.
“It gives us a little perspective on just how much better we have to be as a team,” said Armando Bacot, who led the Heels with 22 points and 10 rebounds. “Just how much better we got to be as a team to get to where we want to be and be the best team in the country.”
.JPG "KentuckyNorthCarolinaBasketball (5).JPG")
Carolina’s players were excited when they found out they’d be wearing the alternate black uniforms they’d worn only once previously in a CBS Classic win over UCLA in 2015. They talked about the chance to beat a marquee opponent and be ranked again in the top 25 polls.
“Once we found out that we were playing Kentucky, and I told them before we got on the plane to fly here to Las Vegas, I saw the excitement and the determination in their eyes,” Hubert Davis said. “I didn’t see the energy and effort piece that it would be missing in a game like this.”
Kentucky, which led by as many as 35 points, handed the Heels their second worse loss in series history. The worst came in 1950 in an 83-44 UK win. In the process the Cats may have provided a blueprint for beating them too.
UK kept picking up full court defensively even though it wasn’t pressing to cause turnovers. UK coach John Calipari said he just wanted to make UNC’s guards fatigued so they would be shooting on weary legs. The Cats also played forwards Dawson Garcia and Brady Manek more physically than any team has played them this season.
“There are two 4-men 13 (Garcia) and 45 Manek, they are as good as shooting big men as there are,” Calipari said. “So we had to say, ‘Well, what do you want to give up?’ You got to give up something. You pick your poison and we didn’t want those two” to have big games.
Manek, who averages 13.0 points per game; and Garcia, who averaged 12.2 points; combined for just 13 points against the Cats. Most importantly to Calipari, they didn’t get Carolina going from the 3-point line.
UK held UNC to just 1-of-13 shooting from behind the arc, which was a season-low in percentage as well as makes. Carolina previously averaged 8.3 3-pointers per game while shooting 40.9 percent from 3-point range.
Calipari said the Heels were “going to be fine” despite the loss.
“They’ve got size, they’ve got guard play, they didn’t make shots today,” Calipari said. “And what happens is, just like us at Notre Dame, when you go 1 for 13, 2 for 19. You’re going to be in the 60s. It’s just what you’re going to be and now you got to hope the other team is as bad as you are.”
The Cats aren’t as great as they seemed on Saturday — they were coming off a loss at Notre Dame. But Davis said he thanked Calipari when they met for their postgame handshake.
“I said I appreciate that you guys played this well, because you guys put us in a position to be the team that we need to be and I said I appreciate that,” Davis said. “You can’t walk away from this game at all and not be able to look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘We got to be better.’ You just can’t.”
This story was originally published December 19, 2021 at 5:30 AM.