UNC basketball continues to build chemistry, new foundation in 90-68 victory over Lehigh
Two games into a new North Carolina basketball season, there’s reason for some cautious optimism about a Tar Heels team with a lot of new parts and one without, UNC hopes, the sort of baggage that weighed it down a season ago. Early last season, already, there were warning signs about problems to come.
Two games into this one? Plenty of signs of what might be possible, too — but in a good way for UNC.
The Tar Heels on Sunday responded to some second-half sluggishness with an 90-68 victory against Lehigh, a win in which Armando Bacot and RJ Davis each scored 22 points. For UNC, here were the most important takeaways:
1. For the Tar Heels, another solid, serviceable building block early in a long season.
Well, UNC hopes it’s a long season, at least.
Last season didn’t turn out to be so long, despite it starting with national-championship-or-bust aspirations. After becoming the first team to ever start a season ranked No. 1 and end it without making the NCAA tournament, the early part of this season is all about reestablishing the reset, developing some chemistry and learning and growing.
Mission accomplished in the Tar Heels’ first two games. If anything, the season-opening 86-70 victory against Radford last Monday night and this, the win against Lehigh on Sunday, were notable for their lack of noteworthiness. Very early last season, anyone paying attention could tell something was a little off — that the sum of the parts didn’t match the individual pieces.
No such early alarms (so far) two games into this season. The four scholarship returnees (Bacot, Davis, Seth Trimble and Jalen Washington) appear to have blended in well with the seven newcomers, which include five transfers and two freshmen. The chemistry, noticeably not-great early last season, doesn’t look like any kind of issue early this season.
Yes, there are some areas of nitpicking. Some moments of sloppiness.
But, more often than that, flashes of what’s possible.
“I think the positive is that we have a lot of players that’s able to provide a lot of good minutes, and come out there with impact,” RJ Davis said. But at the same time, we’re still working through it. We’re still learning each other, and trying to get a feel for it. The chemistry is there.”
Again, it’s two games. And two games against lesser competition (though Radford, it should be noted, is among the favorites in the Big South, just like Lehigh is in the Patriot League). The goal in these kinds of games should be to build a foundation and avoid anything too troublesome and UNC managed that, again, on Sunday. Another potential bonus: Lehigh plays a slow-it-down, grind-it-out style, which forces defenses to be patient. UNC had to work to force its preferred pace, and it eventually did.
2. That said, UNC on Sunday did encounter some sluggishness.
The Tar Heels led by nine at halftime and then took a little nap for about seven minutes or so at the start of the second half. It could be excused, perhaps, given it was a sleepy Sunday afternoon, with a lot of empty seats at Smith Center. And even among those who were here, some undoubtedly had a late Saturday night, what with UNC’s double-overtime football victory against Duke.
Suddenly, though, it was a three-point game here with about 13 minutes to play.
A repeat of some Lehigh magic, perhaps? Another triumph for the Mountain Hawks, of the Patriot League, against a mighty Tobacco Road foe? (Remember, Lehigh’s greatest basketball moment came when, as a No. 15 seed, it beat Duke in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.)
Well, not quite. After Lehigh cut UNC’s lead to three, the Tar Heels scored the next nine points to reestablish some order. And then it was a 14-2 run, to push the lead back up to 15 with 9 1/2 minutes to play. Harrison Ingram, one of UNC’s newcomers, scored five of those points during that run, with a jumper and a 3-pointer. Elliot Cadeau contributed a fastbreak layup.
“There wasn’t any panic,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “When they cut it to three. There just wasn’t any at all. There was a calmness” of seeking to execute while putting together a string of defensive stops. The Tar Heels did just that, and gradually pulled away. It was a different sort of experience for UNC early last year, when it found itself in some early games that turned out to be more competitive than expected. One of those, against Gardner-Webb, ended with a six-point Tar Heels victory.
“That was more of a dog fight, just kind of battling down to the wire,” RJ Davis said. “The game got close, don’t get me wrong, today. But we were able to make a run and kind of push that lead out further.”
The Mountain Hawks, meanwhile, could’ve used CJ McCollum.
3. UNC coach Hubert Davis continues to experiment with his bench.
What’s this?
Hubert Davis going to his bench early and often in a new season?
A new approach for the Tar Heels’ third-year head coach. For whatever reason, UNC’s bench didn’t factor into much of Davis’ first two seasons after he succeeded Roy Williams. Davis’ approach, which required his starters to carry a massive load of minutes, was a departure from how Williams more liberally divided playing time (sometimes to the chagrin of UNC fans).
Whether this continues remains to be seen. Undoubtedly, the lineups will be pared when UNC starts facing more difficult competition, and especially when it gets into ACC play. For now, though, Davis seems to be placing a genuine emphasis on lineup experimentation and getting guys meaningful time.
Nine UNC players played at least 12 minutes on Sunday and another, Jalen Washington, played nine. No starter, meanwhile, played more than RJ Davis’ 29 (a rested team, Hubert Davis could be learning, is a happy team). Williams often used November and December games to find out what he had and experiment. Through UNC’s first two games, at least, Davis is placing an emphasis on his bench that he rarely has up to this point in his tenure.
4. Armando Bacot, with a renewed focus?
Now, granted, Hubert Davis has been prone to a bit of hyperbole over the years (saying Dontrez Styles and D’Marco Dunn would be two of the best players in school history comes to mind, before a season in which both played sparingly only to transfer) but the highest praise Davis offered Sunday made sense, and appears based in fact.
“There’s a sense of urgency,” Davis said about Bacot, “that I haven’t seen in him. And I think that’s because, this is it. There’s no more years after this. There’s a passion and a desire in him to leave on a good note.”
Bacot finished with 22 points and 20 rebounds — his third such college game, with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds. He also passed Tyler Hansbrough and became the the all-time school leader in offensive rebounds, now with 487 (and counting).
“Coming into this game, I knew I was gonna try to get like 20 rebounds,” Bacot said.
And how did he know this? Because, after talking with one of his endorsement partners, he came up with the idea of donating money to charity with every rebound. So there was a bit of added motivation.
“I wanted to come out and get as many rebounds as possible,” Bacot said. “I was kind of knocking my teammates over to get rebounds.”
This story was originally published November 12, 2023 at 4:15 PM.
