UNC men’s basketball continues its ascent in dominant 103-67 victory against Syracuse
There are those inevitable moments of struggle during the long slog of any college basketball season, those days when the shots won’t fall or the energy will lack or when a team fails to perform to its potential. Then there are the opposite of those days — the kind North Carolina experienced here on Saturday during a 103-67 victory against Syracuse.
How good of an afternoon was it for UNC?
Well, know this: The final minutes included the securing of free biscuits — as is the case any time the Tar Heels score at least 100 points at home — as well as a couple moments for the highlight reels for walk-ons Duwe Farris (who scored on a layup) and Rob Landry (whose 3-pointer gave UNC its final points).
Before those things happened, there was about 38 minutes of sustained Tar Heels’ dominance, too. If teams at times must suffer through “one of those days” (the bad kind), then UNC on Saturday reveled in the rare kind of day in which just about everything seemed to go right. The Tar Heels shot a tidy 48.1 percent. They had their way inside (and just about everywhere else).
Their leading players (RJ Davis and Armando Bacot and Harrison Ingram) performed well, and so did the supporting the cast. They played without a hint of letdown after an emotional victory against N.C. State days earlier. And now UNC has won six consecutive games, and looks to be transforming into one of the nation’s best teams.
Three takeways from one of Tar Heels’ most complete performances of the season:
Tar Heels’ defensive surge continues.
Is it a coincidence that UNC has become an apparent defensive juggernaut just in time for the real start of the conference schedule? Or is it, perhaps, a result of playing ACC teams that are, shall we say, less than stellar offensively? Probably a little bit of both.
Still, though, the Tar Heels’ defensive improvement can’t be understated, and it’s one of the main reasons — perhaps the main reason — why UNC has gone from good to approaching greatness in recent weeks. Some of its strongest defensive performances have come since the start of the new year, and that trend continued on Saturday.
The Tar Heels held a 31-16 lead near the midpoint of the first half, and Syracuse then was 5-for-20 from the field. Some of that was the fruit of the Orange’s ineffective execution and rushed shots but a lot of it, too, was attributable to a UNC defense that is more consistently active and menacing than it was throughout November and December.
If UNC defends like it did throughout much of Saturday, and like it has through the first two weeks of 2024, there’s no reason to doubt UNC’s potential to make a deep postseason run in a couple months. Bacot, who has been at UNC a good while now, said this is “definitely” the best defensive team he has been a part of.
He and his teammates spoke on Saturday of an increased defensive buy-in in recent weeks. And then there are the slight strategic wrinkles, like the press UNC employed at times on Saturday in effort to speed Syracuse up a bit and increase the tempo.
“We’re doing a lot of little things that Coach (Hubert) Davis and the rest of the staff have been preaching to us,” RJ Davis said.
If there was a defensive turning point for this team — and such a thing would be best measured after the season — it might’ve come after the loss against Kentucky about a month ago. Entering his team’s next game, Hubert Davis re-emphasized, as he put it on Saturday, “what is required” for UNC to be successful. And what was more required, then, was better effort and execution on defense and in securing rebounds.
“I said it takes a full commitment,” Hubert Davis said. “And from that Oklahoma game, it continues to build.”
Another standout performance for RJ Davis
It’s only mid-January and the North Carolina sporting media is already running out of positive adjectives to describe how well RJ Davis is playing. Let’s just say he has been great. And was, again, on Saturday.
We’ll get to the more showy statistics momentarily, but one that might’ve flown under the radar against Syracuse: Davis had five steals during the first 25 minutes of the game, and finished with that many after sitting out most of the final 10 minutes with the outcome decided. The five steals tied his season (and career) high, and it’s reflective of UNC’s defensive progression in recent weeks.
Indeed, it helps when a team’s best player is also among its most active, and effective defensive players.
On the other end of the court, it was another in a long line of stellar performances for Davis. He finished with 22 points. He made four of his six 3-point attempts. Saturday was his 10th game with at least 20 points, and his 13th consecutive scoring in double figures.
And his services weren’t even needed throughout most of the second half, given the score.
Indeed, cue all the usual disclaimers about it being a long season (it is) and how there’s a lot of basketball to play (yes) and how teams and players must avoid complacency (sure). All true. Also true: RJ Davis has been the ACC’s best, most consistent player. And he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
A double double-double, and old-school dominance in the paint
In the old days of facing Syracuse’s vaunted 2-3 zone (OK, not all that long ago, but still), UNC often tried to beat it by attacking the middle. Former Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim may twitch from time to time upon the memory of UNC big men of the past getting free down low for dunks or layups against his defense.
Boeheim retired after last season and his successor, Adrian Autry, bid farewell to the 2-3 in favor of a man-to-man. Indeed, it was disorienting to see Syracuse come to town and not hunker down in that zone, which was its trademark for decades. At least one thing, though, was familiar: UNC attacked the paint (as is usually the priority) and found success.
The result was a double double-double for the Tar Heels, with both Bacot (16 points and 11 rebounds) and Ingram (11 points and 10 rebounds) mostly having their way on both ends. One could argue Ingram has been UNC’s second-most important player this season. He does a bit of everything, and most of it all at a high level. Bacot has been less consistent but found his way Saturday.
And there was Roy Williams, UNC’s retired former head coach, taking it all in from his usual seat over the home tunnel in the Smith Center on Saturday. Williams used to seem to embrace the challenge of solving Boeheim’s zone (especially when he had a dominant big man or two, which was often the case during his tenure).
This time, he could sit back and relax and take in and old-school kind of performance down low out of Bacot and Ingram. The Tar Heels’ 58 points in the paint were a season high and there were times when Autry did employ the zone, mainly on out of bounds plays from under the basket. Man, zone — it didn’t matter with the way the Tar Heels executed on offense on Saturday.
On defense, too.
And “the encouraging thing,” Hubert Davis said, “is how much better I think we can get.”
Encouraging, perhaps, for him and his team. Concerning for the rest of the ACC.
This story was originally published January 13, 2024 at 2:15 PM.
