UNC basketball takes care of business, runs over Florida State in ACC quarterfinal
There have been years, let’s be honest, when the ACC Tournament hasn’t exactly been the greatest of priorities for North Carolina. The Tar Heels have never been opposed to winning it but they’ve sometimes approached it as though they might not mind a bit of rest and recovery time before the start of the NCAA Tournament.
Former UNC coach Roy Williams, after all, once called the tournament a “cocktail party.” Long gone are those cutthroat days from decades ago, when only one team advanced out of here, or even more recent ones, when the ACC was smaller and more geographically-confined, and when the tournament still felt like the marquee event it was for so long.
Nonetheless, it’s different now. The Tar Heels haven’t won the ACC Tournament since 2016, and they have approached it this year with a “desperate” feeling, Armando Bacot, the fifth-year senior forward, said earlier this week. UNC ambled along for a bit early here on Thursday, but eventually played with a sense of desperation in its 92-67 quarterfinals victory against Florida State.
The win sends UNC, the tournament’s No. 1 seed, to the semifinals on Friday night against Pitt, a team with its own sense of desperation given its precarious positioning for an NCAA Tournament bid. For the Tar Heels, the difference on Thursday came during the final six minutes of the first half.
It was then when their lead grew from three points to 19, before an FSU 3-pointer at the buzzer cut UNC’s halftime lead to 46-30. From there the onslaught continued. By the time Seth Trimble brought the Tar Heels friends and family section to its feet, UNC led by 24 with 10 minutes to play, and all that was left to be decided was the final score.
RJ Davis, recently named the ACC Player of the Year, led UNC with 18 points. Armando Bacot and Cormac Ryan scored 14 apiece. Six UNC players finished with at least eight points.
The Tar Heels are now 22-0 in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals as the No. 1 seed.
Three takeaways from UNC’s victory:
Desperation talk wasn’t just talk.
UNC’s start on Thursday made it fair to question Bacot’s comment from the day before. The Tar Heels didn’t exactly play with that sense of desperation from the opening tip.
Fair enough, maybe, given the circumstances. It was a noon tip-off on a Thursday. The crowd at Capital One Arena, which did fill in eventually, wasn’t the liveliest. Sometimes it takes a while to get going. Understandable.
When the Tar Heels did, it was over. A close game became a rout.
They closed the first half on that 20-7 run, and kept the pressure on at the start of the second half, eventually pushing their lead to 21 points, on an RJ Davis 3, with 14 and a half minutes to play. And then it was timeout, Seminoles.
If UNC really is indeed desperate, that doesn’t bode well for the competition here this week.
Tar Heels flash their balance.
For UNC in recent weeks, there has been an RJ Davis game. There has been a Cormac Ryan game.
Thursday was a game of balance. UNC built that 21-point lead thanks to a variety of contributions from an assembled cast. It wasn’t one guy. It was, instead, just about all guys. At that point, with about 14 and a half minutes remaining, Davis, Ryan and Armando Bacot had all scored 14 points.
Harrison Ingram had nine. Elliot Cadeau six.
Hubert Davis and his players have often talked about their balance; that they don’t have to rely on one particular player on a given night. This was one of those games when they all proved it.
No Seminole drama this time.
Any UNC supporter could’ve been forgiven for any feelings of trepidation upon Florida State’s victory against Virginia Tech on Wednesday, in the game between the tournament’s No. 8 and No. 9 seeds. The ninth-seed Seminoles, after all, had proven a pesky and resilient foe for UNC.
In their two regular season games, the Tar Heels needed second-half comebacks in both. FSU held a 14-point lead early in the second half when these teams played in Chapel Hill back in December. Almost two months later, in late January, the Seminoles led by eight early in the second half.
UNC took care of business in both, thanks to down-the-stretch surges, but still. Some old adages seemed to apply here on Thursday: one, that it’s tough to beat a team three times in the same season. And, two, that FSU seemed, at least a little bit, to have UNC’s number – despite the Seminoles’ performance in the final 15 minutes of both games.
Well, so much for any of that.
The Tar Heels on Thursday by far had their easiest time against the Seminoles. And whatever luck FSU had against UNC didn’t travel to Washington. UNC dominated especially defensively, and gradually stretched its lead to a more and more comfortable margin throughout the second half.
Onto Friday.
This story was originally published March 14, 2024 at 2:10 PM.
