After being embarrassed last month, UNC to get another shot at Wake Forest in home finale
The last time North Carolina faced Wake Forest, the Tar Heels were not ready.
They were sluggish, could not hit open shots and allowed the Demon Deacons to get open 3-pointers, which they scored. It resulted in a 74-57 loss, one of the most embarrassing defeats of UNC’s 2019-20 season — a season filled with a number of embarrassing losses.
But the Tar Heels’ performance that day was especially troubling, because in the two games before that, they had shown that they could hang with the best teams in the conference when relatively healthy. The Tar Heels lost on the road to Florida State 65-59 on Feb. 3, but had a chance to win. And they probably should have beaten Duke on Feb. 8, but lost in overtime 98-96.
Against Wake Forest, UNC’s players looked like they weren’t interested in being there.
“They were 100 times more ready, more physical, more alert than we were,” UNC coach Roy Williams said of Wake Forest on Monday. “I was very disappointed in our defense, very disappointed in our offense. If we had special teams, I would probably be disappointed in them, too.”
At 7 p.m. on Tuesday night, UNC (12-17, 5-13 ACC) has a chance to make up for that loss when it faces Wake Forest (13-15, 6-12) at home on senior night.
The Tar Heels are coming off a 92-79 road win over Syracuse on Saturday. It was one of their best offensive performances of the season. Garrison Brooks finished with 26 points, Cole Anthony had 25 and Christian Keeling had 18 points.
The Tar Heels dropped 11 3-pointers, 10 more than they hit against Wake Forest, and shot 51.6 percent from the floor.
But UNC coach Roy Williams cautioned from taking too much from that game. He said preparing for Syracuse is different from preparing for other opponents because of its 2-3 zone.
“They play it, and they play it very, very well,” Williams said of Syracuse. “We don’t have a history of shooting the ball well, so I was really pleased the way we got the ball inside.
“And we were able to throw it back out for some good shots. And very pleased that we made shots.
“But I think getting ready to play Syracuse is a different preparation than anybody else. So you can’t take too many things from that, because their game is so different.”
In the first meeting between the two teams, Wake Forest ran some zone to take advantage of UNC’s poor shooting. Before the Syracuse game, UNC was shooting 28 percent from 3.
“Our whole objective was to make them shoot shots over us,” Wake Forest coach Danny Manning said Monday of the Feb. 11 meeting.
It worked. The Tar Heels settled for a lot of long shots, and finished 1-for-16 from behind the 3-point line.
Wake Forest is coming off two consecutive wins — to Duke and on Saturday to Notre Dame.
But the Tar Heels are playing with confidence now, too. They’ve also won their last two games, and insist they can beat any team in the conference. Brooks and Anthony have played well together in the past two games. Senior guard Brandon Robinson is back from an ankle injury. And Keeling has been an X-factor with his shooting over the last eight games.
“I don’t see why we can’t make a run,” Anthony said Saturday.
For UNC, it’ll take a much better performance than the one on Feb. 11.
UNC vs. Wake Forest
When: 7 p.m., Tuesday
Where: Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill
TV: ACC Network
This story was originally published March 2, 2020 at 3:19 PM.
