Precious week for the UNC despite the defeat in the league

ASHEVILLE, NC – The 2020-21 varsity basketball season is only one week old and yet Roy Williams already has a significant amount of gameplay movies at his disposal to build confidence and correct shortcomings.

Without an exhibition match or closed scrum available in the preseason due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the North Carolina No.14 (3-1) opened his season without adequate preparation against the College of Charleston and prevailed in an empty Dean E. Smith Center except for a few family members and the media. The Tar Heels traveled to Asheville this week to play at the Maui Invitational, an indication of the fragile bumper rails that are keeping this basketball season on track, and walked away with a month of learning lessons in three days.

UNLV hit UNC early in the first round, taking a 13-0 lead and causing flashbacks to last season’s disastrous results. The Tar Heels responded emphatically, dropping a 47-15 lead to put the play on shortly after the start of the second half. On Tuesday, UNC played too many fouls and turnovers to outlast a defensive-minded Stanford team in a game that featured eight header changes and 10 draws.

And then came the championship game on Wednesday, which brought together the worst games of UNC’s first two games against No.17 Texas. The Tar Heels fell 16 points behind, folding an assist, 10 turnovers and a 39% shooting effort into the mix against another tough defensive unit.

“In the first half I think their attention to detail and sense of urgency was much better than ours,” Williams told reporters after the 69-67 loss. “We have returned the ball far too many times. Yes, we have first year guards, but at some point in your life you need to stop turning the ball around, so we need to do a better job on that. We dug a big hole for ourselves without making free throws and returning the ball.

UNC opened the second half by settling in and operating their midfield offense through their bigs, eventually wiping out their deficit with 3:54 to go. A win would have marked the Tar Heels’ biggest second-half comeback in nearly a decade, but Matt Coleman III won the Maui Invitational for Texas in a glorious fashion, getting multiple rebounds off the backboard and rim before his jumper 15 feet does not fall with 0.1 seconds left.

With a veteran backcourt, Williams said he likely would have passed Coleman III at the end of time in an effort to force the game’s top scorer to give up the ball. Without that level of confidence still available – he said his team had not been very good at executing those defensive measures in practice – Williams decided to block any opportunity to drive open to the rim and to force Coleman III to hit a contested shot, which he did.

It counted as a 69-67 loss, with defensive breakdowns, too many turnovers (14), excruciating free throw conversions (18 of 32) and a stray display of background shooting (Caleb Love and RJ Davis combined for 16 points on 5-of-24 shoots). Despite those stats, aside from missing six of their last seven field goal attempts, UNC was a defensive save far from forcing extra time.

“I think in every game you play you add an opportunity to improve yourself or ignore the simple things and not improve yourself,” said Williams. “I think our team won’t ignore the simple things and try to do a better job and improve as they go.

The reality is that UNC has encountered varying levels of adversity every three days in downtown Asheville, including tight contests in the dying minutes of its last two games. Williams relied solely on his starting five and Day’Ron Sharpe in a downturn, while also playing 10 players for at least six minutes. That included a rookie roster for a brief stint early in the second half against Texas.

“We’re still learning and getting better every day as a team,” said Brooks. “I think it’s a daily process to keep working, getting better, getting used to the way everyone is playing and keeping growing.

With the basketball season pushed back by two weeks due to the pandemic, UNC lost four non-conference games that would have provided learning opportunities for veterans looking to shake off 14-19 leftovers and the class. No. 2 recruitment center in the country. A fifth game against Elon has also been postponed, although there is hope the home game can be postponed.

If that sounds like an excuse, so be it. There’s a reason half of the ACC teams that played games in the first week of the season have already lost at least once.