5 things to know about the North Carolina Tar Heels

1. Even across the board

One of the things that makes North Carolina a hard team to beat is that they are an extremely well-balanced team on the stat sheet. Through six games, they’ve had four different players lead the team in scoring and three players lead the team in rebounds. If you look at their points scored per game, you’ll see four players averaging around 11 points. Garrison Brooks leads the team with 11.8 points per game, followed by 11.2 by both Caleb Love and RJ Davis, and finally Armando Bacot at 11 even. A fifth player, Day’Ron Sharpe scores just under 9 per game to round out the top five.

The balance extends outside of scoring for the Tar Heels, as North Carolina crashes the boards evenly as well. Bacot leads the team at 8.8 boards per game, with Brooks’ 7.7 and Leaky Black’s 7.5 not far behind. Sharpe is a close fourth at 6.7 rebounds per contest. While one big scorer or rebounder is tough to go up against, it can be easier to key in on that one player and force others to beat you. With North Carolina, they have multiple guys capable of stepping into that role of being “the guy” this year.

2. Offensive woes

We’ve all seen the struggle to produce offensively for Kentucky to start the season. Whether it be poor shooting from the perimeter or a struggle to get into the offense as a result of constant turnovers, the offense hasn’t seemed to click yet. North Carolina has experienced some of the same offensive struggles that Kentucky has shown thus far. Let’s start with the turnover column. Kentucky is averaging 16.8 turnovers per contest, 286th in the country, while North Carolina is just a tad better than Kentucky here, turning it over 16.5 times per game, good for 276th in the nation.

While the sheer amount of turnovers each team is committing is enough to constitute bad offense, the shooting numbers for each team more than compound the issue. Kentucky’s shooting percentages sit at 43.2% from the field, 24.4% from three, and 69% from the free throw line. The Tar Heels shoot 43.5% from the field, 27% from deep, and 67.5% from the charity stripe. The rankings from each team nationally in these categories don’t alleviate the stress. Kentucky ranks 204th in field goal percentage, North Carolina sits at 188. The Tarheels are 287th in the country in three point shooting, with the Cats all the way down at 308 on the list. Free throw shooting isn’t much better, as the Cats are 186th and North Carolina is 206th.

3. Size on top of more size

In most of the recent Kentucky vs North Carolina match ups, we’ve seen guards hold the bulk of the scoring, as both teams have raced up and down the floor for relatively high scoring outputs. However, with both teams struggling to produce offensively this season, it could be the play in the paint that proves the difference between these two teams. Kentucky may have a solid front line, centered around Olivier Sarr and Isaiah Jackson, but North Carolina’s is just as big and talented. The starting front line for North Carolina stands at 6’8″, 6’10”, and 6’10”, while subs coming off the bench bring even more size, measuring at 7’1″, 6’11”, and 6’8″.

Senior Garrison Brooks is one of the better bigs in the ACC and he leads the Tar Heels in scoring, while being second on the team in rebounding. Sophomore Armando Bacot is just behind Brooks in scoring and he leads the team in rebounding. Both players are very solid in the post and can score with their back to the basket. Both are solid offensive rebounders as well, so the Cats will have to make a concerted effort to keep them off the glass. KSR’s resident scout, Brandon Ramsey, mentioned in his post last night that the Cats will most likely look to double on the catch on both bigs in the post to force them to make decisions on passes back out to the perimeter. If the Cats can rotate successfully, they force the guards to beat them, rather than the bigs.

4. How’s 2020 been so far?

While the start of the 2020 season has been as rough as possibly imaginable for the Kentucky Wildcats, things have gone pretty well for the Tar Heels. North Carolina started their season with three straight victories, two of which came in convincing fashion, but after losing two of their last three, they now sit at 4-2. The season opener was a 19-point victory over the Charleston Cougars, fueled by Caleb Love’s 17 points and four assists. The Tar Heels followed that win with a 27-point blowout of UNLV. The Runnin’ Rebels had it close at halftime, but UNC outscored UNLV by 20 in the second half, led by a combined 42 points and 18 rebounds from the trio of RJ Davis, Garrison Brooks, and Armando Bacot. Their third straight win was a bit closer, as the Tar Heels actually trailed at the half, before proving to be too much in the second half for Stanford to handle, on the way to a 4-point victory.

From there, the quality of opponent increased as North Carolina lost back to back games. Currently ranked No. 11 in the country, the Texas Longhorns dominated the first half against the Tar Heels, taking a twelve point lead into halftime. North Carolina stormed back and eventually tied the game, but fell on a buzzer beater. Four days later, Roy Williams’ squad faced one of the best teams in the country, the Iowa Hawkeyes. They were able to keep National Player of the Year front-runner, Luka Garza in check for most of the game, but Iowa’s 17 made threes were too much to overcome, giving the Hawkeyes a 13 point win. UNC was able to stop the skid, edging out North Carolina Central a week ago, but it certainly wasn’t a convincing performance heading into this afternoon’s game.

5. Two of the best programs of all time

A lot of people seem to think that Kentucky and North Carolina should have a scheduled game every season. Two of the best programs in the history of college basketball, and the games always seem to be extremely entertaining. For the most part, they have played as often as possible, with today being the 19th time the two schools have faced off since the year 2000. Eleven of those 18 prior match ups have been decided by single digits, and two of those match ups have come in the Elite Eight with a Final Four spot on the line. Since Coach Cal arrived in Lexington, Kentucky is 6-3 versus Roy Williams and the Tar Heels.

One of the few major programs that Kentucky has a losing record against, North Carolina leads the all-time series over the Wildcats, 24-16. In the Coach Cal era, the games have been extremely close, with five of the nine games being decided by one score. This will be the first time since 2010 that both teams aren’t ranked going into the game, and the first time since 2008 that Kentucky won’t be ranked going into the match up with North Carolina. UNC sat as a 3-point favorite early this morning, so we’ll see how the Cats fare as underdogs this afternoon.

Go Cats. Beat Tar Heels.

@BrettBibbinsKSR