North Carolina bullied Kentucky on the glass

There is a lot to unpack from Kentucky‘s loss to North Carolina in Rupp Arena. The abysmal three-point shooting and the poor execution down the stretch stand out. The second-half scoring drought was a killer.

But the number that best explains why Kentucky walked off with another deflating loss is on the glass, where North Carolina outrebounded the Wildcats 41-30 and outscored them 22-5 in second-chance points.

The worst stretch came late when Andrija Jelavic blocked a shot, and UNC snagged back-to-back offensive rebounds to keep the possession alive. Down two, the Tar Heels called a timeout, and then Derek Dixon drained a go-ahead three with under a minute left. Kentucky never led again.

Malachi Moreno played his heart out with nine rebounds and three blocks, but he couldn’t do everything by himself. Jack Givens estimated there were 10 or more times that Kentucky got caught looking as a Tar Heel grabbed another offensive rebound in the second half. The Heels had TWENTY of them.

Mark Pope said after the game, “I’m really frustrated with the rebounding tonight. That’s credit to North Carolina, and it’s uncharacteristic for us. It just hasn’t been us. But we just got crushed on the glass. It’s very, very disappointing tonight for sure.”

Pope added that he doesn’t think that’s who Kentucky is, but it was in the loss to UNC. He said it was the “second hit” that cost his team. They bodied UNC bigs, but “rested in that space” instead of getting the second hit.

“The size also,” he said. UNC’s two starting bigs, Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar, combined for 22 rebounds by themselves. The Tar Heels wanted it more.