BYU Exhibition Provides Taste Test for UNC’s Competitive Appetite

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A competitive personality exists among the collective character traits that have been emerging for the new-look North Carolina basketball team, across the course of the summer months and now during the preseason.

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And gauging how that appetite shows up against an opponent in a game setting figures to form at least some degree of the valuable information the Tar Heels can glean from Friday night’s high-profile exhibition matchup with BYU and freshman phenom AJ Dybantsa.

“We all want to win, and that’s one thing I’ve picked up since Day One to now,” UNC swingman Jonathan Powell said earlier this month. “It’s every practice, every conditioning, every little thing we do. It’s about getting better and making each other better. And at the end of the day, we’ve all got one goal. We want to win at the highest level.”

The transfer Powell, one of the 10 newcomers on UNC’s overhauled roster, added “you can feel it every day” and “everyone is just ready to go” moments later, while further explaining.

The exhibition game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, located about 45 miles from BYU’s campus in Provo, Utah, won’t count toward UNC’s season-long record or statistics. But the experience surely could become a building block type of element for constructing the Tar Heels’ foundation, and testing their mettle.

“This is a very competitive group,” coach Hubert Davis said Wednesday, ahead of UNC’s departure today to travel to Utah. “It’s a team that I don’t have to poke and prod to get after it. They already do, and that’s exactly what you want. They compete extremely hard out there on the floor, and then they’re in the locker room laughing and joking around. And that’s the type of team that you want to have.

“And it’s also beneficial in games like this to be able to see how you handle — everything is good when everything is going well — but how you handle adversity. When a team goes on a run, do you come together? Do you get stronger? And those are things that it’s really important to see and identify, especially before the regular season starts.”

UNC (No. 25) and BYU (No. 8) are ranked in the AP Top 25 preseason poll. The Tar Heels are picked to finish third in the ACC behind Duke and Louisville, while the Cougars are picked to finish second in the Big 12, behind Houston. Both UNC and BYU are 11 days away from their respective Nov. 3 season openers.

Davis and the Tar Heels pursued the 6-foot-9, do-it-all Dybantsa, before coach Kevin Young and BYU’s NBA-structured program won out in the recruiting sweepstakes. Dybantsa delivered 30 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals last week in the Cougars’ opening exhibition game at Nebraska, but BYU lost 90-89 during that tune-up. Since then, Dybantsa has been named to the AP’s Preseason All-America team.

Davis said Wednesday that UNC has to excel defensively and prove sturdy with its rebounding “to have a chance to be the best team that we can possibly become” this season. And so those are among the important areas he’ll be closely monitoring on Friday night against BYU.

As for how the Tar Heels’ other qualities such as hunger and spirit might measure up, Powell and freshman guard Derek Dixon said those competitive juices have been running high since summer pickup games.

“I think we’ve got a lot of competitors this year,” Dixon said earlier this month. “I mean, every practice is competitive. Guys are going at it. It’s good to see that, guys going at it all practice long. And then off the court, we’re just as cool in the locker room. So being around a team of guys that are so competitive and so passionate about winning, it’s good. And it’s what’s best for the team.

“I think we have a chance to be a really good team. We’ve got a lot of size, a lot of length. Shooting. And like I said, a lot of competitive guys. So it’s been really good to be around them. I felt like we clicked really quickly this summer, so it hasn’t been like a struggle to mesh together. I think we’ve just got to keep getting better each and every day, and take it where it goes from there.”