'Pound the Ball Inside' - Tar Heels Win Through Paint Presence

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Hubert Davis didn’t hold back in the locker room after North Carolina entered the halftime break tied with Virginia Tech. The Tar Heel head coach let into his offense, calling them out for settling for early 3-point looks and getting dominated in the paint, 22-12, by the Hokies in the first half. 

“We had some spirited conversations at halftime,” Davis said after the game. “I just want to dominate points in the paint.”

Led by Henri Veesaar and Seth Trimble, No. 18 North Carolina responded to the call and attacked the basket repeatedly in the second half to defeat Virginia Tech, 89-82, on Saturday night at the Smith Center. The emphasis on getting downhill and going at the Hokies’ weakness inside helped UNC notch its third half in three games where the Tar Heels shot 60 percent or better from the floor — the first time they’ve done so since the 2006-07 season. 

“Watching the film, we saw that statistically, VTech wasn’t the best at guarding the basket,” Trimble said. “So we wanted to make it our mission just to really pound the ball inside.” 

Though going at the Hokies inside may have been UNC’s intent from the scouting report, it failed to do so until the second half. North Carolina started the game chucking five of its first seven shots from beyond the arc, and by halftime, nearly half of its attempts were 3-pointers. 

Although the Tar Heels did shoot well from three — 6-for-14 (42.9%) — they knew the key to separating themselves from a lingering Virginia Tech side in the second half would be flipping the script on points in the paint. As a result, UNC didn’t take a 3-pointer until over seven minutes into the second half, and focused all its offensive shot selection toward the Hokies’ rim. 

This meant feeding Veesaar inside for a monster second half, where he scored 18 of his career-high tying 26 points and nearly helped North Carolina reach its post-scoring goal, falling just six points shy. 

“We aim to get 40 paint points every game,” Veesaar said. “We started calling more plays and being more mindful of taking less threes and less misses and kind of getting it inside the paint.”

Along with the 7-footer, Trimble also continued his recent trend of blowing past his defender and getting to the rim at will. Over the last three games, the senior guard is shooting 65.7 percent (23-for-35) from the field, a clear positive correlation of his more aggressive mindset. 

Trimble has said before that the mentality shift came in the second half at Syracuse, but on Saturday, he also pointed to another motivation — filling the scoring void left by Caleb Wilson’s injury. 

With Wilson sidelined, along with his ability to take over games on the offensive end, Trimble and the rest of the Tar Heels have tried to emulate the same ‘it’ factor the star freshman has used for challenges like UNC faced on Saturday night against the Hokies. 

“Caleb had a huge edge; he had a huge determination,” Trimble said. “He was hungry to win each and every game… Guys have really stepped up and really just picked up and kind of stepped out of their personality, just to fill that void that’s been missing.”