UNC-East Tennessee State Preview: Tar Heels Aim for Better Effort

No. 12 North Carolina (9-1) vs. East Tennessee State (8-3)
Chapel Hill, N.C. — Smith Center
Tuesday, Dec. 16 — 8 p.m.
ACC Network (Jay Alter, Terrence Oglesby)

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Quotables 
“All I need is a little bit of room. My teammates, my coaches, they all believe and trust me to shoot the ball. So if I get a little bit of room, I’m letting it go.” — Jonathan Powell after UNC’s win over USC Upstate

“The things that you have control over, I think those things are non-negotiable. You have to bring it every day. That’s energy, effort, attention to detail, enthusiasm, and you can’t use an excuse that we have final exams. I’m married, and I’ve got three kids, and I got prepared for this game early.” – Hubert Davis after a disappointing level of effort against USCU and in the week of practice prior

Pregame Notes

Jonathan Powell’s Bench Points Provide Spark: In North Carolina’s only game last week, an 80-62 win over USC Upstate on Saturday, junior guard Jonathan Powell supplied a career-best 17 points and made three 3-pointers off the bench. Pairing Powell’s outing with Caleb Wilson’s 20 points and 11 rebounds, the Tar Heels pulled away late and finished the game on a 12-2 run. 

UNC shot well from deep, going 10-for-23 (43.5%) and 28-for-55 (50.9%) from the floor. On the other end, however, the Tar Heels conceded 11 offensive rebounds for the second straight game, much to the displeasure of coach Hubert Davis, who was vocal about his desire for better effort from his roster. 

Looking at ETSU: The Buccaneers face North Carolina coming off a one-point loss to Austin Peay, 76-75, on Friday night. The recent result is ETSU’s third loss of the season, with two others at the hands of Dayton (88-71) and Presbyterian (68-64). However, the Bucs are 7-0 at home, and KenPom currently predicts ETSU to be favored in every SoCon game this season. It’s already notched wins over Morehead State (77-62), South Alabama (91-65) and Central Arkansas (80-57) — a team that UNC defeated 94-54 in its season opener. 

North Carolina is the Buccaneers’ first Power 4 opponent this season, aside from a preseason exhibition against Wake Forest, where they lost 89-70 at home.

Brooks Savage is in his third season as head coach of East Tennessee State and has recorded back-to-back 19-win seasons, including a third-place finish in the SoCon standings last year. East Tennessee State is Savage’s first head coaching gig, after spending the previous four years at Wake Forest under former Buccaneers coach Steve Forbes. 

Deep Bench and Balanced Scoring for Bucs: ETSU features a deep rotation of 11 players who play an average of nine minutes or more every night. Three of whom average double-figure scoring — Cam Morris (14.2), Brian Taylor (13.7) and Blake Burkley (12.2)  —  while two more players, Jaylen Smith (9.8) and Jordan McCullum (8.8), are just below the 10-points-per game threshold. 

The Buccaneers also share the ball well, averaging 16.4 assists per game, and have tallied 20-plus assists four times this season. Like much of how ETSU seems to play, the team splits the rebounding load evenly as well. No player averages over five rebounds, but seven different guys grab three-plus a game. 

The collective rebounding effort is likely due to a lack of a true center, with no Buccaneer player over 6-foot-8 or even listed at the center role. For this reason, ETSU concedes an average of 37 rebounds per game, leading to a negative margin on the boards. 

UNC’s frontcourt duo of Henri Veesaar and Caleb Wilson should have no issue thriving on the offensive glass or dominating points in the paint as a whole.

Last Meeting: North Carolina and ETSU will face off for the seventh time, with UNC undefeated in the previous six matchups. The last meeting between the two programs came in 2012, when the Tar Heels won 78-55 at the Smith Center. 

Projected UNC Starters: 
0 Kyan Evans (Jr., 6-2, 175) — 6.6 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 4.1 apg
8 Caleb Wilson (Fr., 6-10, 215) — 19.4 ppg, 10.6 rpg, 2.5 apg
13 Henri Veesaar (Jr., 7-0, 225) — 16 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 1.4 bpg
15 Jarin Stevenson (Jr., 6-10, 215) — 6.6 ppg, 4.3 rpg
44 Luka Bogavac (Jr., 6-6, 215) — 12.5 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 3.2 apg

Projected ETSU Starters:
5 Allen Strothers (Sr., 6-1, 172) — 3.1 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 4.1 apg
11 Bryan Taylor II (Sr., 6-4, 175) — 13.7 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 3.2 apg
13 Blake Barkley (So., 6-8, 220) — 12.2 ppg, 4.9 rpg
15 Cam Morris III (Sr., 6-8, 205) — 14.2 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.4 apg
35 Jordan McCullum (So., 6-8, 180) — 8.8 ppg, 4.4 rpg

Top ETSU Reserves:
2 Maki Johnson (Jr., 6-4, 186) — 6.1 ppg, 3.1 rbg, 1.3 apg
4 Jaylen Smith (Jr., 5-11, 175) — 9.8 ppg, 3.4 rbg, 3.1 apg
14 Brayden Crump (So., 6-8, 220) — 6.4 ppg, 3.0 rbg
55 Milton Matthews III (Sr., 6-3, 200) — 5.3 ppg, 1.6 rbg

UNC Info:
Schedule/Results
Roster & Bios
Stats

ETSU Info:
Schedule/Results
Roster & Bios
Stats