CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The defensive breakdowns began early for North Carolina in its ACC-opening defeat at N.C. State one month ago. Devon Daniels scored the Wolfpack’s first basket and did not need any unique play design to get to the basket. Instead, he took what the Tar Heels gave him, dribbling left from 35 feet out to counter Leaky Black’s shade and strolling to the rim, where help defense was insufficient.
N.C. State utilized a variety of sets throughout the game, particularly in the first half, all ending with similar results. The Wolfpack shot 42.8 percent and averaged 1.09 points per possession in the opening half – the second-highest by an opponent this season - and 46.9 percent and 0.91 points per possession for the game, despite operating at a size disadvantage with senior forward D.J. Funderburk sidelined. If Kevin Keatts’s squad wasn’t abusing a ball screen with a kick out for an open 3-pointer, it was attacking the basket with hard drives to counter slow help rotations.
The abysmal performance prompted Roy Williams to sit his team down for a rare film review that included a rewatching of the game in its entirety instead of standard cutups. It also led to the Hall of Fame head coach shaking up his starting lineup, notably benching ACC Preseason Player of the Year Garrison Brooks and veteran wing Leaky Black, for the team’s next game at Georgia Tech. He explained the moves in Atlanta by saying that the N.C. State defensive grades weren’t just bad, but that they were “terrible.”
“They beat us in every way you can be beat,” Williams said on Friday. “They beat us with the ball screen. They beat us with inside play. They beat us with shooting threes and making them. In my mind, that was the worst defensive game I've ever had a team play. But they were the aggressor in everything. They made shots. They got the ball where they wanted, they drove it to the basket. They turned us over, took it down the court. They manhandled us, is the way I look at it.
“We were fortunate and got some breaks in the second half and made a couple of shots and got it close. But it wasn't just the screen on a ball. I mean, Devon Daniels drives the ball in the basket the first two or three times. [Jericole] Hellems, all year long had been slipping the screen. In this game, he set every screen and held it a long time and didn't slip the screen. They were a step ahead of us in everything that happened during the game.”
Defense has been an issue for this UNC team all season long, but that loss in Raleigh was the pinnacle of the frustration, seemingly born out of indifference, not scheme.
“Just a lack of attention to detail; just didn't have it,” Brooks said. “It’s just something we didn't have. I didn’t think we were all there at that game. I think that was one of the games we just did come prepared to play. Obviously, they played better than we did.”
Wins over the Wolfpack have become a birthright for the Tar Heels in the Williams era, although that’s because the UNC head coach wants this victory a little more than all of the others, and his players feed off that simmering emotion. Tyler Hansbrough and Co. thought they understood the importance of the rivalry until suffering an 83-79 loss in Raleigh in February 2007, in which Williams’s fury became evident. That recruiting class would win its final six games against N.C. State by an average of 16.5 points.
There are six true freshmen and one redshirt freshman in UNC’s current rotation, and while that provides a convenient excuse for a myriad of issues plaguing the Tar Heels as they tight walk along the NCAA Tournament’s bubble line, they are far enough along with a harsh dose of experience to understand the value of Saturday’s rematch.
N.C. State has not won a season series against the Tar Heels in the Williams era for a reason.
UNC currently ranks fifth in the ACC in defensive efficiency (101.3) and 2-point field goal percentage defense (49.2), eighth in effective field goal percentage defense (52.6) and 11th in 3-point field goal percentage defense (38.4), according to kenpom.com.
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