UNC VS ALABAMA: THREE THINGS LEARNED

Typically you think that when a team wants to play with tempo, it will work right in Carolina’s wheelhouse. That’s surely what fans were thinking going into Thursday night as Alabama really didn’t care that much about defense and just wanted to get the ball up the floor. Unfortunately, Carolina didn’t show up on offense in full force, and made some really bad plays that left the door open for Alabama to take advantage and win the Sweet 16 game.

For one last time in the 2023-24 season, let’s look at three things learned from the game.

RJ Didn’t Have It

It’s almost like fate decided that everyone trying to speak a UNC-Arizona Elite Eight matchup into existence cast a spell that hit both RJ Davis and Caleb Love. In Arizona’s loss to Clemson before the UNC game, Love went 5-18 overall, 0-9 from three and only scored 13 points as the Wildcats saw their season end to the Tigers.

RJ went 4-20, 0-9 from three, and scored only 16 points.

It was pretty clear early that RJ just couldn’t get his shot to fall from outside, and the problem with confidence is that a shooter needs to shoot in order to try and get it back. A lot of the same shots that we had seen Davis hit over the course of the season just couldn’t go in, and unfortunately when you lose by two it’s hard not to say that was the biggest difference in the game. We’ll get to other plays in a second, but the fact remains that even if RJ goes 2-9 instead of 0-9, he still gets 22 points and Carolina likely wins comfortably.

This is always the risk when you have someone like RJ that teams will key in on. Maybe he should have adjusted and started driving to the basket earlier, as he did late when he would either score or get a foul call. It’s hard, though, to blame the kid for doing what he had done so well all year. It’s going to eat at him that nothing from outside fell on Thursday, whether that means he comes back for one more year who knows.

UNC Gave the Game Away

One of the great things about Carolina this season is that they would get over themselves when they had bad moments. It wouldn’t define the game, and usually they could go on a run that would grab control of everything.

It looked like they were going to do that at the end of the first half, as Carolina finished on a strong run and weathered the tempo by Alabama to lead by eight. This was with Armando Bacot and RJ Davis clearly not putting up their best effort, so it only seemed like a repeat of what happened against Michigan State was in order.

The problem is that the Tar Heels never put the Tide away, and as our Michael McKay warned earlier in the week, when you let a team hang around it’s going to get you burned. Sure enough a tough shooting half for Carolina and some makes for Alabama turned the second half into a tight contest, and then in the last minute the Tar Heels just—melted. There’s no other way to put it. Somehow, someway, Jae’Lyn Withers thought it would be a good idea for him to try a three-pointer early in the shot clock up one. It caught everyone off guard, Alabama rebounded, ran it, and it left Withers guarding a guy several inches taller than him under the basket. He fouled for an and-one, the one point lead was now a two point deficit, and Carolina just couldn’t mount any sort of offense.

Credit to Alabama for not going away, but the game was there for the taking and problems that had been lurking there for Carolina all season came up to bit them in the end.

A Freshman Point Guard Is Tough to Rely On

I noted on Wednesday that Elliot Cadeau was one of the things to watch on Thursday night, as the play from the freshman had hit a while in recent games until the Michigan State contest. Unfortunately for the Tar Heels on Thursday, more of the same appeared.

Cadeau started off well, as he seemed determined to hit some shots in rhythm to show the Alabama defense he could do it. The problem is that his defense was just not strong, at all, and it was to the point where he just didn’t see the floor at all in the second half. Hubert Davis had a bit of a choice to make when it came to his lineup, and he opted for the likes of Withers and Paxton Wojcik to play instead of Cadeau and Seth Tremble. Why Hubert didn’t trust Tremble either is up for debate, but arguably he wanted a little more size and offense on the floor.

The problem is that the move forced RJ to be the primary ball handler and actually run the offense, something he hadn’t done a huge amount of this season, and it arguably is a big reason the offense just struggled in the second half. In light of the huge mistakes that Withers made at the end, it’s also worth questioning why Hubert Davis wouldn’t have at least put in Cadeau to run a pretty important offensive set, even Cadeau’s defense would have resulted in UNC having another good shot at an answer.

Ultimately, though, it goes to trying to rely on a first year point guard in March. Cadeau’s shot selection toward the end of the first half and his defense overall likely caused the decision to rely on players who had more experience — and hopefully it’ll be huge thing for him to work on as the Tar Heels are about to go through another massive roster turnover.

That’s it for this game. We aren’t done breaking down the season, but this one is going to sting for a little while.

2024-03-29T13:04:53Z dg43tfdfdgfd