We thought the Tar Heels could be 18-1 by now.
It certainly didn’t work out that way. On paper, after a 12-1 start, Carolina was favored to handle its first six ACC foes. The Heels beat Florida State in the opener, but lost on the road at SMU, Stanford and Cal, edged Wake Forest and routed Notre Dame at home.
Saturday’s noon headliner at Virginia was supposed to tip off the hardest part of the schedule that includes home and home with Duke and Syracuse, on the road at Georgia Tech, Miami, N.C. State and home dates with Pitt, Louisville, Virginia Tech and Clemson.
UNC is still struggling with outside shooting and the second worst free throw percentage in the ACC. Despite the blowout of Notre Dame Wednesday night, the Irish are way below par and gave Hubert Davis a chance to keep tweaking his lineup and rotation.
At 15-4 and 3-3 in the conference, Davis has tinkered with his perimeter starters and three deep. Jaydon Young, who has been the ninth man for most of the season, got his first start against the Irish.
Kyan Evans started the first 17 games at point guard, but Davis has turned to freshman Derek Dixon, who is shooting better than 41 percent from the arc and leads the team with 80 percent at the foul line; more minutes will surely raise his scoring above 5.5 points.
Besides Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar starting every game so far, and Seth Trimble all 10 he dressed out for, small forward is being shared by Luka Bogavac and Jarin Stevenson, some for matchups and sometimes to see who can score early and stay in.
The starters hopefully have settled in with Dixon at the point, while Hubert decides how much time to give Evans, Jonathan Power and Young, which if everyone buys in could be a formidable rotation.
Virginia’s new coach is Ryan Odom, whose claim to fame so far was his UMBC team being the first NCAA 16 seed to knock off a No. 1 seed in 2018 against the program he now leads.
Before the game at John Paul Jones arena, Virginia’s 2019 NCAA championship coach Tony Bennett will watch his name be unveiled on the playing court. Bennett, now 56, has apparently retired for good.
Odom’s Cavaliers have a more mysterious roster than Bennett put together with starters and subs most casual fans don’t know and haven’t seen play. But, similar to UVa teams of yore, the ’Hoos are near the top in almost every ACC offensive and defensive category.
And you can bet that Odom will have his 16-2 (5-1) team juiced to go against the far more publicized Wilson and Veesaar in their Carolina blue road uniforms that most ACC rivals love to hate. The Tar Heels have bigger names than Virginia’s array of transfers and foreign stars who are playing as well together as any Bennett squad.
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Featured image via Associated Press/LM Otero
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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