Sports and politics sure have a funny way of complimenting each other.
As the students and alumni of the longtime liberal local university celebrated the Democratic sweep of the midterms, there remained concern about the future of UNC’s football program and, more recently, men’s basketball. As Bill Belichick battles for a bowl bid in his second season, Michael Malone’s first try as a college head coach — with the 11 new players on the roster — is off to a rocky start just one regular season game in.
Malone is likely trying to determine how to get the most out of what is far from the best roster Carolina has had in recent years. The Heels have rebounding problems against smaller teams and shooting woes from the outside, and their rotation is definitely in flux. Looking like long-time mentor Dean Smith, who occasionally pulled his starters off the court in anger before reinserting them, Malone did that early Monday night vs. Western Carolina and again in the second-half. UNC led wire-to-wire and earned its 22nd consecutive season-opening win, but the Catamounts closed the gap and made fans sweat less than a week after barely escaping an exhibition loss to Charlotte.
It’s not that the Tar Heels lack talented players as the starters including a couple slated as potential NBA draft choices. Matt Able led the team with 18 points, one less than he scored for N.C. State against Carolina. Utah transfer Terrence Brown had 14, Virginia Tech transfer Neo Avdalas had 13 points and led the team with seven rebounds, and freshman Maximo Adams came off the bench to score 10.
So, why did Malone characterize the game as taking “two steps forward and three steps back”? Western Carolina out-rebounded the Heels 41-32 and stayed in the game until two technical fouls helped decide the outcome. It is a matter of the pieces being good individually, but maybe not fitting together very well?
No question that rebounding will be a problem, especially if 7-footer Cameron Fens does not regain his eligibility. Since out-rebounding Southern Cal in the first exhibition game, Indiana, Charlotte and Western Carolina have all beaten the Tar Heels’ frontcourt on the boards. And they need to shoot better than 30% from the perimeter, which is causing some of those rebounds.
Ball movement seems to be the key with Brown relying on taking and making difficult shots in the paint, where traditional Carolina point guards set up higher-percentage looks for skilled big guys. At his previous stops in college, Brown was allowed to have the ball in his hands and rely on his athleticism to drive the ball. That led to some good scoring, but not lots of winning basketball. That shows up in stats that don’t lie.
With the first Power-4 opponent Georgia coming to the Smith Center on Friday the 13th, sandwiched between games where UNC should be heavily favored, the Heels will get a better indication of how they’ll fare in the month of December. The schedule switches to major opponents like Arkansas, Butler, Georgetown and Kentucky — and they get an early taste of ACC play vs. N.C. State in Greensboro. They’ll then host Cal on December 30 before ringing in the new year with a trip to Boston College, two opponents picked lower than UNC in the preseason predictions.
Many in the country are celebrating a season of change for U.S. Congress, state governments and the Democratic Party. Carolina fans certainly want to celebrate Malone’s first season too. But he and the coaching staff will need to fix the holes in these Tar Heels’ game for supporters to feel that same kind of excitement…or relief.
Featured image by Todd Melet/Chapel Hill Media Group.
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 on 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro during football and basketball seasons.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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