Heel Tough Blog: Georgia Preview
After three games against mid-major competition, the Tar Heels take a step up in competition tonight, as Carolina hosts the Georgia Bulldogs out of the SEC, a year after UGA made the NCAA Tournament. Carolina enters tonight’s game with an undefeated record of 3-0, but the wins have come against Western Carolina (80-72), Wofford (109-70), and most recently Wyoming (76-63), and you can tell by the final scores of the wins over WCU and Wyoming that the performances were less than inspiring. This goes without saying, but if Carolina plays the way they played in those games tonight, they run the risk of earning their first loss of the season and seeing their 21-game winning streak at the Smith Center come to an end. On the other hand, if Carolina were to win, this game will more than likely register as a Quad 2 win later on down the road.
Georgia enters tonight’s game a perfect 3-0, with wins over North Carolina Central (78-62), Presbyterian (91-77), and Florida Gulf Coast (80-72). The Bulldogs average over 80 points per game, boosted by four double-digit scorers, led by Blue Cain and his 16.0 points per game. The other double-digit scorers include Kanon Catchings (13.7), Marcus Millender (12.3), and Kareem Stagg (11.5). A year after the Bulldogs made the NCAA Tournament, Georgia was picked to finish 11th in the SEC this season, but in an expanded NCAA Tournament field, which will feature 76 teams, Georgia may be primed to return to the Big Dance, thus making this the first real test for the Tar Heels under Michael Malone.
Coming out of the Wyoming game, one thing is abundantly clear for this Carolina team. The level of rebounding, or the inability to rebound the basketball, isn’t sustainable starting against the caliber of teams they will play, beginning tonight. Michael Malone continues to try to motivate Jarin Stevenson to be more impactful as a rebounder, along with reserve Alexandros Samodurov, who has had an up-and-down start to his UNC career. We saw in the last game Malone utilize a shorter bench, cutting minutes for the aforementioned Samodurov, along with veteran guard Angelo Brizzi. Malone has been hesitant to make any changes, but if the result isn’t the desired outcome tonight, changes may follow with a week off before Carolina’s next game. Here’s what to watch for tonight, in the first meaningful home of the Michael Malone Era:
Rebound. Rebound. Rebound: On paper, Carolina is a better rebounding team than Georgia, but that doesn’t mean much after the way that Western Carolina and Wyoming have bodied UNC on the glass. During halftime against Wyoming, UNC’s manhood was challenged, and Carolina responded in the second half, limiting their second-chance scoring opportunities. With Georgia’s spread-out scoring and their ability to make perimeter shots, if UNC gives up the volume of offensive rebounds that they did the other night, Georgia is more than capable of shooting their way past UNC in the Dean Dome. Sayon Keita had his best game with 8 rebounds the other night, along with Maximo Adams’s 9 rebounds. That production needs to be there tonight, along with contributions from Stevenson, Samodurov, and the guards.
Win the Race to 80: Both teams average over 80 points per game, with Georgia averaging 83 points per contest, and UNC averaging over 88 points per game. Carolina’s offense has been efficient the last two times out, shooting over 50% from the field and 40% from behind the arc, and they’ll need that to show up tonight, against a Georgia team that won’t be afraid to run with UNC and has multiple different scoring options in their starting 5. Carolina doesn’t have as many double-digit scorers as Georgia does, but they do have 8 different players averaging over 7 points per game; they need all 7 of those players to impact the game in that way tonight.
Limit Turnovers & Make Free Throws: Carolina is top-20 in the country in fewest turnovers per game, and that’s even with the backcourt still finding its footing. The limited turnovers have helped them negate all the extra shot opportunities for the opponent, given the struggles to keep them off the offensive glass. On the flip side, Carolina needs to shoot their free throws much more efficiently. Against Western Carolina, they went 25-for-35 (71%), and against Wyoming they shot just 50% from the foul line. Like the rebounding isn’t sustainable, neither is that lack of efficiency at the foul line.
Series History:
UNC is 13-5 all-time against the Bulldogs, with a perfect 8-0 record in Chapel Hill, including being 3-0 in the Dean Dome. The last matchup at home came back in 1998, a 65-58 win for the Tar Heels.
KenPom:
North Carolina - 45th overall. Adjusted Offensive Efficiency: 115.9 (45th); Adjusted Defensive Efficiency: 97.7 (41st)
Georgia - 66th overall. Adjusted Offensive Efficiency: 116.5 (40th); Adjusted Defensive Efficiency: 102.6 (97th)
TV Info:
Tonight’s game will tip off at 7 PM on ESPN2.
The Four Corners Podcast:
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