Heel Tough Blog: Western Carolina Recap

Zachary Taft- Imagn Images

The Michael Malone era tipped off officially in the Smith Center on Monday night, as the team hosted Western Carolina hoping to put an ugly final two games of the preseason behind them. While it didn’t take overtime, it was another uncomfortable neck-and-neck game with a middle of the road mid-major team.

Unlike in the preseason, the Tar Heels got off to a fast start, racing out to a 10-0 lead thanks in large part because of a hot start for Matt Able. The team held that lead for the first ten minutes of the game before the offense went cold and let the Catamounts roar their way back into the game. Western Carolina would get as close as three before Maximo Adams took over and helped the Tar Heels close the half strong to take a 39-30 lead into the break.

Just like the first half, the Tar Heels would come out of the locker room and score the first four points of the half, highlighted by a thunderous dunk from Matt Able that felt like it was going to be the start of the team pulling away for a comfortable win. Instead, Western Carolina would counter with an 8-0 run that made it a five point game and put them back in the game for the majority of the second half. Every time it felt like the Catamounts needed a shot to go down it did and they cut it to as close as one.

The game changing moment, though, came on a missed Western Carolina shot with the Tar Heels up 65-62. While Able was going for a rebound off the miss, Tar Heel big man Sayon Keita got tied up with Western Carolina big man Tayeshaun Smith, leading to a foul being called on Smith. As the two were walking back down the floor, they exchanged words before Smith would shove Keita in the back. As a result, he was given a technical foul, giving the Tar Heels two additional free throws to go along with the initial two shots. The Tar Heels would hit all four of those free throws to extend the lead back to five. The bigger break may have came just moment later when Western Carolina’s leading scorer to that point in the game, Jaeden Roberts, fouled out. From that point forward, the Tar Heels took control of the game and, despite missing five free throws in the final minute, were able to hold on for an 80-72 victory and hand Michael Malone his first win as a Tar Heel head coach.

While it was far from the most efficient night for the Tar Heels, the team still put four players in double figures on the way to the victory. Able paced the way with 18 points, while fellow guard Terrence Brown poured in 14. Neo Avdalas scored 13 to go along with his team-leading seven rebounds and four assists, while Maximo Adams finished with 10 off the bench.

1. Too Close For Comfort: After Tuesday night’s preseason scare against Charlotte, the hope was that this game would be a little more comfortable, but that certainly wasn’t the case. There were a lot of different reasons that this game played out the way it did and it continues to hammer home the point that this team is going to need to grow as the season moves along and that things could be ugly at times early in the season.

2. Rebounding Struggles Continue: One of Michael Malone biggest points of frustration in his press conference after the Charlotte exhibition was the lack of rebounding and that continued in this game. The Tar Heels were outrebounded by the Catamounts 41-32, including 13-7 on the offensive glass. Being outrebounded by a mid-major is concerning enough, but when you factor in that this is one of the smaller teams they’ll play this season with no one over 6’9, it should have you terrified. Just like last Tuesday, the Tar Heels two frontcourt starters, Jarin Stevenson and Keita combined for just four rebounds. If this team is going to flip the script in this area, it starts with those guys. Malone said after Charlotte that rebounding is all about effort. He better hope that is the case because right now things are not where they need to be in this area and it’s starting to feel like it may be an uncorrectable issue for this group unless Cameron Fens becomes eligible.

3. Shooting Efficiency Just Wasn’t There: While the Tar Heels started out shooting the ball well, especially from the outside, Monday night was not a good shooting night for the team. Despite starting the night 5-9 from the field, the team finished the game just 23-55 (41.8%) from the field and 9-30 (30.0%) from the perimeter. Only three players finished the night shooting above 50%, one of whom was Angelo Brizzi, who attempted and hit his only shot of the night. On the other hand, Terrence Brown went just 3-11 from the field and Stevenson was just 3-8, numbers that have to improve moving forward. If this team is going to continue to struggle rebounding the basketball, they are going to have to shoot efficiently and the question right now is whether or not this team is built to do that. The team should be able to be more efficient at the rim, but this group is going to have to find a way to knock down more shots from the outside with what Malone is wanting this offense to be.

4. Trouble Containing Guards Continues: One of the more under discussed elements of this team in the preseason was the lack of success that they had containing guards. In all three of the exhibitions, at least one guard scored 20+ points. While that did not happen tonight, the Tar Heels still had their issues containing Jaeden Roberts and Jaxon Prunty throughout most of the night. Combined, the duo shot 10-24 from the field, but they knocked down seven of the team’s ten three pointers. It’s up to the Tar Heel guards to put more pressures on opposing guards moving forward and limit the effect that they can have from the perimeter.

5. Free Throw Shooting Still Not Great: Free throw shooting was an achilles heel for the team a year ago and while it was better on Monday, there were still some important misses from the team. As we talk about above, the team missed five free throws in the final minute that could have been much more impactful in an even tighter game. While the free throw shooting has been better, the team needs to be better late in games in pressure situations at getting to the line and knocking those shots down.

6. Turnovers Were Cleaned Up: One of the other main issues that Malone pointed to in the game against Charlotte was the turnovers and that was an area that the team actually cleaned up on Monday. Despite a few frustrating ones from Avdalas, the Tar Heels committed just nine turnovers and allowed just five points off of them. It feels like there will be moments where this team turns the ball over, but more often than not, this team will need to limit them to single digits because of the fact that they are already giving the opposing team plenty of extra possessions because they can’t rebound.

7. Able Steps Up: After a pretty quiet preseason, there was a wonder about what exactly Able was going to do on Monday night in the season opener and while he was perfect, he looked more like the player the team thought they were getting out of the portal. He led the team with 18, including some big ones early in the game to help the team get off to a fast start. Late in the game, he hit some important free throws, including the technical free throws that helped give the Tar Heels control of the game late. He may have only been 2-6 from three and the staff will want that to improve, but he did a good job of attacking the basket and finishing when he got there. That looked like the guy that many thought was heading to the NBA Draft after the first day of the Combine and the Tar Heels will need him to look that way most of the season if they want to win at a high rate.

8. Maxi Provides a Spark: The Tar Heels got some solid production from the bench on Monday, but it was Maximo Adams who provided the biggest spark. In 19 minutes, Adams scored 10 points, pulled down four rebounds and registered one block while bringing some much needed energy on both ends of the court. He was raved about back in the offseason by Malone and it’s performances like this as to why.

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