It feels good to see actual improvement from the basketball squad. The difference from how Carolina played against Radford on Tuesday to NCCU on Friday was basically night and day. It’s clear that a message got through to the team that efforts similar to Tuesday would lead to losses down the line. Instead, they put up an effort closer to the one they had against Kansas, and just ran away with it.
It was especially impressive when you consider the team is still trying to figure itself out in a lot
of ways, and right when they seemed poised to settle in, they were confronted with the injury to Seth Trimble. Maybe that played a role in how rough the Radford game was, but the team definitely seemed more comfortable on Friday. So, the question now: can Carolina take that improvement and carry it on to one more opponent before being off for a week?
The opponent in question are the Midshipmen from Navy, and on the surface it should be a game similar to Friday. Navy is just 2-2 on the season, with one of the losses being a 29-point loss to Yale — at home. They recovered to have a more respectable nine-point loss to Penn State on the road, but their two wins have been over Presbyterian and Washington — the one located in Maryland, not near Seattle.
Navy doesn’t have anyone averaging over 20 points a game — their leading scorer is 6’3” guard Jinwoo Kim at 15.5 a game, but that was on the back of a 25 point effort versus Penn State. He was the focal point of their upset attempt, going 5-10 from behind the arc and 8-16 overall. There’s a pretty decent chance that Navy will try this again considering their near success on the road, so Carolina will need to make sure he doesn’t get going. He’s basically their only consistent three point shooter as the next one up is Cam Cole, who had his success in mop-up time against Washington.
Carolina should also have a rebounding advantage on Navy. As can be expected for a school expected to produce people set to serve on sailing vessels, they don’t have a ton of height. The 6’6” Donovan Draper is the leading rebounder for the Midshipmen with 8.3 per game, so between Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar, Carolina will have a significant advantage in the front court.
In short, the opponent on the other side will be well-disciplined and won’t get flustered easy, but it’s another game in which the Tar Heels have a significant talent and height advantage and should pick up another win. Ultimately, this game is likely going to be about the UNC players continuing to get comfortable with each other, refine their communication, and clean up their game as the schedule ramps up starting next week. It’s nice to have the Kansas win in their back pocket, but having more quality wins would be nice as well. The only way to do that is use these opportunities to improve.
