For anybody that needed UNC to cover the 12.5 to 13.5-point spread against Wyoming, you will be thrilled to know that they succeeded in the former. The problem, though, is that they barely covered, and much like the game against Western Carolina, it’s likely that there are fans that are mad that the Heels didn’t blow the Cowboys out of the water. Here’s the thing, though: that wasn’t likely to happen. Yes, UNC has more talent on paper, and yes, these games are meant to be more of tune-up games than
actual challenges. But the Heels indeed got a challenge because the Cowboys went into this one averaging 95 points per game and were ranked top 50 in rebounds per game. That said, while the Cowboys do deserve some credit, the Heels inflicted a good amount of pain on themselves.
Let’s dive into three takeaways from the Heels’ not-so-dominant win over Wyoming.
Michael Malone questioned their manhood, and the Heels responded
The biggest axe to grind whenever people talked about Hubert Davis was that he didn’t know how to push the right buttons with his team. Davis was always a very “coach them with love” type guy, and it isn’t wrong to say that not everybody is responsive to nice. Roy Williams knew that, and that is why he won three national titles, and made it to the Final Four nine times. Sometimes you have to be mean with a purpose, and that’s what Michael Malone achieved last night.
Here’s a quote from last night’s post-game presser regarding what exactly happened during halftime:
“I challenged our manhood at halftime. We had guys that had just played a whole half of basketball with zero rebounds or one defensive rebound.”
UNC was poor in the first half on the boards, and the fans in the Dean Dome were not happy to say the least. After the fans let them hear it, Malone made sure they heard it one more time, and then sent his team to warm up with six minutes left before the second half began. The results? UNC won the rebounding battle in the second half 22-18 after the Cowboys out-rebounded them by 10 in the first.
It’s fair for some fans to wish that teams didn’t have to get chewed out by their head coach to respond, but the reality is that sometimes it just has to be done. Hubert Davis never understood that, or at best he tried to push buttons and it rarely worked. At least in the case of last night’s game, Michael Malone succeeded in getting his message across.
Sayon Keita flexed his muscle against the Cowboys
One player that can’t take too much heat for his rebounding is Sayon Keita, whose complete stat line from last night was 13 points, eight rebounds, six blocks, and three steals. Keita utilized the size advantage he had over Wyoming perfectly, swatting a number of shots at the rim, picking players’ pockets, and yes, throwing down lobs from Neo Avdalas.
Keita is a fascinating player this season because he has both looked exceptionally good at times while also not staying on the court long enough at times to do enough damage. Tonight was the former, thankfully, and the payoff was putting on a show for all the Carolina fans in attendance. He won’t have the same size advantage against Georgia on Friday, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can repeat at least 80% of what he did against Wyoming.
Neo Avdalas had his worst game as a Tar Heel
While Virginia Tech transfer Neo Avdalas had some fun assists against Wyoming, everything else he did on the court was hard to watch. He finished the night with one point, one rebound, four assists and two turnovers. The kicker is that while he was able to get to the free throw line a few times, he only made one of his five attempts.
To be fair, it’s possible that things would’ve looked better if Avdalas shot more from the field — he only took two shots, and didn’t make either of them. But the bigger issues are that that the 6’9 guard wasn’t interested in rebounding, thought that boxing out wasn’t possible without the correct gloves, and he wasn’t anything special as a facilitator outside of the alley-oops he tossed to Keita. Concern is growing that having him as the starting point guard may not be the best idea, but there’s no choice that doesn’t have some type of downside to it. Terrence Brown plays more like a shooting guard than point guard, and we seem to get a different version of Isaiah Denis each game. The bottom line is that Malone has to find a way to make the Avdalas experiment work, but it really seems like so far Hokies fans weren’t wrong in their assessment of the Greek sophomore.
