After getting to enjoy the win over Georgia Tech for about 10 seconds, UNC has to turn around and prepare to take on Syracuse at the Dean Dome. The Orange are coming off an 86-72 victory over Notre Dame,
which was needed after they got smoked by NC State. The Heels seemingly have an easy matchup here, but it’s worth noting that Syracuse beat a ranked Tennessee team earlier in the year. The counterpoint? They lost to Boston College in overtime.
Really what this game is about for UNC is two things: not suffering a bad loss, and tuning things up for Saturday’s big game against Duke. That said, let’s take a look at three things to watch in tomorrow night’s game.
Will Caleb Wilson try to stretch the floor again?
One of the surprises from the Georgia Tech game was seeing Caleb Wilson try a handful of three-pointers. He did knock down one of them, and while he missed the other attempts, they honestly didn’t look bad. One has to wonder if Hubert Davis is encouraging him to shoot from deep or if it is a personal decision, but I do know this: if he starts making them more often, it may change how teams defend UNC moving forward, especially considering the fact that he is primarily considered a two-level scorer right now.
Aside from helping the team, the other benefit to exploring his perimeter shot is impressing NBA scouts. The thing that Cameron Boozer has been able to show that Wilson hasn’t is his ability to score on all three levels, so if his aspirations involve getting drafted ahead of his peer at Duke, showing he can make shots from deep would go a long way. Just don’t forget to punish the rim while doing it.
Can Luka Bogavac score in double figures for the third game in a row?
Former international pro Luka Bogavac has had a bit of an uneven season, but that doesn’t mean that it has been bad. For the most part, he’s been a productive member of the roster, but a lot of his production was in non-conference play. Things were mostly different in ACC play up until last weekend’s game against Virginia, but he has scored 30 points against the Cavaliers and Georgia Tech combined.
To be blunt, UNC needs Bogavac to be productive if they want to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. While Caleb Wilson, Henri Veesaar, and Seth Trimble have been consistently good pieces, Bogavac had the expectation of being the fourth reliable player placed upon him from Day 1. His ability to knock down shots from deep is what this team needs when opponents clog the paint to keep the three guys I just mentioned from getting to the rim. It’s too soon to say that he has arrived as a reliable piece, but scoring in double figures against Syracuse would help build a case for himself.
Navigating shot selection
If there was one negative in the win over Georgia Tech it was that UNC shot a lot of three-pointers that they ended up missing. They finished the game 8-31 from deep, and while it sounds like they just took bad shots, that wasn’t necessarily the case. There were a number of times in the first half that UNC took those shots because they were open, but not because they were necessary. Guys that normally make them like Derek Dixon and Henri Veesaar had an off day, and Kyan Evans piled on by going 1-6 by himself.
There’s not going to be a lot of time to watch film before the Syracuse game, but the Heels will have to meditate on which of those shots were just good shots that they missed, and how many could’ve been passed up for better shots. There’s not a lot of concern here, though — the Heels actually been shooting pretty well from deep in the month of January. The Yellow Jackets game is likely an outlier at this point as long as they can catch fire again against the Orange.
