The NCAA Tournament is officially underway, and the North Carolina Tar Heels are getting ready to face off against VCU tomorrow night in Greenville, SC. The Heels are hoping to stop the two-game skid that they are currently on after losing to Duke and Clemson to finish out ACC play. Meanwhile, the Rams are on a six-game win streak going into this one, and would love to make it to seven while taking down a Blue Blood program.
While the Rams are on the hottest win streak of the two teams, Vegas still
favors UNC by 2.5 points per FanDuel Sportsbook. The line does reflect how much of a toss-up this game could be, which needless to say is problematic for Carolina fans. Still, it must be emphasized that the Heels do have more talent, it just depends on if that talent gets off the bus on Thursday. That said, let’s take a look at three things that need to go in the Heels’ favor in order to come away with a NCAA Tournament victory.
The Heels have to re-discover their defensive potency
Fans may recall that things weren’t always dark on the defensive side of the ball for the Tar Heels. UNC had a 14-game streak of keeping teams under 75 points to start off the season, and that included their loss to Michigan State. Once the SMU game happened, it felt like they were never able to return to glory. Wake Forest, Stanford, Cal, Virginia, and others proceeded to take advantage of their lackluster defense, though the funny thing is they held Duke to 68 points in their first meeting. Sure, Caleb Wilson’s absence is a huge loss on defense, but holding Clemson to 63 points at home only to give up 80 points to them in Charlotte highlights the inconsistencies defending the basket.
When it boils down to it, the three things that will determine how well the Heels play on defense are physicality, toughness, and “want to.” All three of these things were lacking in the second game against the Tigers — multiple members of the team mentioned afterwards that once Clemson got physical with them and punched them in the mouth, they failed to respond. Those three things mentioned as keys to defense have to be there against VCU, and they have to be there throughout the NCAA Tournament.
Henri Veesaar has to take ownership of this team
Arizona transfer Henri Veesaar has had an interesting Carolina career, though that is said in a complimentary manner mixed with a little confusion. Overall, Veesaar was the second-best player on the roster during the regular season, and he was a big reason why they were able to win some critical matchups. Under a microscope, though, there were plenty of moments where he didn’t take great care of the basketball, had some mental lapses, and just didn’t want to get physical in the paint despite the fact that he is bigger than most guys. It’s hard to be hard on him when looking at the big picture of what he’s done, but at the same time, the Tar Heels need him to be a better, more consistent version of himself in order to take down VCU.
Veesaar was a huge reason why the Heels were able to overcome such a huge deficit against Clemson and only lose the game by one point. His 28 points and 17 rebounds were career numbers, and if he didn’t have six turnovers there’s a chance that they would’ve been able to win the game (to be clear, though, there were a lot of reasons why they didn’t win the game, this was just one of them). With Wilson being out for the season, Hubert Davis has badly needed someone to step up and be the true leader of this team, and nobody has taken the assignment. Veesaar showed in the closing moments of the Clemson game that he can be that guy, and he should take the assignment and never look back. If he doesn’t, this team is going to be in trouble.
UNC needs more production from their bench
It may be asking for a lot at this point of the season, but the Tar Heels really need to get something from their bench players in order to take down VCU. Sure, the starters could probably get the job done if they are playing as well as they have the potential to, but we also know that the NCAA Tournament is a grind, and realistically the bench has to give the team something.
Part of the problem that the bench has been so poor is that Jarin Stevenson has had to re-enter the starting lineup. That means Zayden High, Jonathan Powell, Kyan Evans, and Jaydon Young are the ones that have been getting bench minutes, and all four guys only scored five points total in the loss against Clemson. Powell is the guy I am looking at the hardest to bring something to the VCU game. He has been hot and cold throughout the season, but he should at least be able to give the team close to double digits in points if he can get his shot going. Again, that may be asking for a lot, but the alternative here is the starters playing silly amounts of minutes to either lose the game, or win and have a quick turnaround to recover before facing off against the winner of the game between Illinois and Penn.
