Unfortunately for North Carolina, the story in Wednesday night’s game against Stanford was yet another defensive collapse in the second half. That was already the case in the SMU loss, but it also happened
in the Wake Forest game, even if that ended up with a victory. With the Cardinal hitting 10+ three-pointers in the second 20 minutes, it was the issue again, as UNC fell 95-90.
In choosing a player of the game, please understand that any option isn’t going to get any praise for what they did on the defensive end. We’re purely just choosing based on offense, and for that, let’s go with Henri Veesaar.
In the first half, it seemed like Veesaar might run away with the POTG honor. As a team, the first half was another fairly frustrating one for the Tar Heels, as they led by double digits at points, only to enter halftime up just two. Not much of that could be pinned on Veesaar, as a decent chunk of the headway Stanford made came when he was on the bench with two fouls. Veesaar provided a large portion of UNC’s offense in the opening 20 minutes, scoring 16 points despite being limited to 14 minutes in that time.
The Tar Heels did come out swinging to start the second half, and that was done with some good work from Caleb Wilson, who will give runner up. In the end, though, he just had a few more turnovers as Carolina lost their lead and eventually the game.
In the end, Veesaar tied with Wilson for the team lead in points, as each went for 26. Veesaar’s came a bit more efficiently, as he went 9-12 from the field and 2-2 from three. He struggled at the free throw line and missed some crucial ones down the stretch, but frankly, that’s a team-wide issue at this point. Filling out the stat sheet, Veesaar also had six rebounds, an assist, and a block.
Again, no part of this article is advocating for Veesaar or anyone at the defensive end. While the three-point numbers may indicate a bit of more of a perimeter defense problem than anything else, you don’t allow 90+ points while getting a dynamic defensive performance anywhere on the floor. That’s a team issue. There’s still plenty of season left for these thing to possibly get ironed out, but in the meantime, it’s certainly annoying.
