The energy in the Dean Smith Center was as bizarre as I remember it ever being yesterday afternoon. Veesaar being declared out for the game had fans uneasy about what could happen against Pitt, and with good reason — we’ve seen Jeff Capel teams come into the Dean Dome and play spoiler before, though those teams were a lot better than this year’s. Thankfully everyone that was able to play stepped up big time, the energy shifted in the arena, and UNC ultimately ended up winning the game 79-65.
Let’s
waste no time and discuss three takeaways from a game that allowed us all to take a sigh of relief.
The back court stepped up
One of the luxuries of having two excellent post players missing action is the fact that things open up a bit in the paint. Because of this, Seth Trimble was able to do what he does best and lived at the rim against the Panthers. He finished his afternoon with 19 points off 5-13 shooting, and knocked down nine of his 11 free throw attempts.
His partner in crime in the back court was Luka Bogavac, who finished with 15 points and three made three-pointers. Bogavac was a much more aggressive version of himself than what we saw against Miami. It actually was the most aggressive he’s been since November 1st against Radford. Hubert Davis desperately needs his guards to show up for games, and on a day where two of his best players were unavailable, Trimble and Bogavac did just that.
Zayden High had a career day in his first start of the season
It has been really hard to get behind Zayden High having significant minutes this season. At one point of the season High was -30 in plus/minus, and so when it was clear that he would be starting in place of Henri Veesaar, it was understandable that fans would be petrified. However, High managed to silence all of his critics for one afternoon by finishing with a career-high 15 points off 7-11 shooting, seven rebounds, two assists, and zero turnovers.
Adam Lucas and Jones Angell stated during their Rapid Reactions podcast that what we saw from High was what Hubert Davis has been seeing during practice all season long. What we got to see was a guy who was patient, made mostly correct reads on offense, and while he still struggled a bit on defense, he wasn’t absolutely abhorrent. High deserves a lot of credit for stepping up when his team needed him the most. It is too soon to say whether or not his performance is repeatable, but what can be said is that he did his job in helping the Heels avoid what would’ve been their worst loss of the season.
Taking care of the ball was a deciding factor
One thing that was going to be really tough to be effective in without Wilson and Veesaar is rebounding. Granted, everyone else on the team should be able to rebound effectively as well, but not having the two best players in that department was doing to cause an issue, and it did — Pitt out-rebounded the Heels 32 to 27. However, what the Heels were able to do is both take care of the ball and force turnovers, and it made a huge difference in how this game played out.
UNC finished with four turnovers to Pitt’s 12. Funny enough, UNC had 12 points off Pitt’s miscues, while Pitt only had four. Being able to grab boards can make a huge difference in games, but being able to force turnovers and capitalize off those opportunities can be just as good (emphasis on “can”). Make no mistake about it: Pitt is really bad this season, and that had a decent hand in why they coughed the ball up so much. But UNC played their part as well, and ultimately it is why they earned a convincing win in a game where the universe was against them.
