After a really frustrating loss to SMU this past weekend, Carolina is preparing for a bounce back game against Wake Forest this Saturday. The Mustangs were unstoppable shooting the ball against the Heels, which ultimately made any positives on the offense not matter. Surprising to absolutely nobody, while this article is being written the Mustangs are shooting 33% from the field and 17% from three at halftime. But we’re not here to talk about them — even though it will be necessary to talk about them when
looking ahead to this weekend — we need to talk about how UNC can recover by beating down the Demon Deacons.
Let’s dive into a few things to watch in this weekend’s OG ACC matchup.
How will Wake Forest guard Caleb Wilson?
One pain point during the SMU game was that Caleb Wilson had a pretty hard time attacking the basket the way that he normally does. This is because the Mustangs threw a little bit of everything at Wilson — throughout the game they threw a lot of different looks at Wilson, and he became visibly frustrated by it. SMU is good at doing things like this, but the question is whether or not a team like Wake Forest can replicate that kind of success?
One would have to imagine that every team in the ACC saw what SMU did and will try to guard Wilson in a similar manner. The problem, though, is that not every team is built to actually do it. The Mustangs are fast and physical, but can the Demon Deacons match that? We’ll see this weekend, but it’s possible that we see Wilson recover by recording another 20-point double-double. Carolina fans can only hope, anyways.
Who will help Seth Trimble in the back court?
Here’s a dark thought: had Seth Trimble still been out with an injury, SMU likely would’ve smoked the Tar Heels by 30. The senior guard was a huge reason why UNC was able to stay in the game for as long as they did thanks to his team-high 22 points, three rebounds, five assists, and zero turnovers. Meanwhile, Kyan Evans and Luka Bogavac combined for 11 points off three made baskets, seven assists, and three turnovers. The assists are obviously welcome, but the obvious question here is: where is the help scoring?
Hubert Davis wasn’t able to talk himself into playing Evans more than 14 minutes against the Mustangs, which is pretty bad to say the least. The Colorado State transfer’s inconsistencies on the court have been troubling, and Davis has had to turn to Derek Dixon to help out Trimble — though it is worth noting that Dixon also didn’t play particularly well against SMU himself. Ultimately, Seth Trimble needs help, and fast. It’s hard to survive ACC play with one reliable guard, but things get even worse in NCAA Tournament play. Hopefully someone will step up soon, because Trimble can’t do it all himself.
Will any tweaks be made on defense?
The sky isn’t falling after allowing SMU to score 97 points, but Hubert Davis likely took a long, hard look at how things played out on the defensive side of the ball this week. One noticeable issue was that Boopie Miller & Co. feasted off the fact that the Heels switched on defense all game, and while they are normally able to do that effectively, Miller is way too quick/slippery of a guard to have anybody on him that isn’t Seth Trimble. Even with that said, Trimble said after the game that he had a really hard time staying in front of Miller because of how fast he was. It was a really bad matchup for the Tar Heels.
So, what is the fix for that? That depends on if you look at what happened as an anomaly, or if you see it as a genuine concern. The thing is that Wake Forest isn’t nearly as good of an offensive team as SMU — they currently rank 101st in adjusted offense per KenPom. But that isn’t to say that the Demon Deacons are a bad offensive team, though, as they’ve taken Michigan to overtime and only lost to Texas Tech by one. That said, UNC will have to play much better defensively if they do not want to get upset at home, and hopefully Davis has added a few wrinkles to prevent another Boopie Miller situation from happening moving forward.
