UNC Basketball: Analyzing Tar Heels' Ups and Downs at Battle 4 Atlantis

Let’s just assume the North Carolina basketball team enjoyed the tourist attractions at Atlantis a little too much before its loss to Butler Wednesday because the Tar Heels we all expected showed up Thursday against UCLA.

I say that tongue-in-cheek, of course, but it really looked like a completely different team taking the floor in Carolina Blue the second game out at the Battle 4 Atlantis. 

North Carolina was shocked by Butler 74-66 in its first game but bounced back and knocked off UCLA 78-56. Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports praised the Tar Heels’ bounce-back efforts against the Bruins, especially the pressure defense that forced a number of turnovers:

However, just because North Carolina picked up that important win doesn’t mean it is off the hook for some of the struggles we saw in the early going in Atlantis. The rebounding was a serious issue against Butler, and the Bulldogs outrebounded North Carolina 57-40. To make matters worse, Butler grabbed a ridiculous 29 offensive rebounds.

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A team with four players listed at 6’8” or taller in Isaiah Hicks, Justin Jackson, Kennedy Meeks and Brice Johnson and plenty of athleticism to spare should not get outrebounded by that much. Meeks gets a pass with 10 rebounds, but the rest of the team certainly deserves plenty of blame.

Kameron Woods destroyed the Tar Heels with 13 rebounds and flew around on the low block when the boards were up for grabs. North Carolina couldn’t block him out, which was devastating for momentum purposes. Woods having a good game as an individual is forgivable, but 29 offensive rebounds says a lot about the overall effort level from the Tar Heels.

That just can’t happen against any team, let alone one with a single player taller than 6’8” that doesn’t have the type of athleticism that your team does.

Even in the UCLA win, North Carolina was outrebounded 38-35.

Another concern was the three-point shooting, which was a major weakness a season ago. In fact, in 2013-14, Marcus Paige was the one player opponents would even respect as an outside threat.

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North Carolina finished 4-of-16 from deep against Butler, while Paige continued to chuck them up and finished 3-of-10.

The shooting was slightly better against UCLA at 8-of-23, but that is not exactly impressive at 34.8 percent. At some point, the Tar Heels may just need to accept the fact that they are not a three-point shooting team.

They have athleticism all over the floor and guys who can score on the block or by slashing to the rim and may just need to embrace that over outside shooting, especially before life gets more difficult in the ACC.

Elsewhere, the free-throw shooting technically told the story of the past two games because the Tar Heels were dreadful against Butler and passable against UCLA. North Carolina went 18-of-32 against the Bulldogs and 14-of-19 against the Bruins.

This is a major point of emphasis for the Tar Heels because they were an atrocious 344th in the country last season at 62.5 percent. That is a lot of free points they left on the board, which certainly would have come in handy in a number of close losses.

North Carolina also struggled against Butler in the turnover department and finished with 19. In fact, nine different players registered turnovers during the game, and it seemed like anytime the Tar Heels battled back in the second half, they would either cough it up or clank another three-pointer.

They cleaned it up against UCLA, which was a large reason they dominated that game.

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Let’s not just focus on the negative, though. North Carolina deserves plenty of credit for the resiliency it showed to bounce back against UCLA just one day after it lost to Butler. That type of resiliency will be critical in the daunting ACC because there will be losses on the schedule that they will need to quickly overcome.

Roy Williams changed the starting lineup from the Butler loss and inserted Nate Britt, Isaiah Hicks and Joel James in place of J.P. Tokoto, Kennedy Meeks and Brice Johnson, but it was Paige’s ability to bounce back that was key.

He forced the issue against Butler at times and finished 5-of-17 from the field and 3-of-10 from downtown. He never really got his teammates involved either with three assists. He played within the flow of the offense against the Bruins, though, and posted 21 points, five assists and three steals.

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The Tar Heels’ killer instinct also stood out in the UCLA game, which will be important in nail-biters in ACC play. North Carolina finished the first half on a 32-11 run and then added a 15-0 run in the second half for good measure. Paige was a big part of that second run with multiple three-pointers, but the pressure defense that ultimately forced 23 UCLA turnovers told the story.

Tar Heels fans know games against Iowa, Kentucky and Ohio State await before the daunting ACC schedule begins. There were certainly some encouraging signs in the past two games, but most of the issues that crippled North Carolina last year showed up against Butler. 

At least there’s plenty of time remaining in the season to turn things around.

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