UNC's Big Men Clearing the Way for Backcourt to Solve Consistency Issues

Even without three-point shooting, the University of North Carolina remains one of the better basketball teams in the country.

No. 24 North Carolina absolutely dominated No. 12 Ohio State in the paint, winning by a score of 82-74 and temporarily silencing many of the people who have harping on the Tar Heels' poor perimeter play.

Since the home loss to Iowa in the ACC/B1G Challenge, much has been written about North Carolina's (lack of) three-point shooting and the struggles of Marcus Paige.

Sam Vecenie of CBSSports.com dug deep into the issue, noting that being the only reliable three-point shooter is hurting Paige's ability to do all of the other things he did so well last season.

With big men like these, though, who needs threes?

As Scott Phillips noted in his game recap for NBCSports.com, "Despite only shooting 3-of-13 from the three-point line, North Carolina was able to crack Ohio State’s 2-3 zone and extended second-half pressure because they have so many talented passers who can get easy looks for teammates."

The Tar Heels didn't lose to Butler because they couldn't hit three-pointers. They lost because they were outrebounded by 17 while only getting seven points from Kennedy Meeks.

They didn't lose to Iowa because of awful perimeter shooting. They lost that one because Brice Johnson played 12 minutes, scored two points and committed four fouls.

Three-point shooting will never be a primary part of the game plan for the Tar Heels. It's a secondary issue that rears its ugly head when their bread and butter go up in smoke.

David Banks/Getty Images

There's no denying that North Carolina's guards have struggled.

Paige—considered a primary candidate for the Wooden Award before the season began—is shooting below 35 percent from the field. Justin Jackson was supposed to be one of the most outstanding freshmen in the country, but he is shooting 34.1 percent from the field over the last five games and is 0-of-11 from three-point range in December.

Against Ohio State, though, North Carolina simply did whatever it wanted to do in the paint.

Multiple times in the game, there was a sequence in which UNC Player A missed a shot before UNC Player B grabbed the offensive rebound, missed the putback, got his own rebound and then scored while getting fouled.

Ohio State made a valiant comeback attempt—and North Carolina helped the Buckeyes out by missing eight free throws in the final two minutes—but it never really felt like Ohio State had a chance in this one. North Carolina jumped out to an early 17-8 lead, shooting 8-of-9 from two-point range with assists on each and every bucket.

The Tar Heels cruised from there, improving to 8-3 and inevitably remaining in the AP Top 25 for at least another week.

Excelling in the paint has been their M.O. over the past couple weeks. Here's a quick look at how dominant North Carolina has been in the paint over its last four games:

Opponent	2-Point FG	Offensive Rebounds	Rebound Margin
East Carolina	44-68 (64.7%)	15	plus-22
Kentucky	21-47 (44.7%)	18	plus-7
UNC-Greensboro	27-47 (57.4%)	20	plus-25
Ohio State	26-52 (50.0%)	19	plus-14
Total	118-214 (55.1%)	72	plus-68

Excluding Saturday afternoon's destruction of UCLA, Kentucky has been plus-117 on the glass in its other 10 games this season. So, it's pretty noteworthy that North Carolina was able to beat the Wildcats on the boards, even if the Tar Heels lost on the scoreboard.

And, truth be told, the plus-14 margin against Ohio State feels like a misprint. North Carolina seemed to come up with every single rebound.

D'Angelo Russell led the Buckeyes with eight rebounds, and Shannon Scott had six. But that's Ohio State's starting backcourt. If we focus solely on the starting frontcourt, J.P. Tokoto, Johnson and Meeks had 30 rebounds compared to just 11 for Amir Williams, Sam Thompson and Marc Loving.

"

No. 24 UNC tops No. 12 Ohio State, 82-74, for its third Top 25 victory of the season. pic.twitter.com/tR0VXv4xbs

— ESPN College BBall (@ESPNCBB) December 20, 2014"

Johnson put up the biggest numbers (18 points and nine rebounds), but Tokoto was everywhere on Saturday.

One of the more underrated small forwards in the country, Tokoto finished the day with eight points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals. Moreover, he seemed to jump 6 feet into the air on each of those rebounds. Verne Lundquist even commented on his "springs for legs" during the CBS broadcast of the game.

Meeks didn't have a great scoring game (eight points), but he did match a season high with 13 rebounds. More than anyone else on the team, it's the guy who wasn't in good enough shape to get consistent minutes last season that has been the model of consistency for this year's team. Meeks has at least 10 points or 10 rebounds in 10 of 11 games, including five double-doubles.

Most noteworthy of all, though, might be the play of Joel James. A big man who barely even saw the court other than to commit fouls for the first 2.2 seasons of his career, James is suddenly averaging seven points per game over the past four while making jump shots.

Chuck Burton/Associated Press

James didn't even touch a basketball until his sophomore year of high school. And if things are finally starting to click for him, it gives North Carolina arguably the deepest and most talented frontcourt in the nation.

The big question, of course, is can North Carolina keep this going?

Ohio State's frontcourt is suspect at best, and let's not even talk about how many stars worth of recruiting talent East Carolina and UNC-Greensboro have in the paint. It's been impressive to see the Tar Heels go to work against these teams, but it certainly hasn't been surprising.

But how will they deal with Louisville's massive frontcourt?

What's their strategy against Virginia—one of the best rebounding teams in the country?

Will depth be enough to beat Duke's Jahlil Okafor and Amile Jefferson?

What about that 2-3 Syracuse zone built to frustrate the heck out of teams with no perimeter game?

The Tar Heels are looking pretty great right now, but there are some serious tests waiting for them in ACC play. However, if they're able to do their thing and simply outwork the opposition in the paint, it might not matter what comes their way.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.