UNC Basketball vs. Cal: Live Discussion

Let’s be honest: it’s really hard to get up for today’s game between UNC and Cal. One thing about extended road trips is that it’s a little harder for teams to address bigger problems while away from their home court. Do they practice while away? Sure. Are you combatting a weird environment, not having your normal resources, and dealing with being three hours behind your normal time zone? Also yes. Perhaps UNC was able to overcome all of those things after the Stanford game, had a good practice before today, and we will see improved defense against Cal. We’ll see in a bit here.

The defensive situation will honestly be the biggest thing to watch in this game. Things have been going pretty well on offense, and in fact, I’d say that part went really well against the Cardinal. The Heels were able to score 90 points, went 58% from the field, and shot 38% from three. Not too shabby for conference game stats, but of course, that doesn’t do any good if you let the other team score 95 points. The Heels have been getting torn apart in ball-screen situations, and Hubert Davis has had a hard time adjusting during the game. This is the biggest red flag with fans when evaluating how well he’s coaching this team, and I’ll be honest: it probably isn’t going to get better by March. We’ll have to hope that he comes into the game this afternoon with a decent plan and that it works, but again, it’d be a lovely surprise if we actually do see some good adjustments being made while the clock is running.

Aside from that, there’s not much else to say. If the Heels can score at a similar clip against the Golden Bears as they did against Stanford, they stand a chance if they can stop letting teams score season/career highs against them. It really isn’t asking much. With that said, let’s hang out during today’s game and scream at our TVs together. We’ll be back after the game with some post-game analysis and takes. Until then, Go Heels!