The North Carolina Tar Heels reached the ACC Tournament title after winning three straight games, but fall short against the nation’s best defense and team in a 71-63 loss to Virginia.
North Carolina reached the ACC Championship by playing some really good basketball. They have truly been clicking on all cylinders. The Tar Heels haven’t allowed over 70 points in all three Conference Tournament games. That’s an impressive feat considering they allow 73.2 per game on average and did so in each of their last five games.
The Tar Heels held Syracuse under 60. The Orange have some pretty decent scorers. They held Miami and Duke to under 70 which is shocking in itself. Then they go ahead and allow 71 to Virginia. Go figure.
This Virginia team has controlled the opposing team in every single game this season. Their only losses have come to in-state rivals: West Virginia and Virginia Tech. There’s something to be said about that.
The Cavaliers erased any doubt in the quarterfinals that Louisville could knock them off. They struggled for a bit to Clemson on Friday but held the Tigers to some pretty wicked scoring droughts. This finally set up a meeting of two teams haven’t faced each other since the beginning of January.
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North Carolina scored their second-lowest point total for the season that night at 49 with their lowest actually coming to Michigan State with 45 points. You had a feeling that Saturday night was going to be a little different. It was on a neutral court, the Tar Heels offense has improved and they were on a roll.
Theo Pinson has been the talk all conference long. He’s been stepping up and doing it all. Pinson had been averaging over 16 points per game, 8.0 rebounds per game and 7.0 assists. The senior forward did not have the game he was expecting to. He shot 1 for 10 for four points but did grab eight boards and dish seven assists.
Tony Bennett has this Virginia Cavalier team so well on both ends of the court. Bennett coached teams are always known for their defenses. Virginia last season seemed to be on a steady decline in offensive production. It’s strange to see that their points per game totals have only gone up by less than a point from last season to this. Virginia just seems to be more comfortable scoring.
A lot of the Cavs success has come from controlling the temp. That’s another thing that Bennett’s do so well of. These two teams have completely opposite ways of running their teams. North Carolina wants to push the ball on every touch. Virginia slows it way down. Roy Williams tried to make the Tar Heels dictate the way the game was going to be played, but Virginia continued to play smart basketball and it went in Virginia’s favor again.
Virginia would slow the game down every time North Carolina got within two or three. The Cavaliers are so disciplined. They move the ball so well to find the open shot. The Cavaliers know when to take the jumper or attack the hoop.
North Carolina is going to go on a lot of scoring drought. That’s playing right into Virginia’s hand. The Cavaliers aren’t the greatest scoring team so they thrive on teams failing to get the ball in the bucket.
The Tar Heels, on the other hand, are at their best when they get offensive rebounds. UNC recorded double-digit offensive boards in the three ACC Tournament games leading up to Saturday night. Luke Maye is great at tipping the ball out to a teammate or popping the ball back into the basket. Cam Johnson seems to get a lot of three-pointers off of that.
Virginia limited North Carolina to just eight offensive rebounds all game. That’s only two more than what the Cavalier had and Virginia isn’t known for getting boards on the offensive end. UVA only has about two guys who go for them, Jack Salt and Isaiah Wilkins. The rest of the players get back into transition.
There’s one more strength of the Tar Heels gone. Transition points. Kenny Williams has been on a tear lately, knocking down points off of pushing up the court. Williams still was able to get two three-pointers, but he was being guarded heavily by the Virginia guards all game.
Maye and Joel Berry had pretty good games. Berry and Maye each made four three-pointers while the guard scored 17 points and the forward contributed 20. Both of the Player of the Year Candidates were able to get quick shots all night which is something you have to go in your favor if you want to beat Virginia.
The problem though is that they were the only two who consistently saw production against this suffocating defense. North Carolina got back to their old ways of not finding more guys other than Maye and Berry to contribute. The result was Virginia going on to be undisputed ACC Champions. They took care of the regular season by four games and swept the Tournament in three days.
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North Carolina had a chance at a No. 1 seed. As crazy as that sounds having a team with nine losses be in a position to land a spot on a top line. There could probably still be cases for that to be made, but the thoughts of a team with 10 losses being a No. 1 seed is nonsense. It’ll more than likely be Xavier with North Carolina joining Duke, Cincinnati, and Purdue as No. 2 seeds.
The play for No. 1 seeds were coming down to a few teams on Saturday. Virginia was more than likely a lock to be the number one overall seed. Villanova was the second team with a trip to the Big East Championship. Kansas was on the fringe, but with a win over West Virginia in the Big 12 title game that sealed it for the Jayhawks.