UNC Basketball: Keys to victory for Tar Heels on the road at UNCW
By Trevor Marks
3. Feed the Hot Hand
Against Notre Dame on Wednesday, freshman point guard Cole Anthony went off for 34 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, and six made three-pointers. Twenty-three of those points came in a second-half explosion to transform a Carolina deficit into a Carolina lead, as he scored half — half — of UNC’s points in the closing frame.
But let’s dig deeper into those numbers.
His 34 points shattered Rashad McCants’ previous record for most points scored in a UNC freshman debut with 28 points against Penn State in 2002. Better yet, his 34 points narrowly surpassed RJ Barrett’s 33-point debut last year, giving him the record for most points in a freshman debut by an ACC player.
Let’s dig even deeper.
Anthony became the first Tar Heel freshman with 30-plus points and 10-plus rebounds since Tyler Hansbrough dropped 40 and 10 against Georgia Tech in 2006. He also became the first Heel with a 30-10-5 stat line since Joseph Forte had 38-10-6 against Tulsa in 2000.
If it’s not abundantly clear already: Cole Anthony is pretty good at this basketball thing.
Next. Biggest ACC takeaways from opening games. dark
And against UNCW on Friday, he’ll need to keep up the momentum and continue to carry a heavy scoring load with the Tar Heels playing a short 7-man rotation for the foreseeable future. Anthony’s shot-making was crucial to UNC winning — and even hanging on — against Notre Dame on Wednesday, with the non-Anthony minutes containing a post-heavy offense that just couldn’t score effectively. In the two minutes and 58 seconds that Anthony sat in the first half, UNC was outscored 12-2. When he came back in, he was the only legitimate scoring option while the rest of the team was relatively cold from the field.
Against UNCW, UNC shouldn’t turn away from their star player. Just let the man cook.