UNC Basketball: Takeaways from Tar Heels blowout loss to Miami

1. Pick-and-roll defense

Roy Williams is a Hall of Fame coach who did a lot of things correctly—most, to be accurate. His mindset towards pick-and-roll defense never seemed to be one of those things. The Heels’ traditional two-big system under Williams saw them hedge pick-and-rolls which never really took the ball-handler or screener out of the play. As a result, UNC consistently struggled (again, by their standards) against teams with excellent guard play who ran a heavy dose of high pick-and-roll.

Hubert Davis has modernized Carolina’s offensive system by bringing in forwards who can stretch the floor in Brady Manek and Dawson Garcia. This has worked on one end of the floor as they rank second in the ACC in 3-point percentage. That said, their defensive mobility hardly matches that of an effective modern system. Manek and Garcia are hardly more mobile defensively than Garrison Brooks or Luke Maye have been at the four-spot the last few years.

While Davis has shown slightly different looks in their pick-and-roll defense, none are ideal. On Tuesday night, they attempted to trap several of Miami’s pick-and-rolls but failed almost every time as the traps often developed slowly and were difficult to maintain.

Ideally, UNC would want to switch the pick-and-roll, but this becomes difficult with Armando Bacot and either Manek or Garcia on the court. A guard-heavy team like Miami would have too many mismatches.