NCAA Basketball: UNC, Villanova, Arkansas and Memphis takeaways from Battle 4 Atlantis

3rd place – UNC Tar Heels

Positive takeaway: Harrison Ingram thriving at his role 

Ingram is a former five-star prospect who was supposed to be the star at Stanford. It didn’t work out, largely because that’s not what he’s best at. He can be a scorer but his ability to affect the game in many different ways made him better as an elite “role player”. And that he was in the Battle 4 Atlantis, scoring a team-high 16 pts and 10 rebs in the comeback win over Northern Iowa, followed by a 20-point effort in the OT loss to Villanova.

And with Cormac Ryan unavailable against Arkansas, Ingram played all 40 minutes and produced 13 pts, 10 rebs, and 6 asts. RJ Davis did have 30 pts in the win, but I’d argue Ingram was the most important player in that 3rd-place game. He’s been everything the Tar Heels could ask for and it’s making them a winner so far.

Negative takeaway: Defense hasn’t improved much from last year

The results and overall numbers don’t scream bad defense but without a big second-half output, UNC could’ve easily lost to Northern Iowa. And even in the buy games, the Heels weren’t able to put them away until late because they weren’t able consistently get stops.

Giving up career highs to two different players in this event (Tramon Mark and Eric Dixon) is also a slight concern that they don’t have that lockdown defender on the roster. So it could limit their ceiling as they go up against star players but as long as they themselves can score, UNC should be fine as an NCAA Tournament team.