The North Carolina Tar Heels were in action Monday night, and what started great ended in disbelief as Miami walked out of Dean Dome with a big win.
UNC played an excellent first half, despite being down by one point. The Tar Heels looked like they brought the same fight they had in their win against Clemson.
However, once the second half started, Miami went on a 19-6 run to extend the lead and North Carolina had no answer as once again a cold shooting night from the three-point line doomed the Tar Heels.
The biggest issue from the Miami loss is not the outcome but where most of the scoring came from. Leakey Black, RJ Davis, Armando Bacot, and Caleb Love combined for 68 of the 72 points scored. After the defeat, Love talked about what needs to change moving forward.
“When your number is called you gotta be ready that’s that’s what it is,” Love said. “We in February now, so we know we got to do. The bench players know what they got to do. People know we got to step up including me, and it’s just all down the line. We just just man up. As we go into quarters, you got to be locked in and have the confidence to knock down shots.”
The Tar Heels are struggling to find others to step up and score in this stretch of losing four of their last five games. And graduate transfer Pete Nance has seen his fair share of struggles. In Nance’s last five games, he has point totals of 13, 2, 11, 0, and 2.
Getting production from the 4 spot in the lineup is crucial for the Tar Heels in order to find success. With Nance’s struggles, they could turn to Puff Johnson. However, Johnson hasn’t lit it up either scoring 3, 3, 6, 8, and 2 in that same stretch.
To find success, the Tar Heels are going to need all five in the lineup to step it up. That’s especially the case when they aren’t getting much off the bench in terms of scoring either.
North Carolina is on the brink of no NCAA tournament unless they can win out to end the regular season or win the Atlantic Coast Conference. And if they want to achieve their goal, they are going to need a quick turnaround from everyone on the roster.
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