Tag: north carolina tar heels

The Tar Heels’ defense works to get Geoff Collins ‘swole’

How ‘swole’ will Geoff Collins be by the end of the season?

Mack Brown brought in former Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins to be his defensive coordinator this season in hopes of getting the defense to a place where it wasn’t a liability.

Over the last three games, Collins has proved just that.

Many had question marks about his capabilities after the team’s four-game losing streak, but Collins implemented an incentive-based system full of cookie cake and push-ups that have motivated his defense.

Power Echols gave us insight into how Collins is doing just that, via Inside Carolina.

He has to do 10 push-ups every time we get a turnover, so we try to get him as swole as possible by the end of practice and get him a good workout in, but he just preaches that each and every day in practice.

Mack Brown had nothing but praise for Collins defense over the last three games.

They’ve stopped the run, they’ve disrupted the quarterback. We forced two turnovers last week, we had three tonight. So now, they’re starting to force more turnovers.

Even Jacobly Criswell acknowledged the strength of the defense on Saturday.

We had a couple of drives to where I fumbled, and just unacceptable by me, and a couple of other things happened to where we just weren’t on rhythm, and the defense did a good job giving us the ball back,

Collins’s incentive-based system for his defense has cultivated a relationship between the DC and players that every team hopes to have.

The fact that players are enjoying what they are receiving and willing to go out and leave it all on the field for Collins proves what we all wondered about his leadership capabilities.

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Duke football stays within top 10 ACC teams in ESPN FPI rankings after Week 12 bye

The Duke Blue Devils held within the top 60 of the ESPN Football Power Index after their Week 12 bye.

The Duke Blue Devils didn’t play football on Saturday, but they still slipped down two spots to 58th in the ESPN Football Power Index rankings after Week 12.

Despite their 7-3 record, the Blue Devils are still considered just the 10th-best team in the conference by the popular analytical formula. In fact, the North Carolina Tar Heels remain eight spots above them despite having a 6-4 record that includes a loss in Durham back in Week 5.

FPI gives Duke a 27.6% chance to win its remaining two games against Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. The Hokies, just 5-5 despite building second-half leads over the Miami Hurricanes and Clemson Tigers, have remained all the way up at 33rd.

The Demon Deacons lost to UNC on Saturday, falling to 4-6 for the season and staying 88th on the rankings.

With Stanford’s upset of Louisville, the ACC has become a three-team race. The Hurricanes (10th) and SMU Mustangs (15th) control their own destiny, but Clemson (12th) has already secured its 7-1 record in case either team slips up the rest of the way.

PHOTOS: Tar Heels roll past Wake Forest, even up conference record

Check out how the game looked from the sidelines as UNC took down Wake Forest.

North Carolina came out of its second bye week to take on its first ACC team at home since its winning streak started. Wake Forest came into Kenan Stadium and served up the Tar Heel’s third straight win against an ACC team.

The star of the show, Omarion Hampton, once again had a stellar performance. He finished with 244 yards and a touchdown on the ground with five receptions for 16 yards through the air as well.

The defense wasn’t going to shy away from the spotlight either as Power Echols intercepted Michael Kern, after Hank Bachmeier left the game injured, for a 42-yard touchdown. They managed two sacks and five tackles for a loss as well.

Check out the photos from the sideline in Carolina’s “Blue Out.”

UNC basketball guards figure out new roles, might have a new top option

Can the two guards perfect the 1A and 1B roles alongside each other?

Through three games this season, it is clear North Carolina has one of, if not the best backcourt in the country. Fifth-year senior and reigning ACC Player of the Year, RJ Davis, and improved sophomore Elliot Cadeau are making waves in college basketball.

However, this season has proven very different than last. Rob Harrington of Inside Carolina finds the same intriguing theme as I do: Can Cadeau and Davis perfect the dynamics and role shifts this season.

We talk about (role assimilation) every season. Last year, we didn’t have to spend a lot of time on it because the roles filled in so immediately. Number one, it’s Elliot Cadeau’s team. Now, I was a resistor after the preseason. We talked a little bit about it in the preseason roundtable, but it would take a lot to knock me off that line at this point. And it’s not about how RJ Davis isn’t shooting well, it’s about the fact that the entire team seems to respond to Cadeau.

None of that was a knock on RJ Davis, Harrington has very positive thoughts on the star-shooting guard as well.

He’s a scorer, and last year they did tons and tons of stuff for him, high screen after high screen. He does one, he does another one, and he starts looking for a shot. And this year it doesn’t look like he’s going to be able to play that way. I don’t think it’s a matter of being selfish or unwilling to do it, but it’s going to be a big adjustment for an All-American player to now have to be 1B, maybe even number two, and I think that’s going to take some time. I don’t think I see him getting frustrated. I don’t think he’s going to have a bad year because he has too much heart for that.

It will undoubtedly take time for Davis and Cadeau to perfect this new pairing. However, by midseason we could see as good of a backcourt as UNC basketball has ever seen.

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RJ Davis’ poor shooting continues, struggles from three

The reigning ACC Player of the Year is off to a rough start to this season.

For the third straight game, this was a tale of two halves for UNC basketball. After leading by just nine points at the halftime break against American, it took just 15 minutes in the second half for North Carolina to take that lead and make it a 43-point lead.

They eventually won by 57.

Regardless of the success of the team, the reigning ACC Player of the Year, RJ Davis, continued to struggle shooting the ball despite finishing with 13 points, three rebounds, and three assists in that win.

Davis was 3-15 against Kansas including 1-for-7 from three. On Friday against American, he was 5-for-13 from the floor including another 1-for-7 from three.

Head coach Hubert Davis believes his star guard is just in a slump right now.

“No, one of the things I tell the guys all the time is there’s going to be times where your shot goes in, and there’s times that they don’t,” Davis said after the game. “Percentages even out. RJ is a great basketball player, but he can also really shoot, and those percentages are going to even out. There’s going to be times where he’s going to close his eyes, just throw the ball up, and it’s going to be able to go in.”

Just one time in all of last season did Davis have a game where he shot under 20% from the field. He went 1-for-14 on the road against Virginia, finishing the game with 12 points. Also just one time last season, did Davis ever have a three-game stretch of at least two games under 40% and one game under 25%. That’s just from the field as well. The electric scorer is known for his three-point shooting.

While Davis didn’t light it up from the floor, Hubert Davis believes he still impacted the game in a positive way.

“I thought he was the key to game in the second half,” Davis said. “I thought his leadership in the locker room, just his energy, his enthusiasm, the way that he was leading in the locker room at halftime, I thought was the number one key in getting everybody really excited to play a better second half.”

After shooting almost 40% from three last season, he is currently averaging 22.2% from the same range. A player with the caliber of skill that Davis possesses will undoubtedly find his way out of this slump, but how long will it continue into the season?

The Tar Heels are hoping it ends soon.

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UNC football goes Carolina Blue Out against Wake Forest

The Tar Heels will host a “Carolina Blue-Out” on Saturday against Wake Forest.

North Carolina will head back home after two road games between their two bye weeks. The last four weeks have been fun for Tar Heels fans, getting back into the winning grove with dominant performances against Virginia and Florida State.

They scored 41 points and held Virginia to just one touchdown in their first road win while scoring 35 points against Florida State and also allowing just one touchdown as a defense.

Last week, they enjoyed another bye week with the opportunity to enhance their skills and chemistry together as they take the field tomorrow at Kenan Stadium in North Carolina.

As they take the field, they will wear a uniform combination that the team hasn’t dawned yet this season. They are promoting a “Carolina Blue-Out” to fans attending the game and as a result, the team will be in Carolina blue helmets, jerseys, and pants.

In the Tar Heels’ announcement post on X (formerly Twitter), Antavious Lane is seen repping the Carolina blue everything.

Lane leads the Tar Heels in tackles this season with 57 total tackles, including 40 solo tackles, which is nine more than any other player on the team. Lane also has one sack for two yards, two pass deflections, and two forced fumbles.

North Carolina will kick off at 8:00 pm ET in Chapel Hill, NC, airing on ACC Network.

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Tar Heels explode for second half surge in win vs American

In what looked like a good game at the half, North Carolina blew past American in the second 20 minutes.

North Carolina broke loose in the second half to beat American 107-55, proving just how dominant of a college basketball team the Tar Heels have the possibility of being. Here is how the game shaped up.

The first half was back and forth with UNC keeping the lead for the majority of the half. The biggest lead they got out to was 12 points when they were up  41-29 with two and a half minutes left in the half.

American never led in the entire first half.

They went into the halftime break with a nine-point lead, 43-34. Elliot Cadeau finished the first 20 minutes with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting, just four points shy of the sophomore guard’s career high.

RJ Davis’ struggles shooting the ball continued as he had just four points on 2-of-6 shooting in the half including 0-for-3 from beyond the arc.

For the third straight game, this was a tale of two halves for Tar Heels basketball. In just 15 minutes in the second half, North Carolina had taken their nine-point halftime lead and made it a 43-point lead.

On top of that, Jalen Washington hit a career-high in scoring while Elliot Cadeau finished one point shy of his. Washington was a large part of that second-half surge, scoring 10 of his 18 points in the second half.

John Holbrook and Dante Mayo Jr. both scored their first points of the season in this win with Russell Hawkins also getting playing time.

RJ Davis finished the game with 13 points. Seth Trimble scored 13 points and pulled down six rebounds. Cadeau and Washington finished with 18 points with Cadeau also dishing out eight assists.

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North Carolina edged out by No. 2-ranked UConn in team’s first loss

Paige Beuckers and No. 2 UConn outlast Lexi Donarski and No. 14 North Carolina in women’s basketball.

The No. 2 ranked team in the nation, UConn, and the No. 14 ranked Tar Heels both met on a neutral court in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the Greensboro Complex. With North Carolina projected to lose by 22 points, the Tar Heels came out, fought, and despite the loss 69-58, they proved they belonged.

The first half ended with just a 12-point differential between the two teams. It started out with UConn leading the charge. It took an 11-point lead at the end of the first quarter. The Huskies didn’t take long to jump out to a big lead in the second quarter either, scoring nine points before UNC made two buckets.

However, North Carolina jumped back and lost the quarter by just one point, 13-12. Indya Nivar led the team at the halftime break with 11 points. Alyssa Ustby was just 1-for-5 from the field with two points and four rebounds.

The Tar Heels had a hard time stopping Paige Bueckers, as she had half the team’s points with 18 points and two rebounds heading into the third quarter.

UConn edged a bigger lead in the third quarter with another four-point advantage. The quarter ended with Bueckers and Lexi Donarski swapping three-point makes.

After cutting the game to nine points in the fourth quarter, North Carolina would score just two points in five of the last eight minutes of the game as UConn broke the lead back out, eventually winning 69-58.

Nivar finished the game with 15 points and nine rebounds to lead North Carolina. Ustby and Donarski finished just 2-for-12 from the field and a combined eight points.

Bueckers dropped 29 points and four rebounds with four assists.

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UNC women’s basketball loses ranked battle with Paige Bueckers and the Connecticut Huskies

UNC women’s basketball lost for the first time this season on Friday night, dropping a ranked battle against Paige Bueckers and UConn.

After three straight wins to open the 2024-25 women’s basketball season, the North Carolina Tar Heels ended up on the wrong side of a Friday night battle against No. 2 Connecticut.

The Huskies pulled away for a convincing 69-58 victory thanks to 29 points from star senior Paige Bueckers.

The Tar Heels beat Charleston Southern, UNC Wilmington, and North Carolina A&T all by at least 19 points to jump over the Blue Devils in the latest USA TODAY Sports Women’s Basketball Coaches Poll, but they never stood a chance on Friday.

Bueckers scored five points in the first 90 seconds, and the Huskies led 25-14 after the opening 10 minutes. She finished the game with four rebounds and assists apiece, and freshman Sarah Strong (a North Carolina native) tacked on 14 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists in the dominant display.

UNC and Duke face off for the first time in Chapel Hill on January 9th before a battle in Durham on February 27.

UNC basketball highest-ranked Class of 2025 prospect to commit months early

Hubert Davis’ top prospect is set to make his decision way before he was projected.

North Carolina and Hubert Davis have two commitments in the Class of 2025. The top overall recruit for UNC basketball is the No. 47 ranked player, Isaiah Denis, and the No. 51 ranked player, Derek Dixon.

Davis does not want to stop with those two as the team is actively involved in the recruitment of Caleb Wilson, the No. 8 overall player, and AJ Dybantsa, the No. 1 overall ranked player.

After he finished his visits with BYU on October 11th, Dybantsa was originally scheduled to make his decision in February, approximately three months away. However, now, that has changed.

Dybantsa first told his new decision timeline to ESPN’s Jeff Borzello and Paul Biancardi.

The original plan was to commit in February. The visits stopped in October. We wanted to make sure we had enough time to see all the schools play. We are ahead of where we thought we would be. If I know where I want to go, why wait? It’s probably going to be in December. I feel I will be ready by then.

All Tar Heel fans anxiously await a decision that could change the course of UNC basketball for the next couple of years. Currently, 247sports has its crystal ball set on Bringham Young University, but anything can happen until that decision comes down from Dybantsa.

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