The bloom appears to be off the rose when it comes to UNC's resurgence. Sure the Tar Heels keep winning, but ever since the second half of the Duke game, the offense has seemed a bit lackluster. They slipped back to less than a point per possession on the road against Clemson, and only managed 78 points against Wake Forest. Three-point shooting is in the toilet, and Carolina is in danger of becoming a one-dimensional team when they have the ball.
Well, if there's a solution to that, it's Boston College. UNC beat them by 32 points in Chestnut Hill, behind 11-21 three-point shooting. And a lot of this is because BC is pretty bad on defense. And they're also pretty bad on the road, having lost five of their last six games outside of the Conte Forum. All of this points to an easy win for the Heels.
I'm not sure if I'd expect a big emphasis on perimeter shooting, however. Carolina went to that well a lot against Wake, and out of 27 threes, they hit five. Roy Williams was, well, not pleased:
And then in the second half, we're all right out there and then they made some shots and we're not getting it inside -- not finishing. And then, my gosh, we had some open looks and didn't make them. So I told them what great shooters we were at half time and then I yelled and screamed at them during a timeout because telling them what great shooters we were didn't work, so I was willing to try something else and that didn't work either.
Needless to say, it'll be interesting who has the green light to shoot this afternoon.
On the defensive end, in their last meeting the Heels did an excellent job of shutting down Reggie Jackson and Josh Southern inside, leaving BC to be carried by Corey Raji and Joe Trapani on the perimeter. Obviously, this worked well for the Heels, but I'm curious as to whether the perimeter defense will improve, especially since you can't count on Jackson to be limited to six points a second time.
It should be an easy game, the last before a tough four-game final stretch. But Wake wasn't the romp we expected it to be, so the game becomes a critical spot for UNC to regain some confidence going in to the close of the season. Here's hoping for a second romp.