Weekly Basketball Report Card: Week 3

Carolina rebounded nicely from their first loss of the season against Northern Iowa. The Heels were most impressive when coming back against Kansas State. The Heels were led by Justin Jackson who has now scored more than 20 points in each of the past three games.

Grades:

Point Guards Produce: D

Joel Berry and Nate Britt were really disappointing last week. Justin Jackson and Theo Pinson were the primary hubs of the Carolina offense in these past two weeks as Jackson created for himself and Pinson led the Heels in assists. Berry and Britt failed to produce much for themselves or the team. Berry went 7-19 from the field in the two games with 19 points. Berry really shot the ball poorly from three, going 3-12 from beyond the line. Britt was even more disappointing, scoring only 10 points on 3-14 shooting from the field and 1-8 from three. The pair also only produced only 8 assists all week to cap a disappointing pair of games.

Kennedy Meeks Stands Out: C+

Meeks scored in double digits in both games this past week, hitting 12 points against Northwestern and 15 points against Kansas State. Meeks was also a perfect 7-7 from the free throw line all week. However what was most disappointing about Meeks was his grand total of 5 rebounds last week. Carolina needs to get more than 2.5 rebounds per game out of its starting center and until Meeks cleans the glass consistently, Carolina will not live up to its potential.

Justin Jackson Establishes Consistency: A

Jackson was consistently great last week and carried the Heels as the unquestioned star and leader with Marcus Paige out. Jackson scored 21 points against Northwestern and 22 against Kansas State shooting 8-15 and 8-13 respectively. Jackson became Carolina's best player with Paige out and without his performances Carolina would not have won either game last week.

Theo Pinson Creates For Himself: B

Pinson shot the ball poorly last week but he took many more shots than he had previously and hit double figures in each game. For the Heels to be in a position to win the national title, Pinson will need to make sure that other teams can not hide their worst defender on him. Pinson needs to look for his shot early in the season so that down the stretch he knows how to create for himself and he can begin to develop more of an offensive game while the games do not really matter.

The Heels Find a Half-Court Offense: B+

Carolina's offense flowed much better in the half court this past week. Most of the improvement could be attributed to the play of Pinson and Jackson but the Heels also had more impressive and consistent performances from Brice Johnson and Isaiah Hicks. The Heels were further aided by hitting 13 threes last week and their comeback against Kansas State would not have been possible if the Heels had not hit as many threes as they did. The Heels need to keep their offense flowing like this and once Paige comes back against Maryland everything will look a better as more shots just begin to fall.