Le Journal

The North Carolina Tar Heels are in their final four games before ACC play, and are looking at two straight tune-ups at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill. First up is the Big South’s USC Upstate Spartans. Here are a few key factors to keep an eye on when Carolina hosts USC Upstate on Saturday afternoon. USC Upstate’s Defensive Strengths With 5.5 blocks per game, the Spartans lead the Big South and rank 21st in the nation. With 60 blocks in 11 games, USC Upstate has the sixth-most blocks in the NCAA. Junior forward Jafeth Martinez is averaging 2.1 blocks per game, good for 14th nationally. The Spartans also rank in the top 60 in the NCAA in both field goal percentage and three-point percentage defense. In fact, USC Upstate is tied with Carolina at 29.4 percent allowed from beyond the arc.While these raw numbers shine, KenPom has USC Upstate’s adjusted defensive efficiency as 109.7, ranking 215th. This rating accounts for their weak strength of schedule and 6-5 record. USC Upstate has faced just one school from a Power 4 conference, while taking on D-II and D-III programs. Who Gets a Longer Look? For three straight games, head coach Hubert Davis has used the same five starters and three reserves.In the last two games, the fourth reserve was Jaydon Young, while James Brown got the nod versus Michigan State. This decision was based on the opposition personnel on the floor, but it provides insight into the top reserves in the front and back courts. Especially since his clutch shots in the final minutes of the Kentucky game, Derek Dixon has jumped up as the top reserve guard over Jonathan Powell. Zayden High has been the first big man off the bench whenever Henri Veesaar and Caleb Wilson need a quick breather. Working under the assumption that the next two games are opportunities to log more minutes for reserves, will Young, Brown, and guard Isaiah Denis get some more time on the court?The rotation is working for now, but everyone knows that depth is key in the ACC and NCAA Tournament. Perhaps this will be as good a time as any to get those reserves some live action reps. Wilson’s 10-Game Start Needless to say, Tar Heel fans are seeing something very, very special with Wilson’s start to his UNC career.Wilson has scored in double figures in all nine of his collegiate games, while tallying six double-doubles and five games of 20 or more points.Looking back at the past 25 years of college basketball, Michael Beasley at Kansas State and Carmelo Anthony at Syracuse are the gold standard for the best freshman debuts. If Wilson scores a double-double against USC Upstate, he will have one more than Anthony did during his first 10 games of his collegiate career, while averaging over a rebound better.It is interesting to note that two other freshmen, Cameron Boozer of Duke and Hannes Steinbach of Washington, have five double-doubles so far this season. It is doubtful Davis gives Wilson the hook prematurely in these games since he is still a freshman and needs the experience on the court. As fierce a competitor as he is, Wilson will undoubtedly be gunning for that double-double, or even the 20/10 mark on Saturday.

Between the ACC/SEC Challenge and a handful of other nonconference matchups, there were plenty of big games across the men’s and women’s landscape this past week.  While the top 10 women’s teams all maintained their rankings in the latest AP poll, the results of the men’s games produced a lot more movement. Let’s take a look at how things shook out. Men’s Basketball AP Top 25 1. Arizona (33 first place votes) 2. Michigan (19) 3. Duke (7) 4. Iowa State (1) 5. UConn 6. Purdue 7. Houston 8. Gonzaga 9. Michigan State 10. BYU 11. Louisville 12. Alabama 13. Illinois 14. North Carolina 15. Vanderbilt 16. Texas Tech 17. Arkansas 18. Florida 19. Kansas 20. Tennessee 21. Auburn 22. St. John’s 23. Nebraska 24. Virginia 25. UCLA Where is UNC? The Tar Heels moved up two spots to #14 after a road win at then-#18 Kentucky and a home win against an unranked but solid Georgetown team. With only a Saturday home game against Big South member USC Upstate on the docket this week, Carolina likely won’t move up again unless teams ranked higher lose. Biggest Winners Arkansas jumped eight spots to #17 after beating then-#6 Louisville and Fresno State. Iowa State climbed six spots to #4 and received one first place vote after blowing out Alcorn State and then-#1 Purdue (the 81-58 loss matched the largest ever by a top-ranked team at home). Nebraska and Virginia entered the rankings for the first time this season at #23 and #24 respectively. The Cornhuskers moved to 9-0 with a home win over Creighton, while the Cavaliers got a road win over Texas and a home win over Dayton to move to 8-1. Additionally, UCLA reentered the rankings at #25, following a road win over Washington and a home win over Oregon. Biggest Losers Kentucky plummeted from #18 to unofficial #37 after losing to then-#16 Carolina at home and getting thumped by then-#11 Gonzaga at Music City Madness in Nashville. Indiana went from #22 to unofficial #39 after road losses to Minnesota and then-#6 Louisville. USC slipped from #24 to unofficial #28 after a road loss to Oregon and a home loss to Washington. Within the Top 25, Tennessee dropped seven spots to #20 after losing to Syracuse on the road and to then-#14 Illinois at Music City Madness.  Conference Breakdown Big 12: 6 Big Ten: 6 SEC: 6 ACC: 4 Big East: 2 WCC: 1 Marquee Matchups This Week #5 UConn (8-1) vs #18 Florida (5-3) in New York City – Tonight at 9:00 PM ET on ESPN #16 Texas Tech (7-2) vs #17 Arkansas (7-2) in Dallas – Saturday at 12:00 PM ET on ESPN2 #23 Nebraska (9-0) @ #13 Illinois (7-2) – Saturday at 4:00 PM ET on Peacock #1 Arizona (8-0) vs #12 Alabama (7-2) in Birmingham – Saturday at 9:30 PM ET on ESPN #8 Gonzaga (9-1) vs #25 UCLA (7-2) in Seattle – Saturday at 11:30 PM ET on ESPN Women’s Basketball AP Top 25 UConn (23 first place votes) Texas (9) South Carolina UCLA LSU Michigan Maryland TCU Oklahoma Iowa State Iowa North Carolina Baylor Vanderbilt Kentucky USC Ole Miss Tennessee Notre Dame Washington Ohio State Louisville Oklahoma State Nebraska Michigan State Where is UNC? The Tar Heels moved down one spot to #12 after losing to #2 Texas on the road and beating Boston U at home. They’ll have a chance to move back up this week, as they host #22 Louisville on Sunday. Biggest Winners Nebraska entered the rankings for the first time this season at #24 after improving to 9-0 with wins over Bradley at home and Penn State on the road. No teams in the Top 25 moved up more than two spots.  Biggest Losers West Virginia went from #25 to receiving one vote, as a 46-point home win over Mercyhurst wasn’t enough to make up for a 22-point home loss to Villanova. Within the Top 25, Michigan State dropped five spots to #25 after losing at Wisconsin, and Ole Miss dropped four spots to #17 after losing at Kansas State–despite beating then-#18 Notre Dame at home earlier in the week. Conference Breakdown Big Ten: 9 SEC: 8  Big 12: 4 ACC: 3 Big East: 1 Marquee Matchups This Week #11 Iowa…

After a brief interlude last week where someone besides a UNC big man was awarded Tar Heel Blog Player of the Game honors, we return to the status quo in the wake of UNC’s impressive 81-61 win over Georgetown on Sunday night. Somehow, I doubt too many UNC fans are disappointed. Veesaar and freshman Caleb Wilson once again dominated the scoring for the Heels. Wilson finished as the game’s leading scorer with 20 points, while Veesaar finished second with 18. Both big men also dominated on the glass as well, racking up 29 total rebounds between them (Veesaar 15, Wilson 14). Their combined size and defensive presence were a big reason the Hoyas only shot 33% for the game and continued a trend of the Heels defending the interior at an elite level. Veesaar or Wilson has led UNC in scoring in every game this season except one (the Radford game, if you were wondering). While Wilson or Veesaar both had excellent games, the Estonia center gets the nod for his work outside of his double-double. On a day that when the Heels overall struggled from three-point range, Veesaar went 2-3 from long distance. He also dished out three assists and swatted three Georgetown shot attempts to fill up his box score. Veesaar seems to have become one of the emotional leaders on the floor for the Heels as well; when Hoyas guard Malik Mack stuck out his foot and tripped Derek Dixon on his way down the floor, it was Veesaar’s animated prostrations to the officials that ultimately led to Mack getting assessed a flagrant foul. It’s good to see this year’s team sticking up for each other. It feels like some of the camaraderie usually seen on good teams has been missing from some recent UNC squads. Dixon also deserves a hat tip for continuing his momentum from the end of the Kentucky game. The freshman guard scored 14 points on 5-7 shooting, including 3-5 from three. He’s currently shooting 45% from long range for the season in limited minutes. His playing time will increase if starting guard Kyan Evans continues to struggle with foul trouble and should give UNC another scoring threat.

Following a big win against Kentucky last week, it would’ve been understandable if UNC had a hangover going into yesterday’s game against Georgetown. It’s something we’ve seen from previous teams, and while it tends to be a really frustrating situation, it at least would’ve been predictable. However, this Carolina team was able to handily dispatch of the Hoyas in order to improve their record to 8-1. For anybody that might’ve been discouraged by some of the things that we saw in the games against Michigan State and Kentucky, the Heels did a good job of putting some of those concerns to rest. With that said, let’s take a look at a few takeaways from UNC’s win over Georgetown. Improved shooting blew up Georgetown’s zone defense One thing that UNC will have to get used to this year is teams going to zone defense to keep Henri Veesaar and Caleb Wilson from having their way in the paint. We saw some of this in the games against the Spartans and the Wildcats, and ultimately it led to some poor shooting. Thankfully that wasn’t as much of the case yesterday — the Heels were able to finish their day shooting 32% from deep, which is largely thanks to their 38.5% shooting performance in the second half. One thing that is important to point out is that shooting 32% from three isn’t exactly a stellar shooting night, but this is a promising development because of who was actually making shots. Freshman guard Derek Dixon led the team from the perimeter by knocking down three of his five attempts, while Henri Veesaar wasn’t far behind with a couple of makes of his own. What’s unique about this year’s team is that there are a number of capable shooters on the roster, but who can actually make them has been a bit of a different conversation. With Kyan Evans, Luka Bogavac, Jonathan Powell, and Jarin Stevenson struggling from deep lately, seeing Veesaar and Dixon step up has been huge, especially the latter. The only way the Heels will be able to deal with the zone is to make teams pay from three-point territory, so proving they can knock them down consistently will help them out quite a bit as we get deeper into the season. Caleb Wilson proves himself as a versatile weapon We’ve all heard the narrative that Caleb Wilson is just a player that dunks a lot, which is mainly a narrative that has been pushed by people that don’t actually watch UNC games. Anybody that actually watches the games would be able to see that Wilson can do just about everything on the floor, and yesterday he further proved that he is one of the most dangerous players on the court whether he’s able to dunk or not. Though it wasn’t without trying, and boy did he try. Wilson finished his afternoon with 20 points, 14 rebounds, an assist, and a block. Georgetown spent most of the game double-teaming Wilson, which led to him doing one of a few things: making some impressive passes to keep the offense humming, getting fouled near the rim, or knocking down jumpers away from the rim. Some of the shots that Wilson hit were NBA-caliber shots, and even more impressive was the fact that he had 2-3 hands in his face for some of his makes. His willingness to kick the ball out instead of forcing up bad shots also says a lot about what kind of player he is. It has to be frustrating that Wilson hasn’t been able to dominate in the same ways that he has been, but this modified version of domination shows that he is truly one of the best players in college basketball. Hubert Davis has a (good) front court problem Doubling back to how well Derek Dixon has been playing, Hubert Davis has had to find a way to get the most out of his freshman all while finding a way to get Kyan Evans going. His mission was successful against Georgetown — Evans went 50% from the field, and while his four fouls were really frustrating, they didn’t hurt the team much because of how well Dixon was playing. It’s also worth noting that Luka Bogavac was able to add 14 points to the scoreboard himself, which led to…