UNC's Group Effort Takes Out Hokies - The Postgame | College Basketball

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Welcome in to Inside Carolina Daily.

It is the post-game.

I'm Tommy Ashley.

This is Greg Barnes.

Greg Barnes fresh off the helicopter ride from the Smith Center helipad.

I didn't know that existed.

Barnes covered the game in person, took the helicopter to the crib, and here we are.

Sorry for the delay.

Greg, Carolina comes into this one needing a win and got a win.

It's sort of a granded out fun game, 89.82.

You're overall take.

I continue to be impressed with how North Carolina's bench has performed since the injuries popped

up against Miami.

And it's, you know, give, give Hubert Davis a ton of credit.

And you're going to give the young men coming off the bench who have added so much to this

team.

You know, tonight it was Jonathan Powell.

It really in North Carolina needed what he did in the first half of me.

Powell on the floor was, was plus eight and plus minus.

And other than they saw all the starters were, were minus.

Zayn High was, was similar.

Those two tonight, I thought played really well and they were key to North Carolina, you know,

staying afloat until Seth kind of woke up and Henry came to play in the second half.

And that was enough.

I kind of Evans.

I think he continues to give North Carolina sneaky good minutes off the bench.

I think that was the case tonight.

We've seen Jared play, play better needed tonight, but he's been very solid in previous games.

Just kind of not yet too, too sloppy fouls on those screen calls.

You know, he just didn't do what he needed to do there and kind of got him in a bond.

But that's the main takeaway from me, Tommy.

You know, when, when you have an injury, of course, Carolina is that too,

but when you have an injury like, you know, Caleb Wilson had.

And you've got a lottery pick, a top five pick.

A kid that's going to be in all American first team all ACC.

When you lose him, it's like, okay, well, we lose the lead tight talent.

So we know the ceiling comes down.

But what happens with the floor?

And that's where everybody else has to step up.

And so the play of Jonathan Powell tonight, the play of Zayn Hyde for a couple of weeks.

The play of Jared Stevenson, Kai and come along.

Because they have performed as well as they have, that ceiling now is much higher.

And that's a testament to those individuals into the coaching staff for getting them ready.

Yeah, and also something I didn't do shout out Johnny T shirt and Johnny T shirt dot com.

Place was jumping on Franklin Street earlier today.

And I'm sure everybody that was an inside Carolina person was in Johnny T shirt doing your thing.

And, you know, there's 750 people in the live chat.

Greg, they were all chant and Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg.

Before you got in here and they all stuck around.

And I'm doing something different.

Greg, you probably noticed the comments are on the screen.

Because you guys are amazing.

The fans are amazing.

So I'll throw the content, the comments up on the screen with one condition.

That's dangerous, Tommy.

With one condition.

If you cuss, you get booted immediately.

And you will not be a part of the chat.

So no bad language, keep it clean.

Somebody in the chats from Gastonia.

They were earlier saying where they were from Greg.

So I knew that would be dear to your heart.

Let's talk about the bench play.

And, you know, if there's ever silver linings from injuries in any sport is making somebody else have to step up or you crash.

And you mentioned that and you talked about it with kind of Evans and Zaden.

I mean, Zaden high.

Eight for eight from free throw line.

I mean, that wins games down the stretch.

That wins games and keeps tournaments going.

Those type free throw performances.

And you mentioned Kay and Evans.

He did some good things.

And Jonathan Powell.

I mean, I put his photo on the thumbnail for the YouTube.

These guys probably don't blossom.

We know Zaden.

I didn't.

If Caleb Wilson is not there.

And so now you've got the opportunity to sort of build off that.

When Caleb comes back, I do not think it could play out better for Hubert Davis's team than it has.

And they've had success dealing with that injury.

For sure.

And, you know, if anybody watched the Texas Tech game earlier today, the fact that they were able to go to Iowa state and win.

I was saying, I think so legitimate top 10 team in the country.

And to do what they've done winning three straight since JT Top and went out.

Is just a testament to resilience because I don't think that team has a whole lot outside of Top and then Christian Anderson.

But Grant McCaslin after the game's like, look, excuses.

Things happen.

People get hurt.

There's a bunch of players on the team.

And you keep moving forward.

You need to do what you need to do to get the job done.

And I love the mindset.

And if you're going to be in the lead program, you're going to be a contender, you know, in the ACC and a contender for for an NCAA tournament run.

You have to have a mindset.

And I think clearly North Carolina has done that.

And I agree with you, Tommy.

You know, I don't know that silver lining is kind of the right word, you know, because you hate to say anybody get injured.

But there has been a blossoming.

And Zayn High, I think, is the is the primary one who's really just kind of popped.

But power is steadily come on.

He looked really good in the first half coming off screens, being comfortable in a shot, squaring up.

Not rushing things.

Just phenomenal.

And Kai ends up on the same way.

He's just more comfortable.

Matt, he's looking more comfortable last few weeks.

Running the offense.

And he did at any point earlier in the season.

And that's a benefit.

So no doubt it puts Carol on in a better position.

We've talked all season long about how it's really Henry and Caleb.

And then you got Seth as your back court option.

And Seth has played well last couple games.

He played well in the second half tonight.

But the question always was, okay, well, one of those guys is a little bit off.

What happens if there were games early where one of them or two of them wouldn't be great.

And you wouldn't get good results.

And I think tonight's a good example of, you know, Henry had.

I wrote about it on my post game piece.

He had four points in the paint in the first half, which is nonexistent.

And it was a problem.

And if that had continued, then you Carolina was going to be fighting very hard to try to win this game.

But Paul was able to knock down a number of shots.

It really kind of gave them a boost in the first half.

So Carolina was able to go in a half time tied.

And he did just enough and Zayn High and Kai and all contributed just enough that.

They saw and Seth Trimble could kind of wake up in the second half.

And both those guys played great in the final 20 months.

Indeed, they did just for some stats for folks that haven't looked at them.

You know, Carolina 8982, which is solid.

When 56% from the field for Carolina, 50 for Virginia Tech to your point.

Greg points in the paint were whopsided in the first half.

He ended up 3834 in favor of Virginia Tech.

Second chance points, Carolina 11 to 2, which I think is big 11 offensive rebounds.

And then total rebounds.

34 to 22.

Now you don't get as many rebounds when you're hitting a bunch of shots, but.

Carolina sort of dominated that and then 16 assists for Carolina.

I'm 29 made field goes.

Let's talk a little bit about.

You know, it's kind of a kind of evidence effect and you've mentioned him a couple of times.

And there's a lot of people shouting him out.

And just looking at his stats.

Let me get the full stats up here because you mentioned the plus minus.

But you know, you got.

It's weird how they do steals, right?

So if I knock the ball away from somebody and somebody gets it, I don't really get a credit for that steal.

I get a deflection.

That they do, but kind of Evans.

Five points, hit a three, hit a couple of free throws, two rebounds, three assists.

That couple files just one turnover and one steal, but to your point.

Six plus six on there.

This is a guy who we've talked about all the time that Dixon's the point guard.

He needs to be the point guard and it frees Evans up to do now.

Dixon only played 17 minutes tonight for whatever reason.

But Evans to your point earlier.

I think we need to really talk about it because important is the comfortable factor.

His comfortableness, not having the pressure of being the one on the team.

And anybody that's followed Carolina basketball and I've said it before.

If you're the point guard for Carolina, that in itself carries a ton of pressure.

And Evans didn't live up to it.

Frankly, right, Greg?

And now he has the ability to just play basketball and it shows in games like this.

Well, let's just talk about from this perspective, just to put some numbers behind it.

And look, plus monis is just a very, it's like a little cheat code, right?

Because you're trying to categorize team play for one player's participation.

So it's not the best stat, but it is telling.

And I think it's relevant for Kay and Evans because we talked about it earlier in the year.

Let me tell us the numbers here.

Against Michigan State plus minus for cayenne minus 24.

At Kentucky minus two Ohio State plus two Florida State plus four SMU minus three Stanford minus two cow minus 11 Virginia minus 17.

Right.

These are not good numbers.

But he was plus six tonight.

He was plus 10 against Louisville.

And he was plus nine against Syracuse.

And I think that's just a very clear indication of he's more of a positive now than he was before.

He's kind of embraced his role.

He's playing with more confidence. He's more comfortable.

All those things matter.

And as Carolina, you know, we're in the final week now, right?

I mean, we got one regular season week left.

And then his postseason play.

Carolina is guaranteed four more games this season.

That's it.

So we're at crunch time.

And having somebody like Kay and who can, can come in.

If only for a few minutes, if only for five, six, seven minutes, that's beneficial.

The other part of this that's important to me is, is think about how Derek Dixon has played of late.

He struggled a bit.

And that's one of the reasons we're seeing Seth, you bring the ball up more.

I mean, the first possession of night, he brought it up, which I thought was kind of telling.

And Seth has been playing better.

So that's beneficial.

But you can't just half him as your soul point guard.

So it would not surprise me in the least.

I mean, tonight, Kay and played more than than Derek.

But it would not surprise me at least to see more of this opportunity of who's playing better on a given night.

Is Dixon having a good night or he's comfortable running the offense and knocking down shots?

Or if he's having some problems, can you go to Kayan?

Two, three weeks ago, I don't know that that option was really on the table.

But because of how things have played out, because Kayan's getting more time,

well, now he's got his confidence back.

And now you've actually got kind of a two-headed monster there at point guard.

And that's critically important as we get into the post.

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Yeah, and we're talking with Greg Barnes here on the inside.

Carl on a post game.

Carl on a beach for Genetek.

Two more regular season games.

And Greg's point was, sure, a Carolina expects to play a lot more than four games,

but it could be four.

It could be, we are that point in the season.

And a couple other comments in the chat and something we talked about all year.

But you're getting to the point where you can't is let guys play through it.

Let Dickson play through it and learn.

Well, that, you do that from November to mid-January.

And you start getting into late February.

And it's cut in time.

And so Dickson, Dickson stepped up and he's played well at times

and to have a guy like kind of as it can come in and get some quality minutes.

You know, that is that time of season.

And if it doesn't happen, your season ends.

And we've talked about the free throws.

And they cured the free throws tonight.

I mean, it's 23 for 30s, a lot better than where they have been at times.

So Greg, all in on, I want to turn to the future here.

But all I know in this game, I think Carolina did exactly what they needed to do.

I don't like the stall at the end of the halves.

I do not like Seth Trimble look top at the end of the halves.

But they figured out how to make it work.

And they came back to end the first half with a good run.

So and somebody in the chat, Daniel Burke, shout out 17 to know at home.

You defend your home court with as many home games as teams play these days.

And you're going to have a good record in the end.

Final thoughts on this one before I look ahead just a little bit with you.

Well, I would just say you mentioned free throws.

I think that's that's very important.

Carolina was what like 76% from the free throw line.

They had one fill goal in the final six minutes tonight.

And Virginia Tech made them made them make free throws and they did.

The other thing that I would say.

Is the first half I mentioned Henry only having four points in the paint.

He did take a couple of threes took four I think in the first half.

I think this team at times.

For gets.

Or at least.

Doesn't focus on their strengths.

And then just get away from what works and we saw that in the first half.

And yes, they were making shots and that makes up for it.

But if you've been watching that first half is like, okay, well, if.

You know, Jonathan Powell is not knocking down a few threes.

Like Virginia Tech's kind of in control of this game.

And then you come out and you see the start of the second half and Henry.

You know, has the great assist on that first play as a well designed play by Hubert.

Um, to get Jerry Stevens to lay up.

And then Henry had 10 points in the paint in the first seven minutes, the second half.

And Carol on a look like a different team.

And I don't know why that happens, but I think that leads to some of the inconsistency that we've seen with this team.

But if you're going through the post and you're letting Seth drive and attacking the realm.

This team can be really good.

Um, and they just need to remember that, you know, when Caleb comes back, you've got three really good players.

Like lean on those guys and let everybody else supplement.

And not vice versa.

Um, Carolina did what it needed to do in the second half in terms of focusing their offensive efforts.

And it paid off.

And it's paid off time and time again when they work through Henry and Caleb.

So let Seth do some of his damage and transition and driving at the realm.

Um, I think that's important for this team in the weeks ahead.

Yeah, I think something we can say about Hubert Davis.

You can be critical if Hubert Davis saw you.

Whatever he says at halftime, usually is effective.

You know, whatever happens and whatever adjustments or whatever.

And they did.

And one thing I was glad to see is the different, I mean, Virginia Tech shot 50% which you, that's too high.

But, um, they sort of figured out the wall could jump out of the gym.

So we got to stop that from happening and sort of that closed down some of the Virginia Tech.

Um, Virginia Tech's got some nice players.

I mean, there'll be some interesting portal players.

Perhaps, um, you know, Coach Young's going to have his work cut out.

Try to keep all that team with it together, given some of the skill they've shown.

Greg Carolina's got Clemson at home.

Senior night, RJ Davis's jersey is going to be honored.

Um, it's already up there, but it's going to be acknowledged and all that.

And then they've got Duke.

Where are they in the ACC race?

I think we've hashed it on Twitter.

We've hashed it on the message board, but folks still ask is like, where can they be?

I think 95% of Carolina fans would want them to be in the four or five game with NC State.

But given NC State's face plant, that's not going to happen.

It doesn't look like.

So what's Carolina got ahead of it?

Yeah, I mean, it can still happen, but uh, States.

I mean, I, I feel like state kind of saw that they were winning today.

Like, oh crap, we may have to play Carolina in the four or five game and just stuck in the mud.

They're late.

Uh, just ridiculous kind of what's happened to that team since the, the Carolina win.

That was their Super Bowl apparently.

Um,

but Carolina's in good shape.

I mean, with some of these games that have, that have happened to SMU losing, uh, Louisville losing.

And as it currently sits, Carolina isn't a tie for fourth place with Clemson, which makes that game on Tuesday incredibly important.

Um, Carolina's still actually in play for a second place, although Virginia wouldn't need to, to lose out and Carolina would have to win out.

Duke's got the number one seed wrapped up, but other than that, there's, there's a lot of opportunity.

Um, really the team to watch, I think is Miami.

And there is a, a weird scenario where Carolina beats Clemson, but then loses to Duke.

And then Miami, if they lose the SMU and Louisville, which both of those teams are favored, you get into this weird situation where Miami Clemson and Carolina are all tied at 12 and 6.

And the way the top breaker works is kind of like a mini, um, top breaker with those three teams.

And because Miami beat Carolina, but they lost to Clemson.

And in this scenario, Clemson would have lost, uh, to Carolina, but it would have beaten Miami.

And then Carolina would have beaten Clemson and lost to Miami.

The way that sets up is you go down to the next top breaker.

Um, and with Miami not playing Duke and with Clemson not playing Virginia.

If those are not common opponents and said, then you get down into the, uh, who's in sixth place.

Uh, and yeah, because of that, there's still scenarios where Carolina, uh, even if they go one and one, the rest of the way, can, can not get a double buy.

And so that's something that we're tracking.

But of course, if Carolina wins out that when the next two take care of business, clearly they'll get a double buy.

And I put them in pretty good position going into selection Sunday as well.

Let me ask you this and people were talking about Luca Bogavats and absolutely he's certainly, um, played better.

I can't believe he only had three shots, uh, you know, hit three or four free throws and, um, three shots in 19 minutes for five points.

But back to the discussion.

I'm not, it was interesting to West Coast Conference or whatever Gonzaga and them are in like the tie for third in one of those Western conferences.

You could either have a buy a double buy or you could play all five days.

And I mean, it's just insane.

The disjointed conferences, you know what I mean?

And there's too many teams in it, but anyway, I'm not so sure that play in that fourth game is not a bad thing.

And I don't know what the numbers tell it, but I think four games in four days is not that bad.

And I think in that semi or that quarter final, quarter final game, if Carolina was a five C, I think it set some up better, assuming you win.

Playing then sitting in waiting.

What are your thoughts on that?

We've seen it go a lot of different ways, but I always like getting that game in ahead of the team.

You're about to play.

I think when you're trying to work Caleb Wilson back into the rotation, you need as much opportunity as you can get.

So I wholeheartedly agree with you, Tommy.

And yeah, I mean, if you can, if you can make it where you play that, that Wednesday game against a lesser opponent that you should win.

And you can get Caleb back up because you will have to wait. See is he going to be ready to go against Duke.

Clearly, he's on the mend.

And he's itching to get back how quickly did they let him play?

And so that's, if he doesn't play against Duke, then you really kind of want that Wednesday game to kind of let him get his feet wet before you get into the quarter final play.

Another interesting component about it. I mean, there's a great Caleb hadn't been out that long.

But like the Kansas game today, a lot of people are talking when we get Peterson taking a bunch of shots, it can't just like you can make the case.

They look better without even times, which is kind of a weird dynamic.

You know, because they, they realized they all had to play together without him.

If they've done that very well, then he comes back and he's taking 21 shots.

It just kind of mixes up the flow that they had.

We've seen this multiple times over the years, you know, Carrie Irving, of course, was a famous one where he was out for a significant amount of time and came back and Duke just wasn't the same team.

I don't think Caleb has been out long enough for that to really be an issue, but he will have been out several weeks.

And you, you and much rather have a game that you should be able to win on that Wednesday instead of his first games in the quarter finals, because you got to double buy.

And you happen to lose that game.

Well, now you're going into this little tournament. He's only played one game and it gets a little bit dicey from there.

I mean, this is, this is big brain stuff, you know, everybody wants to double buy, but there's more to it than just that and you pointed out not any mention the Caleb Wilson factor and you're absolutely right.

I mean, the more games you can play with him and you talk about Darren Peterson and Kansas, when I got a butt kicked today and him taking that many shots just doesn't work for them.

I'm like, just go ahead and, you know, pack it in. We got this. But anyway, any final thoughts great before we get out of here.

This is the normal icy daily cruise. So we'll be back every day next week talking about a lot of topics, specifically Clemson on Tuesday's episode.

But Greg, I just think North Carolina is in its good shape as they can be in given how the season is transpired here going into the last week of the season.

And I cannot believe we're sitting there talking about the last of the regular season. It is absolutely phone by.

It is. And Seth Trimble has got one more home game, which is wild.

But you're right. I think I think Virginia Tech's the solid team we talked the other day about how they've had some some really bad like last second losses.

And so their record should be better than what it is. But that's the solid team.

They're probably not going to make it into the tournament. They're on the wrong side of the bubble.

But there's some good pieces. And so I think without having Caleb enough people kind of rose the occasion and your stars stood up the way Seth and Henry dead.

That's a really good win for North Carolina.

Indeed. And the dog thinks so as well. So I think that's all Tommy.

Things telling us to get out of here. Shout out to the hundred or excuse me, the thousand plus that have been here the whole chat.

Somebody said it's 11 p.m. on the East Coast. Look, we've done these at like three in the morning and there's been five six seven hundred or thousand people from inside Carolina watching.

Shout out to the fans of inside Carolina. Shout out to Johnny T shirt and Johnny T shirt.com and certainly shout out to Greg Barnes for joining me.

Check out all the coverage on the inside calling a message boards on inside Carolina site.

Sanna and yes, Blues and Grey says it best. Hit that like button.

We need as many of those as you can get. Greg's always fun.

Yeah, thanks Tommy.

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