Apparently all it took was a bit of concentration and, suddenly, a North Carolina team that looked disorganized and unfocused against UNLV was playing exemplary defense against Wisconsin. Kendall Marshall, who struggled on that end against the Running Rebels, did well in his stints guarding perhaps the most offensively potent point guard in the country in Jordan Taylor. John Henson and Tyler Zeller, for the most part, kept good track of their rotations, provided near-perfect help defense and stayed focused for the whole shot clock. Dexter Strickland’s campaign of perimeter harassment against Taylor was some of the best on-ball defense I’ve seen by any North Carolina player in the past decade. Aside from a few critical missed rotations (notably one that lead to an open three for Taylor in the final minute), the defense simply looked exemplary.
As for the offense, I’m less sure. While the Tar Heels shot 42.2% against the second-best defense in the country, turnovers plagued the team. North Carolina had fourteen turnovers in a slow game, a difference that kept Wisconsin in the game down to the very last minute. Think turnovers don’t matter that much? North Carolina had 45 field goal attempts while Wisconsin had 64 shots from the field. Wisconsin had nearly 50% more chances to get a bucket than North Carolina. Only great defense by UNC and 19 points from the free throw line kept the team from giving up to the Badgers. Marshall alone managed to tie Wisconsin’s entire team with four turnovers apiece. It’s honestly near-miraculous that North Carolina won given the discrepancy in number of field goal attempts.
Outside of turnovers, the rest of North Carolina’s offense seemed to be clicking. Harrison Barnes and Zeller were able to resume their roles as the clear top two scorers on the team after lackluster performances against UNLV. Barnes put in his first true star turn of the year, leading all scorers with 20 points on 12 shots, and wowing the crowd with a clean jump shot and a set of moves that are ridiculously polished for a college sophomore. In short, the Barnes from last March was back and his ankle looked fine. One area of concern that remains for the team as a whole is perimeter shooting. Outside of Barnes’ two threes, the Tar Heels only made one other triple, courtesy of Reggie Bullock. P.J. Hairston, who has been shooting the lights out, was held scoreless in his brief nine minutes before he went to the locker room to deal with an injured wrist.
In short, this is mostly the same North Carolina team that made it to the Elite Eight in March. Their strengths and weaknesses remain the same. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: They can play tough defense and get to the foul line with amazing regularity. In terms of weaknesses, they don’t make a ton of threes and are prone to turnovers. It’s the same old story with this UNC team, which means that the loss to UNLV was, in fact, a fluke. On the downside, this means that this team has the same strengths and weaknesses as the team that lost to Kentucky once already in 2011. That UK team is different, but it might just be better than the one that defeated the Heels in March — we’ll find out soon enough.