Rush The Court

Rush the Court will be providing wall-to-wall coverage of each of the NCAA Tournament from each of the 13 sites this year. Follow our NCAA Tourney specific Twitter accounts at @RTCEastregion, @RTCMWregion,@RTCSouthregion and @RTCWestregion.

Three Key Takeaways.

1. Shooting is kind of important in the game of basketball. North Carolina is pretty good at putting the ball through the hoop, but Providence is terrible at it (the Friars are 251st in the country in effective field goal percentage). Tonight was more of the same, as North Carolina made 53 percent of its field goals, while the Friars only converted 40 percent. Providence was particularly chilly from deep, making just six of their 23 attempts from three-point range. Ed Cooley’s squad is athletic, good defensively, and always competes hard. They just aren’t a great shooting team, and it caught up with them tonight against a high-level opponent.
2. North Carolina’s toughness was put to the test. It was not a pretty contest for most of the way, but it may have been the type of game that this North Carolina team needed. Many have questioned whether these Tar Heels are physically and mentally tough enough to win a national title. Yes, they showed some heart in winning at Duke and besting Virginia for the ACC Championship recently, but the pressure is different when it’s a win or go home situation. Tonight the Tar Heels were playing an athletic squad that challenged them physically (and verbally), but North Carolina picked up its intensity when it needed to and kept the Friars at arm’s length for most of the second half before delivering the knockout punch in the game’s final eight minutes.
3. Oops – he Dunn it again. For the second straight game, Providence star Kris Dunn missed a significant amount of first half action after picking up two early fouls. Thursday, Ed Cooley was able to get away with sitting Dunn for 10 minutes when he was whistled for that second foul. But North Carolina is a different animal. Even though Providence actually outscored the Tar Heels by one after Dunn went to the bench with 11 minutes to go before halftime, the Friars ended the half by missing their last seven shots to give North Carolina momentum going into the break. Who knows if anything would have turned out differently had Dunn not sat out so much of the first half, but you have to like the Friars chances a little better with their best player on the floor for even a few more minutes.

Star of the Game. Brice Johnson, North Carolina. The senior big man finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds to lead a balanced North Carolina attack. Johnson was extremely efficient, making seven of his nine field-goal attempts and all seven of his free throws. Props also go to Joel Berry, who scored 15 points and always seemed to have an answer when Providence made a run.

Quotable.

• “Kris Dunn has 29 (points) but I thought we did a good job on him.” – North Carolina’s Roy Williams, on his team’s defense of Providence’s star guard.
• “I thought we played hard and played together. But you got to make shots and we didn’t.” – Providence coach Ed Cooley, on what made the difference tonight.
• “My aggressive play got me some cheap fouls.” – Providence’s Kris Dunn when asked about his foul trouble.
• “It did suck.” Tar Heels star Brice Johnson on playing such a late tip-time.

Sights and Sounds. At his press conference yesterday at PNC Arena, Roy Williams voiced his displeasure with the late scheduled tip-time (9:40 ET) of this game. He makes a good point by pointing out that there are sites in other time zones that should get the later start times, but he also acknowledges (correctly) that TV audiences drive the whole process, not the convenience of teams, coaches and local fans. Author’s note: Williams definitely has support on this issue in the media room. The same situation happened here two years ago when Raleigh got stuck with the latest game times of the day. At least this year, the second round games here are on Saturday. In 2014, the last game of the tournament’s opening weekend was in Raleigh and late on Sunday night, making for a grumpy group of folks in the media room.