Can the Tar Heels send the Pirates off to sea to wrap up non-conference play?
We have finally arrived at the end of the non-conference schedule for the Tar Heels, and more importantly, we have made it with the team only losing one game. It is a feat that they haven’t pulled off in over a decade, which is impressive to say the very least. We can have a debate about whether or not the schedule was a favorable factor, but a reminder: they had to play Kentucky, Kansas, and Michigan State, which is a feat that has never taken place before (the reason to include Tom Izzo in all of this speaks for itself). Now there’s one thing left to do: send ECU home with a loss tonight.
Tonight’s game is the final tune-up game before they begin ACC play. The Pirates have been pretty bad so far this season, so things should play out in UNC’s favor as long as they don’t play down to their competition. The one mutual opponent that UNC and ECU have had is Michigan State, and the Pirates were only able to score 56 points during that game. They may have as much trouble dealing with UNC’s front court assuming officiating doesn’t get out of hand…again.
Since we’re not dealing with Ohio State anymore, the big thing to watch in this one is Hubert Davis’ lineup combinations. Zayden High and James Brown saw zero action against the Buckeyes, and Luka Bogavac saw his minutes cut significantly with the return of Seth Trimble. The Bogavac situation felt more like a situational thing more so than anything, but now that Jarin Stevenson is coming off the bench, we may see very little of the two backup bigs moving forward. We’ll see how things play out tonight, though, because I’m sure Davis would rather have an insurance policy behind Stevenson in case all three primary bigs run into issues any given night.
Feel free to hang out with us in the comments section, and as always, we will be back after the game with post-game analysis and takes. Until then, Go Heels!
Category: General Sports
