UNC Basketball ends 2022 with a frustrating loss to Pittsburgh

The UNC basketball program had every opportunity to pull away against Pittsburgh, but bad habits resurfaced, leading to another disappointing loss.

We often times talk about the consistency factor with this UNC basketball team.

Sometimes, we get a dominant version of this group, which makes you think they can make another deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

The rest of the time, this is an inconsistent group that doesn’t stick to its strengths.

We got both on Friday afternoon, but unfortunately, we saw more of the ugly side of this team than the good side.

The Tar Heels had as big as a nine-point lead in the second half of play but couldn’t finish, as they suffered yet another ACC road loss, this one at the hands of the Pittsburgh Panthers.

Say what you want about the officiating- it was horrible to say the least. However, North Carolina let the Panthers, and referees, beat them, as they looked like two completely different looking teams over the course of 40 minutes of play.

When the Tar Heels were rolling, Armando Bacot was in the center of it. Once again, Bacot had a stellar performance, posting 22 points and 13 rebounds.

If Bacot wasn’t involved, the UNC basketball program was once again inefficient, which has been the storyline throughout the early part of the 2022-2023 season.

Not only did the Tar Heels get outhustled, they were outrebounded in the second half, but also went away from what was working- feeding the big man down low. They also made it very easy for Pittsburgh’s offense to succeed, especially Jamarius Burton (who had a career day with 31 points).

Late in the game, Pittsburgh went on a 31-14 run, as the Tar Heels offense felt that it was better to settle for threes instead of working the system (which was working when they made it happen).

The guard play should take a lot of the heat for this one, as the duo of Caleb Love and RJ Davis certainly did not bring it in this contest. Not only did they combine to shoot the ball inefficiently, but they also seemed to ruin the flow of the offense by trying to play hero ball at times.

I don’t know about you, but I have plenty of questions about this game:

• Why does Hubert Davis utilize the bench in the first half, then seemingly forget about them in the second half?
• Yes, Puff Johnson picked up three fouls in two minutes of action. Did that really warrant him from coming back into the game?
• After questioning if his conditioning coming back from injury was up-to-par, was D’Marco Dunn the right option to play significant minutes in his return, especially with the likes of Seth Trimble and Tyler Nickel available?
• With the way Love and Davis played, why aren’t they being held accountable? Could subbing them out and going to the bench more really hurt this group?
• What’s the deal with Pete Nance? Is he hurt, or did Hubert Davis just elect to play small down the stretch?
• Finally, Leaky Black is easily the Tar Heels’ best defensive player. Why wasn’t he guarding Burton more in an effort to slow him down?

It truly feels like deja vu. The same things continue to haunt this team, and yet, it doesn’t feel as if any adjustments are being made. It’s beginning to seem like they are just going through the motions: they’ll pick up an early lead, put the game on “cruise control,” and then watch the lead that they built collapse, losing all momentum as a result.

Pittsburgh has owned North Carolina of late, winning four of the last five matchups. The Tar Heels didn’t possess the fire and passion needed to win this game, and it showed through an inexcusable performance, especially in the second half of play.

The UNC basketball program returns home on Wednesday night, as they’ll open up 2023 with a contest against ACC foe Wake Forest.

By then, hopefully, this team figures some things out.