UNC Basketball: Seth Trimble Fuels Defensive Intensity

A point of emphasis for the 2023-2024 UNC Basketball has been improving defensively, and one guard has fueled that drive over the last few games.

It wasn’t a great start to the ACC opener on Saturday for the UNC Basketball program, as they dug themselves into a 14-point deficit early into the second half, trailing 45-31 with 17:25 remaining and still by 12 with 13:25 left in the game. However, head coach Hubert Davis then turned to his full-court diamond press and Seth Trimble to lead the comeback, starting with defense.

Fans of the UNC basketball program have been accustomed to having a lockdown defensive defender over the past five years with Leaky Black, who always guarded the opponent’s best offensive threat and usually shut them down. Now that Black is gone, the Tar Heels are looking to replace that defensive production, and while Trimble hasn’t had those shutdown performances yet, he is contributing in ways that don’t always show up in the box score, just like Black did.

Despite not getting any defensive stats in the box score against the Seminoles on Saturday, Trimble is still impacting the game on both ends of the floor and fueling the Tar Heels offense, starting on the defensive end.

Against Florida State, Trimble was three-of-three from the field in 14 minutes and had 9 points and one assist. According to sports-reference, Trimble also had a BPM (box plus/minus) of 15.3, second highest on the team behind RJ Davis, who had 27 points. This isn’t a true plus-minus, but rather a rating.

Trimble used his defense intensity to force the Seminoles into mistakes out of the press on Saturday, which led to other players benefiting in the box score, while the Tar Heels mounted a 22-0 run to comeback and begin conference play 1-0.

As part of that 22-0 run, the Tar Heels were +19 with Trimble on the floor during the second half. Armando Bacot told the media postgame that Trimble’s energy got the rest of the team going.

"Honestly, I feel like Seth coming in and bringing energy really changed the game for us. The way he defended and got us going, it really helped us out."

While we have seen three opposing players already cross the 30-point mark this season, the defense is improving, and sometimes the other guys can’t miss. Trimble guarded Arkansas’ Tramon Mark tightly throughout the final game in Atlantis, and Mark continued to hit tough shots. Regardless, Trimble is showing he has made a freshman-to-sophomore leap that UNC Basketball fans should be thrilled about, and it’s starting on the defensive end of the floor.

The Tar Heels will look to Trimble to continue to bring that defensive intensity against UConn (No. 3 in Adjusted Offensive Efficiency per KenPom) and Kentucky (No. 10 in Adjusted Offensive Efficiency per KenPom) over the next two games.

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