Ven-Allen Lubin provides desperately needed muscle
Remember how we kind of found Drake Powell during the Dayton game? We may have found Ven-Allen Lubin in a similar way against Auburn.
Johni Broome was bullying Jalen Washington a bit during this game. Washington just didn't have the bulk to keep Broome from getting to the spots he wanted to arrive at to unleash his offensive arsenal, and Hubert Davis had to make a change.
Vanderbilt transfer Ven-Allen Lubin, who has bumped in the paint with Broome before in his SEC days, took to the familiar task of trying to chop down this gigantic tree. And while you can't say that Lubin came out of the match-up on top, he did stem the bleeding a bit.
Lubin scored 10 points (4/6 shooting, 2/2 from the line) and grabbed nine rebounds. His +/- rating of +2 was one of only two positive ratings on the entire team (Drake Powell was +9). All of the starters had a net negative +/-, and only Seth Trimble had a single-digit negative (-9). Per the title of this article, this defeat was comprehensive.
Not every team will have a Johni Broome, but if North Carolina runs into a brute, it has some muscle on hand to help Jalen Washington with the dirty work.