This one was big.
The UNC basketball program kept its hopes of a double-bye in the ACC Tournament alive by beating No. 24 Louisville in the Dean Dome. Henri Veesaar started for the second straight game and did just enough to help the Tar Heels crawl past the finish line on the back of Seth Trimble's career-high 30 points.
UNC's defense looked positively scrappy for long periods of the game, so you can only imagine how much of a scare they'll be for a regional's top seed when Caleb Wilson gets back on the court. Let's dive into some lessons learned from a great win over the Cardinals.
Withstanding Threes
Louisville is one of the most dangerous three-point shooting teams in the country. They are ranked fourth in the NCAA in three-pointers made per game with 11.8. Compare that to UNC at #128 with just 8.4 (I had to hit the "Show More" button three times while researching this factoid).
When the game started, you could fear the worst. Louisville hit five of their first nine three-pointers, building a 10-point lead. UNC learned some hard lessons the same way that Ukraine did when the Russian invasion settled into its current form of mostly artillery warfare. If you stay still, you will get sighted and destroyed in place. UNC's defense, like the Ukrainian Army, needed to move.
The defense ratcheted up the pressure and defenders communicated with each other. Louisville was forced to shoot inside the three-point line and, at one point, was held without a field goal for over ten minutes of gameplay. The Cards finished 14/39 from three (35.9%), but UNC's defense definitely affected many attempts. In a game that finished with just a three-point margin, all of that collective work made a huge difference.
Speaking of just a three-point margin...