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  • Derek Willis: Cats focused on Cats

    By: LARRY VAUGHT

    Derek Willis has not watched North Carolina play this season.

    “I only watch us. It’s the only team I care about,” said Willis after Wednesday’s win over Columbia.

    However, the sophomore did not try to downplay the significance of Saturday’s home game with North Carolina.

    “We definitely get more hyped up for the big games for sure.,” Willis said. “With games like North Carolin and Louisville, those are bigger games. You just get hyped. Saturday will be fun.

    “But I do not know a player on their team. I don’t know if people left from last year or anything. I think we will be fine. We will be hyped up. It’s just the name. If we are playing Duke or whoever, you just get hyped by a name. For sure it is more fun playing a game like that. I like playing big-name schools. Gets you hyped up.”

    The 21st-ranked Tar Heels have wins over UCLA and Florida, but they have lost at home to Iowa and on a neutral court to Butler. Last year North Carolina had the same tendency to play well in high profile games and not so well in other contests.

    "You get hyped up being on that big stage and playing against a tough opponent, especially if you're the underdog,” said North Carolina guard Nate Britt.

    Guard Marcus Paige averages 14 points per game to lead a balanced scoring attack and shoots 35 percent from 3-point range. He also plays a team-high 30 minutes per game. Sophomore Kennedy Meeks adds 13.8 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. He has six double-digit rebounding games already this year and is tied for the ACC lead with five double-doubles.

    According to Ken Pomeroy, Meeks is grabbing 26.5 percent of the available defensive rebounds when he’s on the floor, and 14.9 percent of Carolina’s available offensive rebounds.

    Brice Johnson contributes 11.3 points and 7.4 rebounds. He had 19 points and 17 rebounds in a win over East Carolina in North Carolina’s last outing.

    “We need that. We need our big guys to establish themselves inside, and Bryce did it. He can score. I know he can score,” Paige said about Johnson after the East Carolina win. “He hasn’t been scoring a whole lot lately, but that’s not one thing we worry about with him.

    “The effort on the glass, diving for loose balls, contesting every rebound and going up over three or four guys to get the ball.That’s the type of Bryce we need, and defensively to be in tune. We don’t need the one that shoots fadeaways, we need the one that goes at the rim, and we saw a lot of that tonight.”

    “Brice was off the charts rebounding-wise and scoring-wise, and he was better defensively,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said after the East Carolina win. “His whole mind was out of the game the other night. But today, he missed his first three shots and kept playing and kept rebounding the basketball. We need Brice and Kennedy to rebound the ball like that.”

    No Tar Heel opponent has shot 40 percent from the field this season and North Carolina ranks among the nation’s top teams in blocked shots with 49 led by Meeks’ 13.

    “Their size is not just inside. Their size on us when they’re playing (J.P.) Tokoto at the two. He’s much improved, maybe their most improved player,” East Carolina coach Jeff Lebo said. “They just punished us around the rim. We had no answer for that. They were just too big, too strong and too long for us.”

    The Tar Heels are hitting 28 percent from 3-point range and scoring 81.4 points per game while giving up just 63.6 points per outing.

    While Johnson and Meeks are both 6-9, the Tar Heels are not as big overall as UK. Kentucky has 86 blocks and 82 steals in 10 games while limiting opponents to 28.7 percent shooting from the field and 45.8 points per game. Kentucky also has no one averaging more than 24 minutes per game and 10 players averaging 14 or more minutes per game.
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    Harlow

    Re: Oakland v UK hall of fame

    See ya next guys with a new coach

    Harlow 03-22-2024, 08:36 AM Go to last post