Terrence Brown didn’t buy the idea that nerves were behind North Carolina’s shaky start in its exhibition against Charlotte.
After head coach Michael Malone suggested the Tar Heels may have been a little tight early before settling in during the second half, Brown pushed back and said the issue was more about chemistry than anxiety. He made it clear that being nervous wasn’t part of his game.
“That’s not in my vocabulary,” Brown said when asked if he thought his team was nervous in the opening frame, per On3. “I think we’re still trying to gel together.
We’re still trying to learn how to play together. Obviously it was our first game in the Dean Dome, but we practice here every day, we were just missing shots.
“We’ve just got to make shots. We’ve got to step up and make shots.
We come in here every single day. We shoot in this gym.
We practice in this gym. We’ve just got to have the confidence to make the shots.
And Coach puts the confidence in us. He doesn’t tell anybody on the court not to shoot.”
Malone’s concern centered on more than just missed shots. North Carolina’s rebounding has been the biggest problem so far, and the exhibition performances raised enough questions to make the early part of the schedule worth watching closely.
Still, there’s no reason to sound the alarm yet. North Carolina opens the season Monday night against Western Carolina, a matchup it should handle comfortably if things go the way they’re supposed to. The Tar Heels also have a manageable early slate, with Georgia standing as the only real test in the first six games.
That stretch should give Brown and the rest of the roster time to sort out how they fit together in live action. Practice can only tell you so much. Real games will show whether North Carolina is simply working through early-season growing pains or something more.
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The problem was on the other side of the ball, where Miami kept finding the answers when it mattered most. The Hurricanes turned key third- and fourth-down chances into the kind of drives that separate a close game from a comeback, leaving North Carolina with more proof that its offense can travel against elite competition, but also a reminder that the defense still has to hold up its end. [Read more 🡒]