UNC’s first game of the season left plenty of room for debate, but the bigger point is simpler: there’s work to do, and Friday night against Wofford is another chance to show progress.
The Tar Heels opened with a win over Western Carolina, and while some fans were fine with just getting to 1-0, plenty of others were frustrated by the margin and the way the game looked. The sloppiness stood out.
So did the fact that this team still feels like a work in progress instead of a finished product. That’s where the focus shifts now, because as Malone said after the game, this group has been taking “two steps forward and three steps back.”
That sounds about right based on what UNC has shown so far. The issue doesn’t seem to be talent as much as consistency.
There have been good stretches, but only in flashes. The question going into Wofford is less about whether the Heels can look good for a few possessions and more about what has to happen for that good basketball to show up more often.
One place to watch is the shot profile. Western Carolina was more than willing to let UNC fire away from deep, with defenders sagging off the perimeter and, on some possessions, two or three Catamounts loading up to stop a drive.
At times they closed out well. At other times, the Heels got clean looks from three and couldn’t cash in.
That approach also helped create problems on the glass, since all that paint traffic played a role in UNC getting out-rebounded again.
The challenge now is whether Malone can get his team to generate more movement and confusion instead of settling for stationary perimeter looks. If the Tar Heels keep finding good to great shots from outside, that’s one thing. But if the shooting stays at 30% from the field, that’s not going to get it done.
Defense is another area that needs tightening up fast. UNC essentially gave Western Carolina the same kind of invitation from the perimeter, though not by design.
The film showed too many possessions with players out of position, poor vision, and weak close-outs. It’s fixable, but the real question is how quickly the fixes show up.
This isn’t just one player or two players dragging the group down. It looks more like a team-wide issue, and it’s hard to tell how much of it comes from communication and how much comes from simply not being fully comfortable yet with what’s being asked.
Wofford doesn’t offer a perfect measuring stick either. The Terriers’ only regular season game came against Tennessee, and they shot just 31% from the field and 22% from deep in that one.
Rick Barnes has long coached tough defenses, so those numbers may say more about Tennessee than Wofford. Still, UNC would probably like to avoid finding out the hard way if the Terriers can suddenly shoot near 50% against them.
Then there’s Sayon Keita, whose night against Western Carolina was rough. He picked up two fouls early in the first half and finished with four total.
Offensively, he had just four points on 1-2 shooting, plus two more from the line. It wasn’t the kind of outing UNC needed from the freshman, especially with rebounding already being an issue.
Keita is almost certainly going to deal with foul trouble again at some point this season, which is why getting Cameron Fens eligible mattered so much. But the reality is that Fens may never get to play, which puts even more pressure on Keita to stay on the floor and contribute defensively. On the other end, it would help if Malone could find ways to get him more looks around the rim, though that depends in part on creating enough space in the paint to make those opportunities possible.
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