Tar Heels' Defensive Struggles Continue in Loss to Cal - But There’s Still Time to Right the Ship
North Carolina came into Saturday’s matchup at Cal with a clear mission: tighten up the perimeter defense. After three straight games of watching opponents light them up from deep - including a 10-for-16 second-half barrage by Stanford - the Tar Heels knew the script had to change.
Instead, it played out like a bad sequel.
Less than two minutes into the game, Cal buried its first open three. Then another.
And then another. By halftime, the Bears had hit 10 of their 16 attempts from beyond the arc and dropped 54 points in the opening 20 minutes.
The No. 14 Tar Heels found themselves in a 17-point hole, and despite a furious second-half push, they couldn’t dig out of it, falling 84-78 in Berkeley.
The game wasn’t just about missed assignments - it was about a pattern that’s become hard to ignore. In their last four games, UNC has allowed 70 made threes. That’s not just a stat; it’s a red flag.
“It’s not just the end result - ‘Oh, they hit a three,’” head coach Hubert Davis said postgame. “It’s why.
And that’s where we’ve got to look - awareness, the scouting report, closeouts, rotations. That stuff has to get better, consistently.”
Davis isn’t wrong. In the first half, UNC’s defense looked out of sync.
Rotations were late, communication on ball screens was lacking, and Cal took full advantage. The Bears didn’t just shoot well - they shot comfortably.
Too many of their attempts were uncontested, and the Tar Heels’ inability to adjust early put them in a deep hole.
Freshman guard Derek Dixon, who made his first career start, pointed to the basics.
“Some of it is communication,” Dixon said. “Some of it is just one-on-one defense.
When they drive, guys have to help, but we were leaving shooters open. Not talking on screens - just effort, overall.”
UNC did try to mix things up with a zone, but even that didn’t stick. For a zone to work, communication has to be sharp.
And right now, that’s not where this team is defensively. Dixon noted that they’ve been working more on the zone in practice lately, trying to give opponents a different look, but it’s clearly still a work in progress.
Still, the second half showed signs of life.
Led by a more vocal group - including senior captains Seth Trimble and Elijah Davis, as well as freshman standout Caleb Wilson - the Tar Heels brought a different energy after halftime. They opened the half with purpose, finally showing the defensive intensity that had been missing for weeks. Then came the full-court press, and with it, a 20-5 run that made things interesting late.
That second-half version of UNC looked a lot more like the team that was once one of the ACC’s top defensive units. They forced turnovers, closed out better, and played with the kind of urgency that had been absent in recent games.
“These last three games, I don’t know why we’ve been so bad defensively,” Trimble said. “We know that’s not who we are.
We’ve shown it. But that second half, we were able to crawl out of the deep struggles we’ve been in and be us.”
Trimble’s been through the highs and lows in Chapel Hill. After the game, he wasn’t panicked - he was measured. He brought up the 2017 team that started ACC play with two losses and still went on to win a national championship.
“We’re in a familiar position as them,” he said. “And they were able to persevere and have that outcome that every team aspires to have.
I’m not worried. I think guys after today really realized this has to change.
And I think it will.”
There’s still time. This was just the fifth game of conference play.
But the margin for error is shrinking, and the defensive issues - especially guarding the three - are no longer just a rough patch. They’re a trend.
If UNC wants to make a deep run this season, it starts with getting back to the defensive identity that’s defined some of the program’s best teams. Saturday’s second half was a step in that direction. Now, it’s about making that the standard, not the exception.