Date/Time: Sunday, December 7, 2014 @ 3:00pm EST
Location: Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, NC
TV/Radio: ESPNU / Tar Heel Sports Network
North Carolina (5-2, 0-0 ACC) looks to shake off a listless effort from Wednesday's loss versus Iowa and use the defeat as fuel to the fire against East Carolina (4-4, 0-0 AAC) on Sunday afternoon. The Heels will host its second straight home game after four games away from the friendly confines of the Dean E. Smith Center. Carolina hopes to rebound from its second loss of the season by attaining victory over the Pirates as the Heels are on the cuff of embarking on an extremely tough road-trip (Kentucky-Dec. 13, UNCG-Dec. 16 & Ohio State-Dec. 20 in Chicago at the CBS Sports Classic). Sunday afternoon's contest will bring back one of the all-time best Tar Heel basketball players and a true student of the game, ECU coach Jeff Lebo.
From 1985-1989, Jeff Lebo played ball for the Tar Heels under Coach Dean Smith (received his recruiting letter from Smith when he was a ninth-grader!). During his career, Lebo earned second-team All-ACC honors in '88 and All-ACC Tournament honors three times ('87, '88, '89). Even with all the talent North Carolina has produced since '89, Lebo still ranks 24th on the UNC all-time scoring list and trails only Hubert Davis (current UNC assistant coach) in UNC career three-point shooting percentage at 42.8% (Davis shot 43.5% from 3-pt range). On top of all that, Lebo stands fifth in Tar Heels history in career free-throw percentage at 83.9%. Needless to say, Lebo enjoyed his time as a player at Carolina, but it was his knack for understanding the game that has led him down the road to coaching.
UNC Coach Roy Williams, when serving as Dean Smith's assistant coach, immediately sensed Lebo had a coaching way about him as he evaluated his innate ability to grasp basketball concepts. "A week into practice, you could see that he understood the game," Williams stated. "I was not going to be surprised at all if he ended up being a coach because he understood what it was all about."
And, that's where Lebo landed. But, it's been a long, winding coaching road that has led him to ECU. Lebo has been assistant coach at East Tennessee State, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina. Time spent as an assistant finally paid off with head coaching jobs at Tennessee Tech, Auburn, and now East Carolina.
So, here we are. Lebo brings his third team into Chapel Hill (once before with ECU in 2012 and he coached Tennesse Tech against UNC in 1999-2000 season, losing 85-59). Now, Lebo directs his ECU squad into a building that he once called home. But, on Sunday afternoon, Lebo and his Pirates are complete opposition.
"It's the one game I never look down at the other end," Lebo admitted this week. "I don't know if they look at me or not, because I'm not looking down there. I just try to focus on the game."
The Tar Heels bench will be, as well. One can be assured that Coach Williams and his staff are locked in and completely focused on righting the wrongs from UNC's stunning defeat to Iowa, 60-55, on Wednesday night. Carolina's lack of intensity throughout has been dissected by media outlets across the country and even had Coach Williams baffled after the game. A strong rebounding effort in the first half of the Iowa game succumbed to an abysmal performance in the second half that did the Tar Heels in. Carolina's ability to bounce back, just as it did after the Butler loss in the Bahamas during Thanksgiving weekend, will be a giant stepping stone for this year's team.
It wasn't just the inability to crash the boards against Iowa; in fact, the problem mainly stemmed from a particularly poor shooting performance by the Heels. Carolina must shoot the ball much better than the 27.9% showing versus Iowa, which means junior Marcus Paige definitely needs to rise to the occasion. Paige is currently averaging a 35.3% field-goal percentage (the lowest of the Heels who play more than 15.5 minutes/game) and he has seemed to force a number of shots throughout the games. And, the rush to shoot, hinges on a few things. The rest of the UNC lineup must be able to set solid screens and work the ball around better on offense to free up more open shots for Paige. In order for Paige, and the Tar Heels team to blossom on offense, all cylinders must be a go and that means not just watching someone shoot, but making good offensive moves to get teammates open.
Getting out and running will be especially key for the Heels offense and would greatly increase the chances of a Heels victory. Coach Williams' up-tempo style of play will come in handy against the Pirates. ECU has not shown itself to be a quick team this season. The Pirates are one of the slowest teams in the nation, placing 329th in adjusted tempo. Carolina's defense should be aggressive forcing turnovers such as getting its hands up to deflect passes and create havoc for the Pirates' offense. Faster is better, notably versus ECU.
On offense, Carolina will once again try to return to building a foundation in the post versus the Pirates. This will be a great gameplan for the Heels. Carolina is much bigger on paper than ECU, so that should lend itself to an area that can be exploited. ECU will dress only three players listed at 6-8 or taller, whereas North Carolina has six players on its depth chart listed at over 6-8. Kennedy Meeks has been the standout among the UNC big men and comes off another strong double-double. Meeks is averaging 14 points and 10 rebounds a game and look for Carolina to feed him the ball early and often to try to set a tone for the rest of the game. Brice Johnson has been stifled lately. Not necessarily by opposing defenses, but by his own foul trouble. Johnson started the season hot, but lately his foul problems have taken away his capability to positively affect the game. If Brice can limit his fouls and stay on the court, his height and length could pay tremendous dividends for the Tar Heels.
For the Heels, limiting ECU's free throws would be very beneficial. Carolina has already been burnt by teams who have shot a high percentage from the charity stripe and ECU has two of the best players in the nation at, both, getting to and converting from the line. B.J. Tyson ranks 10th in the nation with 44 free throws made (44-54 for 81.5%) and Caleb White has made 24-26 free throws (92.3%). This puts ECU at 12th in the nation with 140 free throws made this season (right ahead of Carolina who has made 133). Keeping the Pirates from the freebies could be quite indicative of Carolina's success.
ECU's Tyson and White also lead their team in scoring at 16.0 and 14.4, respectively. The third leading scorer on this Pirates team is a Florida State transfer, Terry Whisnant, who has played UNC on five different occasions as a freshman and sophomore for the Seminoles. Now, Whisnant brings his experience of suiting up in the Dean Dome to ECU whom, quite frankly, is looking for any advantage it can get. Whisnant scores 11.5 pts/gm and is another viable points producer for the Pirates. Interestingly enough, it's not just the ECU starters that contribute to its point production. The ECU starting lineup averages 34.8 pts/gm, but the reserves follow closely behind by averaging 29.1 pts/gm. Why is this stat important?
Well, the stat blatantly demonstrates that the ECU bench contributes immensely to its offensive numbers and Carolina's bench play will have to match and exceed expectations to control the outcome of this one. So far this season, the UNC bench is averaging 19.2 pts/gm. Not that bad, except when comparing that to a whole 10 points below ECU's bench performance. Given this statistic, UNC reserves Isaiah Hicks, Nate Britt, Joel Berry II, Joel James and others must give their best effort to ensure a Carolina victory. If the Carolina bench can produce offense and important defensive minutes, it could take some of the heat off Paige, Meeks and the other starters, allowing the Heels to spread the wealth better offensively.
East Carolina is 0-3 all-time versus North Carolina (losing in 1953, 1993 - 1st Rd of NCAA, and 2012). The Pirates are new to the American Athletic Conference this season which will offer up a tough slate of competition (UConn, Cincinnati, Temple, Memphis, and SMU). ECU has never won a road-game versus a ranked opponent in its history and it has never beaten a "Big 4" (UNC, Dook, State, Wake) team on the road.
Yes, it's nice to welcome back an old friend, Jeff Lebo, to Chapel Hill. But, Nothing's Finer than a win by Carolina!
No comments:
Post a Comment