Lucas: Notre Dame Rapid Reactions
By Adam Lucas
1. Very solid win in all aspects for Carolina, beating a Notre Dame team that had won five out of its last six, 84-51.
2. The win means Carolina clinches a share of the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title for the 33rd time in program history, the most in the league. With a win over Duke on Saturday, the Tar Heels would win the title outright. If the two teams finish tied, the top seed in the ACC Tournament will be determined by a series of tiebreakers so complex it’s not worth examining right now (the short version is in the event a tiebreaker is needed, the Heels want Pitt and/or Wake to finish above Clemson and Syracuse in the final regular season standings).
3. Navigating a tricky situation in which the Tar Heels have seven seniors but can only play five at a time, Hubert Davis elected to go with tenure and start Duwe Farris, Rob Landry and Creighton Lebo along with RJ Davis and Armando Bacot. It helped make the decision a little easier that the other two seniors, Paxson Wojcik and Cormac Ryan, have already started multiple games this year.Â
4. Notre Dame’s best chance to win the game was to get freshman star Markus Burton hot. Carolina made sure that couldn’t happen, largely through the defense of Davis and Seth Trimble. Both Tar Heels followed Burton all over the court, limiting him to nine points and three for 11 from the field with four turnovers.
5. Not a spectacular offensive day, but a good enough offensive day. Keep in mind Notre Dame entered the game as the second best defensive efficiency team in the league in conference games; Carolina still shot 45 percent from the field and 38 percent from three. Davis led the Tar Heels with 22Â points and Harrison Ingram had an 11-point, 14-rebound double-double.
6. Davis could be even more selfish–and might have to be against better opponents. He had a solid first half, showing off a floater and a pull-up and essentially demonstrating he could score from anywhere at any time while going 5-for-9. There was one sequence when he secured a loose ball off a missed free throw and might have had a look at a three-pointer; instead, he found a teammate. Over the rest of March and April, it would be just fine if he took that shot. It’s hard to argue with the results, though. Davis had five assists on Tuesday. That’s the sixth time in the last nine games he’s had at least five assists.Â
7. On Senior Night, it was nice to see every senior make a contribution. Paxson Wojcik grabbed a couple offensive rebounds and Cormac Ryan had a very solid performance against his former team. Ryan attempted six free throws in the first half alone, equaling his total from the last four games combined. The Heels are a better offensive team when Ryan is doing more than just shooting three-pointers. Courtesy of the margin, the Tar Heels also got good minutes for Farris, Landry and Lebo at the end of the game.Â
8. And, of course, there was Armando Bacot, quietly scoring 14 points–including two three-pointers for the first time in his lengthy career–to go with his five rebounds. Bacot was also 4-for-6 from the free throw line. His improvement in that area will be important in the next month.Â
9. In the non-senior category, some really nice minutes from Jalen Washington. The Tar Heel reserve big man hit two three-pointers on his way to ten points and five rebounds in just 11 minutes.
10. Is it possible maybe we’re underrating how good this team has been in ACC play? Tuesday night marked the 17th time in 19 league games that the Tar Heels have had a double-digit lead at some point. That doesn’t count for wins, obviously, but it’s indicative of the way the team has played against conference opponents.
11. Bacot played in his 162nd game, setting the all-time ACC record. The varying number of years and games played by players in the current iteration of college basketball makes it difficult to quantify their true impact, especially in counting stats like total rebounds. Consider, then, this figure from Jody Zeugner: entering Tuesday night, Bacot ranks second in school history in the percentage of available rebounds grabbed. The leader in that category, not surprisingly, is Billy Cunningham, who secured 17.5 percent of available boards during his decorated career. Bacot, at 13.56 percent, just narrowly trails Sam Perkins and Antawn Jamison.
12. The win clinched Carolina’s best-ever 20-game Atlantic Coast Conference record. The previous best mark was 15-5 during the 2021-22 campaign, Hubert Davis’ first season as head coach.Â
13. Never know who you might see in the Smith Center on a Tuesday night (in front of a great crowd for a Tuesday night game, by the way)–Eric Church was in town for Senior Night.
14. Big one on Saturday. A win means the Heels are the outright regular season league champion and the top seed in Washington, DC, next week.Â
