UNC basketball’s next foe, Miami, is used to playing tight games

If North Carolina is going to improve its ACC cellar-dwelling 64 percent free-throw percentage, it may want to start tonight against Miami.

Through the Hurricanes’ first five conference games, Miami has lost four by an average of 5.5 points per game. Miami knows how to keep its games close, but the difference in the end has been a few clutch free throws.

“Watching the Miami game against North Carolina State yesterday, it’s a 17-point game, and (the Hurricanes) just started making shot after shot after shot,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “I’m hopeful they don’t do that against us, because the way they played down the stretch was relentless.”

Miami’s 72-70 loss to N.C. State was only three days ago, but UNC (13-5, 3-1 ACC) enters tonight’s game on an eight-day break. And there may not have been a better time for UNC to get some extended rest.

UNC guard Justin Watts hurt his ankle in the first half of UNC’s game against Clemson. Sophomore Leslie McDonald did not play that game due to bruising in his back and a collapsed lung, and freshman Reggie Bullock is dealing with swelling in his knee. Both Bullock and McDonald practiced on Monday.

“Every team has to be able to go through and be able to absorb some injuries,” Williams said. “If you start having injuries to five, six, seven people like we did last year, it’s really difficult. But, again, this break this week was good for us.”

Bullock is coming off a career game. His play suffered for a few games after his grandmother died, but he led the team in scoring against Clemson with 18 points.

“He hasn’t been as consistent as we want him to be and as he wants to be,” Williams said. “Nobody wants it more than he does.”

With or without Bullock, the Tar Heels will likely be counting on usual contributors Tyler Zeller, Harrison Barnes and John Henson.

But Miami (12-7, 1-4) coach Frank Haith said his team isn’t expecting statistics to relate to output, especially in the case of Barnes.

“With a guy that talented, you don’t really look at the numbers and what he’s doing right now,” Haith said. “I’ve seen Harrison play quite a bit in terms of high school and watching tape on him, and he’s a terrific player.

“We’re going to do our due diligence in guarding him and having a tremendous amount of respect for him as a player and knowing he’s very, very capable of having a big night.”

The Hurricanes’ greatest talent lies at the point guard position with Malcolm Grant. The junior scores 15.7 points per game and shoots better than 90 percent from the free-throw line, good for second-best in the conference.

At UNC’s point guard spot, freshman Kendall Marshall will start his second straight game. Junior Larry Drew II is UNC’s most experienced player, but he has struggled offensively. Williams made the difficult decision to foster more points.

“I don’t enjoy doing that. If you look at my track record over the years, most of the time I get the group that starts and stick with it,” Williams said. “But we were just a little stagnant offensively, and we can still get him to be extremely important to us just like it was in the Clemson game.”

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