Tonight at 5:45 p.m., the North Carolina men’s basketball team will face off against Kentucky in Las Vegas as a part of the CBS Sports Classic. It’s a big one — both teams have just one loss on the season, and Kentucky is ranked sixth in the country, one spot higher than UNC.
“This game has been marked, I’m pretty sure, for both teams for a while,” Justin Jackson said Thursday. “So being on that type of stage, being in Vegas, being two really good teams, I think it will definitely be a game to get up for.”
The Tar Heels will go into the game uncertain about Joel Berry, their star point guard who has missed the last two games with an ankle sprain. Head coach Roy Williams said in Thursday’s press conference that he hadn’t seen Berry in a practice setting and had no opinion on whether Berry would play. Jackson was hopeful but also unsure. On Friday, the team tweeted out that Berry would be expected to play, but no one knows if he will be at 100 percent.
What is certain is how the game will be played — at an up-tempo style that both the Wildcats and Tar Heels thrive in. Per kenpom.com, Kentucky’s average possession length is 13.5 seconds, the fourth-fastest pace in the nation. North Carolina ranks 12th in the nation in the same stat, averaging 14.4 seconds per possession.
The key for the Tar Heels will be getting back on defense in transition to limit the Wildcats, who love to get out in the fast break. What the Tar Heels won’t do is try to slow down Kentucky by slowing the pace themselves. Williams says in his time coaching Kansas and North Carolina, he has never told his teams to slow down.
“They are extremely athletic, they go up and down the court ...” Williams said. “But we want to play at a fast pace too. I think I’d really screw up everybody if I say we are going to start in the four corners and slow it down.”
The three stars for Kentucky this season are De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk and Bam Adebayo. Williams is familiar with all three, as he recruited each the past few years before they all decided to play for Kentucky head coach John Calipari. Williams said he watched Adebayo seven times during the forward’s sophomore and junior years of high school, and he said Monk put on as good a show as he’s seen in the Peach Jam two years ago.
There’s a reason Williams and Calipari get in recruiting battles over these high school kids — they are really good. Fox and Monk are each averaging over 15 points per game, and Adebayo has 18 blocks through 10 games this season.
That trio and Kentucky’s five-star laden roster will present a lot of challenges Saturday. But this is a marked game. North Carolina will be expecting nothing less.
