Asheville, N.C. — This isn’t last year’s North Carolina men's basketball team. No, these Tar Heels can win — even when they really shouldn’t.
Tuesday's game, on the second day of the 2020 Maui Invitational, was far from perfect. First-year guard Caleb Love went 2-for-11 from the field in the first half. The No. 14 Tar Heels turned the ball over 24 times and committed 22 fouls. For much of the game, Stanford was in the lead (Cardinal: 19 minutes, Tar Heels: 14), and it was well deserved. But it didn’t matter — North Carolina 67, Stanford 63.
Stanford doesn’t lack talent, either. Head coach Jerod Haase is a program builder who’s found success everywhere he’s stopped, from the bench at Kansas and UNC as an assistant coach for Roy Williams, to an NCAA Tournament run at UAB. He’s recruited well — five-star first-year Ziaire Williams finished as the fourth leading scorer for the Cardinal — and Stanford’s on-court production has it ranked No. 28 in the KenPom rankings.
“It helps knowing the kind of things they’re gonna try and do, but the reality is it doesn’t matter how much I know,” Haase said. “We’re still playing against a great team, a great coach, great players and a system that has been proven over time.”
Stanford is by far the best team the Tar Heels have faced so far this season, and North Carolina’s performance was ugly. But as the second half wore on, the Tar Heels’ talent shone through, and they did what they couldn’t last year in their five single-possession losses: win gritty, toss-up contests.
“I loved how we just kept trying to make it ugly, but at the same time kept competing,” UNC head coach Roy Williams said. “The game was just decided in one or two plays.”
More than anyone else's, junior wing Leaky Black’s performance on Tuesday represented the tale of two seasons for North Carolina. The junior went to the gym every day over the summer and shot until 500 balls went through the net, and his release and confidence in shot creation has clearly improved from last year. And against Stanford, it was his efforts on both ends of the floor that sealed a UNC victory.
Black affected shot after shot from Williams — an offensively gifted future lottery pick who scored 19 points in his collegiate debut on Monday — and sealed the game with a smooth lay-in on one possession and a game-icing free throw seconds later.
“I feel like I always have confidence, I feel like (the last-minute lay up) was just being in the right place at the right time,” Black said. “I always have confidence though.”
