Earlier this season the North Carolina men’s basketball team defeated No.20 UNLV and looked to be turning the season around.
But the next week, instead of building off of momentum, the Tar Heels opened the ACC season with an ugly loss to Virginia.
UNC will enter Saturday’s game with a similar scenario. Almost one year after a blowout defeat to Florida State, the Tar Heels returned to Tallahassee last weekend and defeated the Seminoles for their first conference win. Now, UNC will have to ride the wave of momentum into the Maryland game to avoid squandering another opportunity to turn the season around.
“I said we followed up UNLV and didn’t play very well,” coach Roy Williams said. “Let’s follow up this one and play better.”
In order to compete with a Maryland team that is coming off of its own momentum-building win — a last-second win against No.14 N.C. State — the Tar Heels will have to control the boards.
The Terrapins rank second in the nation in rebounding margin with 11.1 advantage and pull in 43.2 rebounds per game.
By comparison, the Tar Heels also grab 43.2 rebounds per game, but the team is ranked 32nd, only holding a 6.6 rebounding advantage against its opponents.
“We’ve had some great rebounding games this year, but we’ve had some spells where we didn’t rebound the ball,” Williams said. “I think last year we either led the entire nation in rebound margin or came very close. (This year) It’s more of a team rebounding thing, it’s a little more of having to get some help from the perimeter players.”
One major factor in Maryland’s dominance on the boards is the emergence of 7-foot-tall sophomore Alex Len. Len not only leads the team in scoring with 13.5 points per game but also averages 8.1 rebounds per contest.
“He’s improved a great deal,” Williams said. “He’s stronger, quicker, more aggressive, mentally, physically. He was pretty doggone good last year. He really bothered us a lot particularly in the game up there, but just the consistency in his effort and the condition of his body and the success that he’s having.”
While Maryland relies on a solid presence in the post to snatch rebounds, the Tar Heels have made rebounding a team-wide responsibility.
Sophomore forward James Michael McAdoo leads the team in rebounds, but guards Reggie Bullock and P.J. Hairston are also key rebounders for the team.
“Coach Williams’ teams always rebound well, and this year it’s more of a collective effort,” freshman point guard Marcus Paige said. “We don’t have (Tyler Zeller) or (John Henson) pulling in double-digit rebounds every night, but we have all of our guys committed to try to own the boards.”
North Carolina will have to fully commit to boxing out and grabbing rebounds to overpower the Terrapins Saturday afternoon.
Other Notes:
Williams said that he’s doubtful that Leslie McDonald will play against Maryland. This will be the third game McDonald has missed since tweaking a knee a little more than a week ago.
Luke Davis is also unlikely to take the court against Maryland after injuring an ankle. He didn’t play against Florida State with the ankle injury.
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