Let It Breathe.

 

Some games are breezy like a good margarita. You can kick back, sip on it steadily, let the booze do its work, and wind up pleasantly buzzed off an easy W. Some, like walking into Arizona's home barn in the tourney last year and smoking them, require vigorously popping the champagne. Some are a shot of chartreuse: bitter and you're glad when it's finished. (See: last year's debacle against Georgia Tech.) Yesterday's road tilt at JMU, however, was a wine game. Sometimes you get the result you want only after opening the bottle and letting it breathe a bit.

This particular vintage, bottled in Harrisonburg, VA, carried strong top notes of last year's run-in with Boston College. This is to say that Carolina got into a rock fight with an inferior opponent, played uncharacteristically listless basketball for a stretch, and looked just generally out of sorts until about the third quarter. At which point, Deja Kelly did exactly what she did in Chestnut Hill last year: decided "We are absolutely the hell not losing this game," and made it so. The Heels trailed 34-30 at the break, and Kelly had heretofore only tallied two points. She came out of the half with a flamethrower, finishing with a team-high 22 along with five rebounds, two assists, and two thefts.

Deja was in position for those second-half pyrotechnics because Eva Hodgson and Alyssa Ustby absolutely balled out, keeping the Heels in it with 18 and 15 points respectively. Eva shot a a blazing 50% behind the arc, and tacked on two assists and a key rejection for good measure. 'Lys racked up eight boards, five dimes, and two blocks in another display of her supreme versatility. Anya Poole only notched six points but cleaned the glass with aplomb en route to 12 monster boards. Destiny Adams and Paulina Paris didn't flash much on offense, but played lovely defense for stretches, including Des continuing to demonstrate what is becoming something like a preternatural ability to jump passing lanes. Kennedy Todd-Williams had something of a quite night, notching a 8-2 line with a steal before succumbing to foul trouble, but she was her usual imposing presence defensively, keeping the Dukes' offense out of both rhythm and position on a number of vital possessions.

Teonni Key had four rebounds and a steal in 14 minutes, but given what we saw in the previous game, it feels safe to assume that she'll be a huge part of the rotation after she's gotten fully up to game speed. Malu Tshitenge only logged one minute of play, but I have to think a road dub was still a pretty good birthday gift. Happy belated, Lu!!!!!!!

Games like this aren't uncommon early in the season, and sometimes taking the win with plenty of areas to emphasize for improvement is better than an absolute blowout. The Heels have a stiff test ahead on Thanksgiving,  facing Oregon in what will amount to a home game for the Ducks at the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, OR. Until then, they let it breathe, and we can all savor the bouquet of the first road win of the year and a 4-0 squad. Y'all be well, and as always, Go Heels!!!

TC-Who?

 

Carmichael wasn't as full or rowdy as it usually is this afternoon, but it didn't seem to matter much for UNC as they cruised to a 75-48 demolition of TCU. Five Tar Heels racked up double-digit scoring on the day, paced by Toddy and Alyssa's 14 points each. Des logged a career-high 10 along with seven boards, continuing the absolutely massive leap she's taken from last year's freshman performance. Deja put up a 12-6-7 and is clearly well-evolved into her role as the primary floor general this year, though her ankle was obviously still bothering her. The MVP of the day though, at least to my eyes, was Anya Poole, whose 10 points and seven boards only tell a fraction of the story in terms of what she did out there today.

The only comfort I could possibly offer the Horned Frogs (if I felt like it, which I do not) is that it could've been a whole lot worse. Had they not shot a blistering 37.5% from behind the arc, this would have been something closer to a 40- or 50- point whooping. And they bombed all those threes because they quite literally had no other choice. And this is where we need to give Anya ALL her flowers. She calmly and casually decided that absolutely no business was getting done within eight feet of the rim today. Like, none whatsoever. TCU's posts could not establish position at any point, couldn't even try to call for an entry pass, because Anya pit-bulled them all game long. Her footwork, her positioning, her strength and body control were as close to flawless as you're going to get. It was one of the best individual defensive efforts I've ever seen in Carmichael, full stop. Her control of the paint meant that the rest of Carolina's murderous defense was free to do what it does best: swarm and snuff out everything. The Frogs, even with that stellar 3PFG%, only shot 25% from the floor, and as Matt Krause pointed out on Twitter, that means they only shot 15.6% on twos. (Read that again.) Tack on UNC forcing 24 turnovers and winning the rebounding advantage 47-30 and it's a wonder the game was this close. (To give TCU their props, it's not like UNC conceded the three-point line to shut down everything else. They simply shot the lights out on what were mostly well-contested looks.)

It was a sign of how dialed in the defense is that no matter what lineup combinations Coach Bang put on the floor (and she ran out some really fun, interesting variants today), there was virtually no difference in how absolutely suffocating the are. 

Look, it wasn't all great for the Heels today. The offense was choppy in stretches, and they continue what is a worrisome trend that goes back to last year of mediocrity in free-throw shooting. You can get away with that against an over-matched opponent, not so much in March. It should be noted that some of the offensive struggles today were due to TCU running a press-and-trap defense for most of the game, which is something I consider both a supremely annoying strategy and just plain cowardly for any team other than University of Alaska Anchorage, whose patented "Mayhem" defense is too dope to be mad at. They finally stopped when Coach Bang gave them a taste of their own medicine for a few possessions down the stretch which they did not enjoy one bit.

Some other quick highlights: Ali and Lu were extremely good defensively when Anya sat, and the Lu-Anya two-big lineup looks to have taken a big step forward defensively. There was also some nifty passing from the pair of them that we hadn't seen before. I'm not sure exactly how much Deja isn't trusting her jumper right now because of that ankle, but it didn't prevent her from absolute afterburner speed in transition and she was flying around like always on defense. And we must not leave before shouting out Toddy's preposterous move late in the game; a sort of modified-Eurostep-ball-fake where she exploded for a finish at the rim. I'm not sure anyone on TCU had functioning ankles left after that play. It was so filthy the whole bench was laughing about it for a solid few minutes afterwards.

Overall, it was a dominant performance from a dominant team, and UNC moves to 2-0 with some things to work on but also a lot that's already clicking in high gear. This team is on its way to big, big things, and we're lucky to bear witness. Until next game, y'all be well, and as always, Go Heels!

Light.

 

Toddy flashed to the left, just behind the arc, and buried her second consecutive trey to open the third quarter. The Heels were en route to a 91-59 demolition of Jackson State. That moment, when the roof seemed to come off Carmichael, was an echo, or maybe just a reiteration, of the best moments of the past several seasons. We were here again, standing in our barn, watching the Heels cook. The defense was exactly what it was the last we saw them; a beautiful, exacting calculus of stifling precision. The offense, even with a hobbled Deja Kelly, was majestic. Toddy and 'Lys and Eva were pure fire, and Destiny Adams has clearly taken a massive leap from her freshman year. She jumped two passing lanes on the way to four steals, but the first is the one I'll remember. Snatched the ball out of thin air, hit the afterburners, and just streaked up the floor coast-to-coast for a bucket. She's miles ahead of last season on both ends already. And Paulina Paris, GOOD GAWD, y'all. Scores at all three levels and has absolutely FILTHY handles. They're not even fully healthy yet, but this team is about to wreck some shop.

We saw old friends on Wednesday too. Our beloved section mates Ginnie and Jean, and our seatmates from the past few years Jeff and Debbie, who we thought we'd lost last season but were back after some health issues. It was so wonderful to see them again, to hug them and watch Carolina put down a whompin' on an opponent. It felt like what it always feels like in Carmichael: home.

This past August, Ags and I went to the Outer Banks. We met up with our friend Joshie (who married us) and his wife Sarah and their adorable kiddo Frank. On the way down, we stopped at a botanical garden and at Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers pioneered human flight. We also stopped at several lighthouses, relics long since out of both utility and time now, but they were beautiful and they fascinated me. I can't stop thinking about them, even now.

Out there, at the edge of the state, far from Tobacco Road, one thing still holds true of North Carolina: There is a basketball hoop in damn near every driveway. Back home in Chapel Hill, there are three courts close enough that we can hear the pick-up games grunting and calling fouls, or the kids standing alone, shooting free throws, from our back porch. On the Banks, you drive narrow, two-lane streets where people don't care about speed limits, but there are still kids getting up shots in driveways, dreaming of a time when they might be hitting shots in Carmichael or the Dean Dome or Reynolds or  or (if they have no taste) Cameron Indoor.

The lighthouses, though? They might be an even purer distillation of what UNC Women's Basketball is going to be this year.

The French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel was born in 1788. He devised a lens of sectional, concentric parts of glass, allowing the light to be channeled in a specific direction. Prior to that, lighthouses just lit what amounts to a very big lantern. After Fresnel's invention, they could aim the light, point it out the the specific dangerous waters they needed to warn people about. There was a a focus and purpose to this, a direction. If you've ever done time in a theater, you've hung plenty of lights with these lenses inside them up in the grid. You also may have seen them if you've ever been in a basketball arena, because they hang up there too.

Last year, the Sweet 16 showing, the sheer velocity and adrenaline, was an absolute light beam. It shone a light we all could see and it was lovely to behold. But this year feels focused, feels refracted and shined out to a specific point. This year, the Heels stand in a light with purpose, a light meant to shine and reflect on them and them alone. This year, they ARE the light.