Luke Maye’s shot will go down in the history books, and rightfully so. But the North Carolina men’s basketball team’s stifling defense is to thank for its second straight Final Four appearance.
Kentucky guards De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk were neutralized by smart cross-matches orchestrated by the Tar Heel coaching staff. Theo Pinson opened the game on Fox, who finished with 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting. Justin Jackson’s length and effort slowed down Monk just enough. And Joel Berry, hobbled and thus the weakest perimeter defender, hid on Isaiah Briscoe.
Kennedy Meeks controlled the inside and picked a good night to set a career high 17 rebounds. He even added four blocks. Bam Adebayo, the Wildcats’ vaunted big man, finished with 13 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the field.
“Our main objective coming into the game was to play them straight up, wall when you got the ball inside and try to do our best job of boxing him out,” Meeks said after Sunday’s 75-73 win. “Because (Adebayo) is a strong guy and does a tremendous job of hitting the boards. As the big man, I think we did a tremendous job of executing that game plan.”
UNC held Kentucky to 41.5 percent field-goal shooting and one point per possession. It was an all-around great defensive performance against a dangerous and talented offensive team.
“Our rotations were great,” Jackson said. “Our bigs were extremely active, especially Kennedy. And so when we have rotations like that, kind of covering up for maybe the mistakes that your teammate had on defense, that makes us that much better of a defensive team.”
North Carolina has been great at times earlier in the 2016-17 season. In the Maui Invitational title game against Wisconsin, the Tar Heels held the Badgers to 0.84 points per possession. Against N.C. State at home on Jan. 8, the Wolfpack could manage only 0.66 points per possession.
In the minutiae of nonconference play or even the ACC regular season, breakdowns are commonplace. It’s part of playing a 32-game regular season and having a wide margin of error. But now that it’s March, every UNC player knows to turn the defensive dial up to 10.
“When you see somebody driving now, all five guys are reacting instead of just a couple and then two of them just looking at the play,” Pinson said. “And I think that’s a big factor on how much better we’ve gotten defensively.”
