It won't be a matchup the fans will remember, but two of the best teams in college basketball — the winners of the last three national championships — played over the weekend.
On Saturday, the North Carolina men's basketball team played Villanova, the defending national champions, in a scrimmage closed to the public at Finneran Pavilion. In three periods, Villanova outscored North Carolina, 114-104, with 5-point leads in the first two periods, then a tie in the third.
“The scrimmage helped us a great deal,” UNC head coach Roy Williams said in a press release. “It showed us early on that Villanova’s talent, experience and toughness was much better than ours because they were so much more active. As the game went along we got a little bit better, but it was a slap in the face for us. Hopefully, we will bounce back and be the kind of team that I think we can be."
The scrimmage was organized by two 20-minute periods, then a final 10-minute period when each team had to exclusively play zone defense.
Villanova senior Phil Booth led all scorers with a 41-point performance that included nine made 3-pointers. For UNC, graduate student Cameron Johnson scored 19 points, the most put up of five Tar Heels with double-digit points.
Notably, senior Kenny Williams, who is expected to be one of the team's leaders, was not one of the leading scorers in the contest. First-year Coby White scored 17 points, Luke Maye scored 16, Nassir Little scored 13 and Garrison Brooks scored 11 to round out the five UNC players in double digits.
On the defensive end, the Tar Heels seemed to struggle to defend shots from behind the arc. According to the release, the Wildcats made at least 20 3-pointers in the 50-minute contest.
“I think we are going to be able to shoot the ball well, but we have to get the shot that we want," Williams said. "I was most disappointed in our defensive play, rebounding and running the floor.”
After the scrimmage, Villanova head coach Jay Wright and Williams took a picture together — which was later shared on Twitter.
