1. Big road win in Charlottesville, as Carolina wins at John Paul Jones Arena for the first time since 2012 with a 54-44 victory. Virginia had been 14-1 at home this season prior to today.
2. Great day in the ACC for the Tar Heels. The win over Virginia is the only meeting of the season and gives Carolina the tiebreaker against the Cavaliers. And Duke's loss at Wake Forest gives the Heels a one-game lead in the league standings. This was a productive Saturday.
3. Hello, Cormac Ryan. The Carolina grad student hit six of his 11 three-point attempts and is now 16for his last 32 three-point attempts. On a day when RJ Davis wasn't hitting and Virginia--as usual--was aggressively doubling Armando Bacot, the Tar Heels had to get offense from somewhere else. It was Ryan.
4. Quietly a very solid day for Bacot. He was hit with two early fouls and sat for most of the first half. But he didn't pout and came back to finish with his 82nd career double-double. Bacot getting the rebound on a missed free throw with 53 seconds left felt like the clincher. He finished with 10 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
5. Bacot's effort in a physical game was important in a second half that saw the Tar Heels make just five field goals. In a game without great shooting, they needed every second chance and free throw opportunity that he provided.
6. One reason why RJ Davis has had such a great year: even suffering through a 1-for-14 shooting day, he keeps playing. That includes ripping the ball from Reece Beekman in an eight-point game with five minutes left, a play that Davis turned into a free throw on the other end. He still managed to score 12 points because he went 9-for-10 from the line.
7.Jalen Washington was important in his 11 first half minutes in relief of Armando Bacot. With Bacot forced to the bench at the 12:39 mark due to two fouls, Washington contributed six rebounds and four blocks. Yes, he had two turnovers and missed his only field goal attempt in that stretch, but the Tar Heels needed someone to maintain a presence inside, and Washington did that. That's two straight years he's had a big first half in Charlottesville.
8. Hubert Davis said on the Tar Heel Sports Network before the game that he felt this year's team plays with a more lively pace than the past couple of years. They proved it in the first half, putting up seven fast break points in the first half after scoring only a combined four fast break points in three full games against Virginia last season. The Heels finished with eight in that category as the second half was played almost completely in the half court--but those eight points still double the output from 120 minutes last year.
9. It wasn't pretty, but the first half was a terrific team effort. With Bacot limited and RJ Davis going 0-for-6 from the field and held scoreless, the Tar Heels still found a way to lead 26-16 at the break. The biggest part of that effort was Ryan sinking five three-pointers, but Carolina defended well at all five positions and played a steady first 20 minutes to provide some cushion in the second half.
10. Rare moment for official Jamie Luckie, as he managed to hand out bench warnings to both teams in the first 26 minutes of the game.
11. Carolina's coaches had a great game plan and some very solid in-game adjustments in the win. That included shuffling Seth Trimble and Elliot Cadeau in the second half to ensure they had the best offensive/defensive combination on the court and running sets to try to get Ryan free when he was hot.
12. One of the biggest changes in the ACC might be Virginia's band, which in the last 15 years has gone from a rag-tag, Stanford-ish band to a legitimate marching band. And at basketball games, they have a large presence--they take up nearly half the end zone closest to the visiting bench and an unscientific pregame count put them at about 95 strong. That's huge for a basketball band, and they're correspondingly loud, which is why they're right next to the visiting bench. They're a big part of games at John Paul Jones Arena.
13. Now the challenge becomes coming back with a quick turnaround against a talented Miami team on Monday night. The Tar Heels now have a very small cushion in the league--they can't afford to give it back at home against the 'Canes.
14. Key to winning at John Paul Jones Arena: make sure Tyler Zeller is there. He did the analyst work on the THSN Saturday, meaning he's now been in the building for four of UNC's five wins here.
