UNC basketball expecting physical game against Shaka Smart’s Marquette Golden Eagles
There’s not much value to North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis in watching the Marquette game from last year. The Texas tape won’t do it either.
Even though the Tar Heels last season played the coach and team they will face this week, there’s not much to gain from the meetings against coach Shaka Smart’s former team (the Longhorns) or his current one (the Golden Eagles) to predict what will happen on Thursday in the NCAA Tournament.
This Marquette team is entirely different.
Only senior guard Greg Elliot and sophomore forward Justin Lewis remain from last year‘s roster that largely disassembled when former coach Steve Wojciechowski was dismissed. (Carolina and Duke were beneficiaries of Marquette transfers Dawson Garcia and Theo John, respectively.) Smart’s Texas team from last year played a different style that suited its personnel.
The one thing Davis expects to remain the same is the physicality.
“His teams have been consistent: they’ve been fast paced, they’ve been physical, they’ve been tough, and they’ve been hard nosed,” Davis said. “So whether it’s a different Marquette team or comparing it to Texas, those are the types of teams that he coaches. And so when we play Marquette on Thursday, we know what we’re getting into.”
One thing Davis hopes to change is the result. Carolina lost to Texas 69-67 on a last possession shot last year in the Maui Invitational, which was held in Asheville, N.C., due to the pandemic. Carolina suffered its only home loss of the season last year to Marquette 83-70, in a game played on Feb. 24 that was scheduled not even a week before after COVID-19 caused cancellations and both teams were in need of an opponent.
Carolina has not always accepted the challenge when it’s faced against a physical team this season. Davis said after their ACC tournament loss that they were bothered by Virginia Tech’s physicality. Too often the Hokies dictated the Heels’ shot selection by taking them out of position to start their offense or make an entry pass to the post.
Pittsburgh was another example of a team that physically disrupted the flow of Carolina’s offense. The Panthers were less talented on paper, but brought a fight to Carolina that it never matched. It was UNC’s lone Quad 4 loss in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings.
“I’ve been clear and straightforward with the guys about what kind of game it’s gonna be,” Davis said. “And my expectation is for us not to kick back or push back or elbow back. It’s for us to make the first kick, the first punch and to stand our ground and plant our feet. That is what is required for Thursday’s game and if you’re not ready for that then let me know.”
Plant. Stand. Fight.
Those were the key words Davis wrote on the dry erase board in the visitor’s locker room at Cameron Indoor Stadium just before the Heels knocked off then-No. 4 Duke in the regular season finale.
Plant your feet.
Stand your ground.
Fight back.
“That’s kind of been what we’ve been living on since that game,” UNC junior forward Armando Bacot said. “We’re trying to go out there and punch people in the mouth first now. So I think that would really be something we need to do come Thursday.”
Smart was watching. And it made an impression on how Marquette will prepare for the Heels.
“Their win over Duke at the end of the regular season was just an extreme — I don’t know how many teams would have been able to go into that setting on that day and win that game,” Smart said. “And they just went and took the game down the stretch so it shows what they’re capable of.”
UNC senior forward Leaky Black said he liked “where we’re at” in terms of momentum heading into the tournament despite their loss to Virginia Tech. Black said he believed everyone was buying into their respective roles and, with Davis in his first year as coach, it took some time for that transition to happen.
“The last month I feel like we’ve been more consistent with it,” Black said. “There’s times this season where we’ve been real inconsistent. You see a team that’s one of the best teams in the country, then we’ll come out the next game and lose a game we shouldn’t lose. So I feel like we’ve been more consistent.”
Black and Brady Manek are the only players who have played on NCAA teams that have advanced. Black was a freshman when the Heels reached the Sweet 16 in 2019 as a No. 1 seed before losing to Auburn. Manek has never made it past the second round, including last season when his No. 8 seed Oklahoma squad lost to No. 1 seed Gonzaga.
They’re also the only two who have “real” tournament experience. Bacot said he doesn’t have much of a memory past the hotel room as last year’s bubble kept teams isolated due to COVID concerns when they weren’t playing.
He does think the finality of losing to Wisconsin 85-62 in the first round last season is somewhat of a motivator heading into Thursday’s game with Marquette.
“Just knowing there was no more basketball to be played, us as a team — we’ll never get that team back — and it just wasn’t a good feeling,” Bacot said. “That’s something that Coach Davis kind of talked to us about yesterday. We’re not going out how we did last year.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2022 at 5:40 AM with the headline "UNC basketball expecting physical game against Shaka Smart’s Marquette Golden Eagles."