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North Carolina was hurtling toward another loss to Kansas after a shaky half marked by turnovers and a stagnant offense.
Coming out of the second half with high energy and a lead changed everything, both for Friday night’s game and to validate Hubert Davis’ roster shakeup after the Tar Heels barely made it to last year’s NCAA Tournament.
In the end, the 25th-ranked Tar Heels had cruised to an 87-74 victory against the 19th-ranked Jayhawks, thanks to the contributions of a star freshman, a transfer portal big man and a returning senior who took on the toughest defensive assignment against Kansas star freshman Darryn Peterson.
Trailing by 10 in the first half and 37-29 at halftime, North Carolina made 18 of 23 shots at halftime and shot 24 of 36 (66.7%) in the second half en route to an almost unthinkable 58 second-half points against Bill Self’s Jayhawks.
“It validates (Davis’) thoughts and the vision he had,” said Seth Trimble, who scored 13 of his 17 points after halftime while leading the defensive effort in chasing Peterson. “It takes some of the initial stress off him, getting a big win like that. And it gives not only him, but the whole team, a lot of confidence going into the rest of the season.”
Changing course
Up until that point, this was the type of game that had eluded the Tar Heels too often lately. UNC had lost eight of nine against AP Top 25 teams last year, including one at Kansas in which the Jayhawks blew a 20-point lead but held on down the stretch at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence.
Getting a win in week one against Kansas, with fans participating in a blackout sparked largely by a social media post by star freshman Caleb Wilson, was a big turnaround. It was UNC’s first win against Kansas since November 2002, when Matt Doherty coached UNC against Jayhawks coach Roy Williams before Williams returned to his alma mater to take over the Tar Heels the following season.
The Jayhawks had won five straight meetings in the series between programs with a combined 10 NCAA titles along with that history intertwined with names like Williams, Dean Smith and Larry Brown maintaining deep ties to both schools. That run includes the 2022 national championship game in Davis’ first year, the 2012 NCAA Elite Eight and the 2008 Final Four that Kansas led 40-12.
“I wanted this new team, this new group, to have evidence of what it’s like to play in a game like this at the Smith Center, and to succeed,” Davis said. “I just wanted to give them a taste of what it’s like to be here.”
Featured efforts
The versatile 6-foot-10 Wilson, who joined Peterson to give this game a pair of potential NBA freshmen, finished with 24 points, seven rebounds, four rebounds and four steals in a strong performance from start to finish. That included showing a soft touch on multiple fade-out turns, as well as maintaining his exuberant energy, from diving to the floor to punctuating the final seconds of it by gesturing to the crowd to hear the noise.
“I want to impress my coach, I want to impress the world,” Wilson said. “I want the world to know who I am for sure.”
Seven-foot Henri Veesaar, a transfer from Arizona, tipped in a pass from Kyan Evans and then hit a missed 3-pointer from Wilson to start UNC’s second-half surge and finished with 20 points in a commanding lead against KU big man Flory Bidunga (eight points).
And there was Trimble, the 6-3 fourth-year returnee who went from a non-factor in the first half to a catalyst as UNC took control of the pace of the second half. That included Veesaar’s quick start with back-to-back scores that accelerated the pace, in which Self first waved his hands in frustration and then burned a quick timeout just two minutes later.
But Self highlighted Trimble’s defensive effort over Peterson, who scored 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting. And Davis noted that Trimble held up after the team altered its defensive plan to stop switching, leaving the perimeter players largely alone.
“He covered Darryn in a way that, to me, was fantastic,” Self said. “Caleb was probably the best player in the game. But you can make a strong case for Henri and Seth too.
“The way (Trimble) defended Darryn and played on top of everything, even though Darryn made 14 shots, that was a situation where he probably needed to take 20 or 22” to win.
Following this, Davis arrived at his post-game press conference in warm-up sports gear instead of his traditional sideline style of sports jacket and pants. He had to think the players had doused him with a celebratory spray of water in the locker room.
“I won’t remember the score, but I will remember them jumping in the locker room,” Davis said. “I will remember the smiles on their faces.”
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