Off the cuff: Carolina went from its highest scoring output Saturday Feb. 6 against Duke to its lowest scoring output Saturday Feb. 13 at Virginia.
The pace at which Virginia plays, coupled with the fact that the Cavs are better than the Blue Devils, explains a lot of that away.
But the Tar Heels had no players in double figures and shot the worst they've shot all year.
In an interview prior to the Virginia game, Coach Roy Williams noted that the way the Cavs pack in the defense, you've got to hit some shots from outside.
Instead, Carolina had its second worst three-point shooting night, hitting only two of 16 from beyond the arc. Missing nine in a row in the first half was even more of a killer as Virginia got out to a 17-point lead early and the Heels played catch up the rest of the night against one of the nation's best defenses.
After getting ahead 2-0, Carolina missed 11 shots in a row while Virginia was busy hitting five three pointers.
As Coach Williams said, in low possession games (which most against Virginia are) each possession means more. The pressure to come back might have been just too much for this team to endure.
The Cavaliers were actually ripe for an upset as they shot poorly and allowed the Heels several opportunities to cut a 17-point deficit to six or seven points.
As an aside, Creighton Lebo, son of former UNC star Jeff Lebo, scored his first bucket as a Tar Heel late.
Who knows if the fallout from the maskless party that a couple of Tar Heels attended after the Duke win had any effect on Carolina but you have to figure the mental aspect wasn't there for this game.
During the week, Coach Williams downplayed the event by saying " let's not make it out like we charged the Capitol building or anything like that."
Of course he's right that the offence was minor in the grand scheme of things and a bigger deal was made out of it than should have been. But can you imagine the uproar had he said, "let's not make it out like we burned and looted Minneapolis or anything like that?" An equally good analogy that probably wouldn't have set well with the cancel culture advocates.
Virginia 60, Tar Heels 48 Heels can't mask their lack of offense
North Carolina, possibly still reeling from revelations of a maskless party, came out listless, getting down 21-4 early and went on to lose to ACC's top team Virginia 60-48 in Charlottesville. (2/13)
It was the Tar Heels fewest points in a game and in a half (18) and the worst shooting (34.5 percent) in a game this season. For the first time in a long time (1966) the Tar Heels failed to have a scorer in double figures. That all resulted in the Cavaliers' seventh straight victory over Carolina.
Virginia hit five three pointers in the first nine minutes of the game to streak out to that 21-4 lead. Oddly enough, the Tar Heels outscored the Cavaliers the rest of the way as Virginia shot just 39 percent themselves and relied on the three-point shot to hold the Heels at bay.
The Cavaliers had more three-point baskets (10) than two-point baskets (9) to keep Carolina from getting the margin closer than seven the rest of the way.
"Their defense is always good," UNC coach Roy Williams said, pointing out half a dozen relatively easy baskets at the start of the game that the Heels missed. "We needed to make some of those early. That would have really helped us."
Coach Williams added that Virginia's big guys were tough for the Heels to handle out at the perimeter. That was an understatement as UVA's Jay Huff, a 7-footer, hit three of five three pointers while Sam Hauser, a 6-foot-8 forward, hit four of six three pointers.
Add that to the fact that Carolina missed all nine of its three-point shots in the first half and only managed two of 16 threes for the game and Coach Williams said that's going to make for a long night.
The Tar Heels were down by just nine at the half but didn't really threaten to cut into that lead until midway through the second half when the Heels turned the ball over twice with a chance to cut it to just seven. Instead, the Cavs scored the next four points and it never got closer than nine the rest of the way as Virginia got the lead up to 16 before settling for the 12-point margin.
Virginia, led by Huff's 18 points and Hauser's 17 points, improve to 15-3 and 11-1 in the ACC while the Tar Heels, led by Walker Kessler's nine points, falls to 12-7 and 7-5 in the league.
Carolina's Tuesday game against Virginia Tech has been postponed due to COVID so the Heels next scheduled game is next Saturday against Louisville.
UNC's Kerwin Walton goes up for a contested shot. (UNC sports information photo by Maggie Hobson.)