The Heels won their first game of the season 90-76 against Elon. In some ways, a lot of the preconceived notions about the Heels looked true in that game — the guards looked dominant, the Heels put up lots of points, but sometimes struggled to defend and rebound. Now the schedule gets harder, starting with a Friday night showdown at #1 ranked Kansas. Here are some things to keep an eye on.
Will Cade Tyson get on track?
Cade Tyson joined the Tar Heels this season after two years at Belmont where he developed a reputation as being a sharpshooter, especially from three. Tyson made 46.5% of his three-point tries last year for the Bruins, while averaging 5.5 attempts per game. He’s also a career 85.7% free throw shooter.
It’s obviously still very early, but Tyson has to be feeling a little pressure. After starting both of the Heels preseason games, he saw Withers draw the start against Elon. He ultimately played 16 minutes but contributed little, going 1-6 (0-3 from 3) for two points and two rebounds.
Tyson simply needs to hit a couple shots to loosen up and get into the flow of the game. His pedigree as an elite shooter makes me think he will get on track at some point, but doing so against Kansas is a tough ask. Until he does, there will be questions about whether can make the jump from Missouri Valley Conference basketball to ACC play.
Game Planning for Hunter Dickinson
The last time Carolina saw Kansas big man Hunter Dickinson was in December 2022 when he still played for Michigan. Bacot put the clamps on the big guy — Dickinson finished with nine points and eight rebounds before fouling out (Bacot finished with 26/5 if you were wondering).
As you may have heard, Bacot isn’t around anymore, and how the Heels will handle his departure and their overall lack of height is one of the biggest questions heading into this season. Dickinson is a solid interior defender as well as a career 36% three-point shooter. He sat out the Jayhawks two preseason games with a minor injury, but had an efficient 16 points on 5-8 shooting in only 21 minutes in the season opener against Howard. Jalen Washington will probably get a crack at him, but after that the options get pretty thin — at 7’2” there just aren’t many Tar Heels who can match his size. This would be a great game to see Jae’Lyn Withers make an impact. If Withers can contribute some solid minutes defending and rebounding against Dickinson, the Heels should have a shot at coming out of Lawrence with a win.
How will the Heels handle the atmosphere at the Phog?
This isn’t exactly groundbreaking news, but Kansas is REALLY good at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, particularly under Bill Self. The Jayhawks sport a 292-16 record at home during Self’s tenure. While some of these wins are against the early season cupcakes typically found on most major programs’ schedules, it is still one of the hardest places to play in all of college basketball. The crowd is always loud and actually held the Guinness World Record for the loudest roar at one point. It’s a heck of a place to play your first road game of the season.
While there’s little chance the Heels will be able to completely silence the crowd, it’s imperative that they knock down some early shots to settle their nerves. An early Carolina deficit will amp up the crowd even more. The Heels need a strong start so they can settle into what should be an entertaining game and keep the crowd from being too much of a factor.
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