Tag: Fluid

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Hubert Davis made changes to North Carolina’s starting lineup during the weekend for the fourth time this season, and the coach said Monday that his team’s first group won’t be carved in stone as the Tar Heels move forward through ACC basketball league play.

Already small UNC downsized even more two days ago, returning 6-foot-3 Seth Trimble and 6-8 Ven-Allen Lubin to the opening lineup against Boston College, while shifting 6-6 Drake Powell and 6-10 Jalen Washington to the bench.

Those moves meant the Tar Heels rolled out four guards who are listed at 6-4 or shorter, with Elliot Cadeau, RJ Davis and Ian Jackson remaining in place in the starting lineup. UNC went on to rotate and use Powell (27 minutes of action off the bench) and Washington (26 minutes of action off the bench) plenty in different lineup combinations as the game extended into overtime.

“It’s a fluid situation,” Hubert Davis said Monday on the weekly videoconference call for ACC basketball coaches, when asked about his approach on starting assignments at this juncture of the season. “It’s matchups in regard to starting the game, the rotations. It is a fluid situation. It’s not fluid in some positions, but in other positions it is fluid. It’s all determined, really, on the rhythm of us and just the matchups in terms of who we’re playing. And so every game, I look at it that way. There isn’t going to be a set five. It will be determined by matchups and how guys are playing and rotations. There’s a number of factors that will go into who starts the game.”

Carolina (13-8 overall, 6-3 ACC) travels to tangle with Pittsburgh (13-6, 4-4) on Tuesday night, a matchup that closes the month of January for the Tar Heels and sets in motion a pivotal portion of the conference schedule. Across the next four games, UNC has road stops at Pitt, Duke and Clemson — all of them opportunities to secure profitable Quad 1 victories in the NET rankings — with a Feb. 8 home date against Pitt sandwiched in between. By the night of Feb. 10, when UNC plays at Clemson, the Tar Heels’ NCAA Tournament résumé will have taken on a clearer shape.

Lubin had put together a three-game stretch of serviceable contributions, averaging 8.7 points and 6.7 rebounds off the bench against California, Stanford and Wake Forest, prior to UNC overcoming Boston College 102-96 in overtime. Washington, though, became a major factor against BC with 18 points, six rebounds and three assists. He tied a career high in scoring, and his playing time doubled Lubin’s 13 minutes of game action.

Meanwhile, Trimble logged 42 minutes of game time, the most for any Carolina player against BC. He was back in UNC’s starting lineup after an eight-game absence, and responded by delivering 18 points and a career-best 12 rebounds. Trimble supplied the Tar Heels’ last four points of regulation, including a left-handed turnaround in the lane that tied the score with 12.9 seconds remaining.

Trimble started the first 12 games of the season, before suffering a concussion during a Dec. 28 practice session. After UNC survived BC, Trimble said Hubert Davis hadn’t mentioned his reasoning for changing the starting lineup this time around.

Cadeau and RJ Davis have started all 21 games for the Tar Heels. Veteran forward Jae’Lyn Withers started UNC’s first seven games of the season, until the freshman Powell replaced him during the Maui Invitational. Lubin has five starting assignments in the post, and Washington has compiled the other 16. The freshman Jackson has started nine straight games, and produced a scoring average of 18.6 points per game across that span.

“The four-guard lineup worked against UCLA really well, and then we practiced it a little bit after that,” Trimble said Saturday, referring to Carolina’s rally past the Bruins four days before Christmas. “But then I got hurt. So maybe we would’ve gone to that before now, but I don’t know. I’m just here to play, no matter what.”

Pitt certainly doesn’t lack for size with a starting group that includes 6-10 bruiser Cameron Corhen and 7-footer Guillermo Diaz Graham, along with 6-7 forward Zack Austin. The Panthers bring 6-5 guard Damian Dunn off the bench as a sixth man, and also rotate in 6-3 guard Brandin Cummings, 6-11 forward Jorge Diaz Graham and 6-8 forward Amsal Delalić as subs.

But Pitt has been out-rebounded in ACC league play by an average of 5.1 boards per game. And the Tar Heels, for all of their limitations down low, are out-rebounding their ACC opponents by a margin of 2.1 boards per game. Carolina has lost the rebounding battle to Louisville, Stanford and Wake Forest in its three conference defeats. UNC grabbed a healthy 36-23 rebounding advantage two days ago against Boston College, including 12-6 on the offensive glass.

Pitt’s pair of 6-3 guards, Jaland Lowe (17.6 points per game) and Ishmael Leggett (16.6 points per game), lead the team in scoring on the season. Near the end of last season, the lefty Lowe finished with 17 points against UNC in the ACC Tournament semifinals.

“What’s going to be huge for us the remainder of the ACC is, how consistent can we be?” Hubert Davis said Monday. “How consistent can we be offensively taking good shots, taking care of the basketball. How consistent can we be defensively getting stops, rebounding and defending without fouling. It just is what it is. That’s just going to be the key for us, our consistency.”