North Carolina's defensive meltdown in Maui last week made its way to the continental United States on Wednesday as No. 10 Alabama sliced and diced its way to a 94-79 beatdown of the No. 19 Tar Heels inside Chapel Hill as part of the ACC/SEC challenge.
The Crimson Tide shot 49.3% from the field and led for all but the opening three minutes and 21 seconds of game action, handing UNC its second-largest home loss of the Hubert Davis era.
It was a clinic of what to do on offense for Alabama, which hit 12 3-pointers in the win and has now scored 85 points or more in six of its nine games this season, but equally as crucial to the outcome was UNC's 40-minute clinic on what not to do on defense.
It started early in the game when UNC, over and over again, failed to get back in transition and gave up easy looks either at the rim or in the corner -- two sweet spots Alabama's offense loves to target on its heat map. Grant Nelson is 6-foot-11 -- not the easiest guy to lose in a crowd! -- but the Tar Heels just three minutes into the game let him attack right to the rim in transition.
It continued elsewhere, too, with UNC showing its defense is not just bad in transition. The lack of threats protecting the rim in particular was glaring in this one, too. Mark Sears put his head down and got to the cup when he wanted with very little resistance. Same for Labaron Philon. Alabama's offense does a good job of mixing things up and forcing chaos with switches, but UNC took the bait frequently and gambled at inopportune times to make its back-end rim protection look nonexistent.
Perhaps most maddening of all for Davis and his team was the UNC defense failing to close out on shooters or just leaving them open entirely. Alabama is known for nothing if not its relentless willingness to shoot 3s. That's top of the scouting report material. Yet time and again, UNC left guys on their own around the arc to bury them -- which Alabama happily did with 12 made 3s on 33 attempts.
Twelve made 3s is just a normal day at the office for Alabama's high-flying attack. But Alabama, short-handed after losing top 3-point shooter Latrell Wrightsell Jr., also made 14 layups in the game. It was a breakdown of scheme and a lapse in effort that exacerbated an ugly start to the season.
Now 4-4, North Carolina is off to its worst start since the infamous 2001-02 season, where it opened 3-5 before finishing 8-20 under Matt Doherty. That's not good for the Tar Heels in any year, but it's unacceptable given the talent level and preseason expectations.
There's plenty of reasons to be hopeful for improvement and progress for this team, of course, which centers around star RJ Davis and some quick maturation we've already seen from freshmen Ian Jackson and Drake Powell. But the inability to stop any team on defense the last two weeks is a problem that may persist if it can't do simple things well and get back to basics. And soon.
