Aidan Travis

Mon March 6

Sports Journalism

North Carolina preview:

                                                North Carolina’s Hope to Win it All

North Carolina is looking to win this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The Tar heels lost in the finals last year to Villanova by a score of 77 to 74 by a buzzer beater in a game that was surely one to remember. Looking for a bounce back from last year’s heart break, coach Roy Williams, is leading his squad to a playoff run.  The team is led by seniors, Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks, with team leading scorer Justin Jackson. Coach, Roy Williams, is in his 14^th season with North Carolina and in that span he has had over 750 with the team, putting him at 15^th all time. Only six teams have more wins in march madness than coach Williams, his teams are 65-23 in twenty-five appearances, that ties him at second place behind Coach K from duke (88). His teams have made twenty consecutive NCAA tournament appearances.

The Tar heels are ranked number one in the ACC tournament, with their first game being against the winner of the Syracuse-Miami game. It is looking good for UNC moving on to the semi-finals, because earlier this year they beat Syracuse by a score of 85-68. The tar heels did lose to Miami this year 77-62. Miami did lose to Syracuse earlier this year and they are on a two game losing streak, UNC has a good chance that they won’t have to play Miami.  Most recently UNC beat Duke by the score of 90-83 who is ranked fifth in this tournament, further showing their strength in the tournament. Their latest game against duke was a close game, but they came away with the victory. A few defensive mistakes were made, such as when Justin Jackson fouled Grayson Allen for a four-point play, however their offense could pick up the mistakes made on the defensive side of the ball. Joel Berry II lead the team with 28 points and he went 5-5 from the three-point line and he scored a crucial 7 straight points to help push the team to a victory. Isaiah Hicks had 21 points of his own.  This game consisted of 24 lead changes. Duke shot 51 percent in the first half, but fell to an abysmal 37 percent in the second half. UNC rebounded tremulously, getting 15 second chance points compared to dukes 5.  This is huge for UNC going into the ACC tournament, beating their biggest rival and playing so well on the boards. Even as favorites, when it comes to tournaments playing your best basketball is always important.  At Half time of this game, Michael Jordan revealed the apparel partnership between Jordan and North Carolina.

Some of North Carolinas key players are Justin Jackson, Joel Berry II, Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks. All of which are scoring over 11 points per game. Justin Jackson, a jr. from Tomball, Texas, is leading the team in minutes per game and points per game. It is vital that he stays healthy for the duration of this tournament, if the team wants to win a national title. Joel Berry II is another very important piece of the team, as he is scoring the second highest on the team and as the highest free throw percentage on the team with a minimum attempt of 20 attempts. Berry also has the highest three-point percentage on the team.  Kennedy Meeks is tearing it up on the boards this year and averaging almost a double-double per game, with 12.5 PPG and 9.1 RPG. He is a key factor to UNC success and getting second chance points in the upcoming tournaments.  With Justin Jackson and Joel Berry II both being juniors, the team has a great future for next year as well.  The team only consists of four seniors, four juniors, two sophomores, and four freshmen, making this a largely unexperienced team. With four freshmen on the team, the inexperience could hurt the team later on into the tournament.

Certain things I could add: Talk about certain plays that the team runs that can lead to their success. Talk more about past games and go in depth with the games.