Here’s your weekly dive into what we took away from the last seven days of college hoops.
It’s been a great week of college basketball. The BYU Cougars ended the undefeated dreams of the Gonzaga Bulldogs in a stunning upset in Spokane and March’s potential Cinderella’s continued to define themselves with impressive performances during conference play.
From where the North Carolina Tar Heels rank among the national title contenders to the Wichita State Shockers’ NCAA Tournament chances, here’s what we learned from the last week of hoops.
1. How much should we buy into North Carolina?
Since losing to the Duke Blue Devils, the North Carolina Tar Heels have won their last four games by an average margin of 19.3 points. That stretch includes wins over the Virginia Cavaliers and the Louisville Cardinals. The winning streak has also coincided with the return of junior Theo Pinson to the starting lineup. Pinson is one of the team’s best perimeter defenders and has no doubt contributed to the +29 points per 100 possessions scoring margin the Tar Heels have achieved in the last four contests.
So, given this recent run, how much should we buy into North Carolina as a national title contender? Well, that depends on how worried you are about the Tar Heels flaws.
There are reasonable questions about point guard play, for example. Joel Berry II has the potential to be terrific, but he can also disappear (see last week’s win over Virginia and the Tar Heels’ road loss at Miami). Consistent guard play is one of the staples of national title teams and North Carolina needs Berry to play his best for six straight games if they are going to cut down the nets.
The Tar Heels are also heavily reliant on Berry and junior Justin Jackson to carry the scoring load. Jackson has turned himself into an ACC Player of the Year candidate, but with only two real creators, this is still a question mark.
The truth, though, is that every team has flaws and North Carolina doesn’t have a ton of them. They’ve certainly played like the best team in the country over the last two weeks and have the potential to do so in March.