By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo Credit: UNC Athletics
The North Carolina Tar Heels suffered their first loss of the season to the Michigan State Spartans, 74-58, on Thanksgiving Day on Thursday night.
Henri Veesar and Caleb Wilson led the way for the Tar Heels, but it felt like a quiet performance, especially from Wilson. The Spartans were in command in the second half, and when they went on a 13-0 run, the Heels didn’t have an answer for them.
Spartans head coach Tom Izzo rolled into his players in the huddle during a timeout and reset them. The Spartans outplayed the Tar Heels. Carolina consistently struggles to start the game slowly or to implode in the second half.
The Tar Heels got punched in the mouth in the second half. The Spartans shot 62.1 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes. Michigan State finished the game 26-for-50 on two-point shots.
How about the point guard battle? Spartans guard Jeremy Fears Jr. got the best out of Kyan Evans. Fears Jr was fearless and had a strong game. He finished with a career-high 19 points and added seven assists. Evans didn’t match his performance, as he only scored four points.
Carolina didn’t match the same intensity that the Spartans brought to the court. Carolina was inconsistent in boxing out. They took too many threes and took contested shots.
The Tar Heels needed to be more gritty and nastier. For the Tar Heels to have more success against elite teams, they need to feed the ball more to Veesar and Wilson and minimize shooting too many threes. The Tar Heels also struggled with the five-spot. There were tons of defensive issues.
Second-chance points affected Carolina as well. It could have made a difference in the game had they taken more second-chance points.
Carolina will play the Kentucky Wildcats on Tuesday night.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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