Jae'Lyn Withers shares how NHL's 4 Nations Face-Off sparked North Carolina basketball

At times, it’s been a roller coaster of a season for the North Carolina Tar Heels. However, after winning four games in a row, it seems like the Tar Heels have turned things around in recent weeks.

Speaking after Monday’s win over Florida State, star Jae’Lyn Withers explained that the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off sparked this change. In particular, how watching the game between the United States and Canada that started with three fights in nine seconds led to an attitude shift.

“I would say it’s been from [Hubert Davis],” Jae’Lyn Withers said. “He brought up, I believe it was a point from the NHL, the Canadian team and the USA team. The first nine seconds of the game they, instead of just playing hockey like a normal game, they dropped the gloves, put up the sleeves, and were ready to duke. I think he kind of wanted to imprint that on us and show us we can’t be reactors. We have to throw the first punch.”

North Carolina has played three games since Fight Night broke out at the 4 Nations Face-Off. They’ve won the rebounding margin by double-digits in each of those games. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Tar Heels also won all of those games by double-digits. Prior to that, North Carolina had been out-rebounded in the previous three games.

“We watched it today before film,” Withers said. “Before pregame.”

Jae’Lyn Withers isn’t the only Tar Heel who thinks the fights and what they symbolized have been helpful for North Carolina. Seth Trimble also praised how the video has boosted the team’s effort levels.

“It was something that we needed to see,” Trimble said. “We saw that those players took pride in the jerseys that they had on. Team USA was proud to represent Team USA and they were willing to fight and just do everything they needed to do for the team to get a win, and he just carried that same message to us. We’re North Carolina. The history here, the team that we have, who we’re playing for. We have no choice but to fight. Throw our gloves down and to get dirty. So, it was a great message.”

On the back of their four-game winning streak, North Carolina is now 18-11 overall and 11-6 in ACC play. That’s sixth in the current conference standings with just three games left to play this season. So, while winning the conference in the regular season is out of reach, the Tar Heels do have the opportunity to build momentum going into the ACC Tournament.

Next up, North Carolina is set to host Miami on Saturday.