Watch the Tape: North Carolina Tar Heels

Well, that was fun. Kentucky found out they were playing the North Carolina Tar Heels just after 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday morning and then proceeded to run them out of the gym Saturday evening. After a bad showing in South Bend a week prior, the strong performance was welcomed by players, coaches, and fans alike. The Wildcats were outstanding in every facet of the game on their way to a 98-69 beatdown of the Tar Heels.

The outcome never felt to be in doubt Saturday night. Kentucky jumped out to an early lead, continued to build it even with Oscar Tshiebwe on the bench, and then cruised for much of the second half. It was noticeable the ‘Cats were more excited and ready to play than their counterparts which is a big credit to Coach Calipari and his staff. From effort to shooting to rebounding it was a thorough domination of North Carolina.

This was a very fun film to breakdown. As always there were teaching points to takeaway, but for the most part this was a clinic in what the Wildcats need more of each time they take the floor. We will begin by looking at the play of Sahvir Wheeler, then dig into some of the defensive plays, and finally finish with a few of the areas Kentucky still needs to improve. Let’s dive on in to this edition of watch the tape and see how the Wildcats were able to do dominate the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Sahvir Wheeler is a Star

As I stated on Twitter during the game, if we all as fans just learn to live with the rollercoaster of Sahvir Wheeler we will be rewarded with a First Team All-SEC point guard. There are some obvious flaws to his game. However, the total package brings a lot more to the table than it takes off. His ability to create a play out of thin air is more valuable to this team than any other skill there is. Oscar Tshiebwe is probably this team’s best player right now, but Sahvir Wheeler is the most valuable. Here are some of the plays he made on Saturday on his way to 26 points, just one shy of a career-high.

At this point, Sahvir Wheeler has patented this play. He seems to get one of these each game and a lot of times they come in an important moment. Wheeler set the tone for the entire game with this early back-pick steal. The ability to get just one or two “easy” baskets like this per game takes a lot of pressure off of the half court offense.

In the early going, Coach Hubert Davis tried to replicate what Notre Dame did to neutralize Wheeler. However, he failed to realize the key to playing so far off of him was also having 6’5″ Blake Wesley as the defender. That length made it extremely difficult for Wheeler to make some of his typical running layups. Against the generously listed 6’0″ R.J. Davis, Wheeler could just drive it into his chest and finish over him. Instead of keeping Wheeler out of the paint, the Tar Heels strategy just gave him a running head start on his drives.

In the second half the North Carolina Tar Heels made an adjustment, but it still didn’t work. After Wheeler dominated R.J. Davis in the first half, they gave the assignment to the 6’4″ Caleb Love to begin the second. However, he was out beyond the arc guarding Wheeler which is very difficult to do. Wheeler turned the corner easily off of this handoff from Mintz and had Love on his hip at that point. Coach Hubert Davis simply didn’t know what to do to stop the 5’9″ point guard.

Off of a missed free throw, Wheeler was able to get coast-to-coast for a layup. That simply shouldn’t be possible. However, with his elite quickness, Wheeler beat everyone down the floor to finish at the rim. You can see how #2 Love is back peddling still around the top of the key. When Wheeler sees that he turns on the jets to the rim. Again, this is an “easy” two points created out of thin air by Wheeler.

Defensive Execution

Prior to the game in the scouting report, we talked a lot about the importance of activity and aggressiveness on the defensive end. The North Carolina Tar Heels came in as one of the best offensive teams in the country. Their guards were shooting the lights out and their forwards were dominating the paint. However, Kentucky was able to neutralize a lot of that simply by playing really, really hard.

This clip is the perfect example of what I talked about before the game, being aggressive is more important than being right. That won’t be true every game, but against the Tar Heels it was. This was excellent recognition by Sahvir Wheeler and a great play on the ball. He is guarding #0 Harris who is a non-shooter. So, as Harris cuts away from the ball, Wheeler just stays and doubles the post. Bryce Hopkins comes from the low side to make a play on Bacot’s spin move as well.

Having three defenders on one guy is not ideal. However, the hustle and aggression made it all work out. Bacot had to rush his move and lost the ball. Then, on the kick out, both Davion Mintz and Jacob Toppin do a great job of scrambling to closeouts. The play ends with Hopkins getting a deflection that leads to a steal. It wasn’t textbook, but raw hustle can cover up a lot of holes.

These are the type of plays that get coaches excited in the film room. Once again, it is Sahvir Wheeler making a heady defensive play and then he gets rewarded with two points at the other end. First off, Jacob Toppin does an excellent job of making #13 Garcia come all the way out to the perimeter to get his catch. Then, he pressures him and makes him drive it right which is not Garcia’s comfort zone. With Wheeler guarding a non-shooter in #0 Harris, he sees the opportunity to just go take it off of Garcia. Those type of aggressive plays are the ones that can win basketball games.

Shot Selection

Kentucky absolutely dominated the North Carolina Tar Heels in Las Vegas on Saturday. You would have to really nit-pick in order to find many issues with the game. Even upon rewatching it, there were very few mistakes on either end of the floor. However, we do still need to address shot selection. The Wildcats continue to take too many ill-advised shots while also passing up too many good ones. Both are equally detrimental to the offense.

It is hard to knock a guy who went 5/7 from three and scored 18 points. However, Kellan Grady continues to not be aggressive enough on the offensive end. 52 three point attempts through 10 games is not enough for someone that shoots as well as he does. Plays like this one are as frustrating as any because he literally doesn’t even look at the basket coming off of the pass from Keion Brooks. When Grady sees the separation between him and his defender he should immediately be thinking about shooting. Then, his defender goes underneath Brooks which should automatically trigger him to shoot. This is made even more frustrating because the same exact thing happened on the previous possession.

Going forward, Grady needs to be thinking about how to get two or three more three point attempts per game. He also needs more two point attempts, but that is a different subject. However, at the very least, he has to look at the basket on every catch.

Now we turn our attention to the shots that need to be cut out. There is a reason why Jacob Toppin’s defender is planted with two feet in the paint as he comes off of the handoff. Having only been in the game for one minute, and with 20 seconds on the shot clock, this is an insanely bad shot. This is essentially a turnover and could get Kentucky beat in a close game.

When you work hard to get the offensive rebound only to have this shot immediately taken it can be demoralizing. Daimion Collins, like Jacob Toppin, needs to be in the do not shoot club. Kick out threes off of an offensive rebound are some of the best shots in basketball. However, a kick out 18-footer from Collins is simply a bad shot every single time.

Sahvir Wheeler certainly does not lack for confidence. For all of the good that he brings to the table, he can be even better if he simply stops shooting jump shots. Obviously he made a couple later, but they are still bad shots. He completely misses the hoop on this attempt. Kentucky won easily and it didn’t matter this game, but just ten and a half minutes into the game Toppin, Collins, and Wheeler all had taken jump shots. Those are three wasted possessions.