Andy Enfield previews SMU at UNC, talented Tar Heels backcourt
SMU Basketball is set for a tough matchup Tuesday night at 8 p.m. CT in Chapel Hill as the Mustangs take on North Carolina. UNC is led by a talented backcourt of RJ Davis, Ian Jackson, Seth Trimble and Elliot Cadeau.
SMU head coach Andy Enfield compared the two styles of play between the new ACC foes and shared that they’re fairly similar.
“I think they’re a lot like us. They’re second in the league in scoring, we’re first so both teams like to push the ball in transition,” Enfield said Monday. “They’re outstanding in transition. Those guys are dynamic They can score the ball themselves. They put pressure on your defense and they drive it within the first four, five, six seconds of the shot clock, they’re at the rim. Our transition defense will be important. We just have to try to wall up and make it challenging for them at the rim.”
Boston College hosted SMU for its first ACC road game, but the environment Tuesday should be a step up for the team. Enfield’s focused on getting back on track after falling to 11-3 on the year, not the tradition of the team’s blue blood opponent.
“We played Boston College on the road right before Christmas so our guys have been on a road trip within the league and we performed well there,” Enfield said. “I know North Carolina has the tradition, but we have to try to win a game. It doesn’t matter who our opponent is right now. We’re coming off a loss. We have to play better and we have to play harder and we have to play smarter.”
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After falling to UNC’s rival, Duke, on Saturday, the Mustangs need to clean some things up offensively to get back on track. The 89-62 loss came as SMU didn’t shoot the ball from the floor well or from the free-throw line.
“Duke is very good defensively, but we we beat ourselves in the first half,” Enfield said. “We were able to move the ball, get good shots, get to the foul line and we missed too many free throws. At halftime, it should have been a one-possession game in our eyes because we gave too many free throws away and then missed some easy ones. It’s hard to do that to be down nine at halftime and then the second half they defended, but we really didn’t help ourselves. We played poorly on offense We’ve been leading the league and shooting from the field from the three-point line and been shooting 75 percent as a team from the foul line. We did not play well enough to to beat a team like Duke offensively.”
SMU and UNC do battle on the ACC Network from the Smith Center. The Tar Heels are coming off a 74-73 win over Notre Dame last weekend.
