No Room to Operate: SMU’s physical blueprint shut down UNC’s bigs

4 days ago 2

For the first time all season, North Carolina was the nail, not the hammer.

North Carolina (13-2, 1-1 ACC) fell 97-83 to SMU (12-2, 1-0 ACC) in a classic trap game Saturday, undone by a defense that never found its footing. The Mustangs shot 60% from the field, including 51.9% from 3-point range, and churned out a staggering 1.426 points per possession. They were even better after halftime, piling up 58 points while hitting 71.4% from the floor and 60% from beyond the arc.

The Tar Heels had no answer for Boopie Miller (27 points, 12 assists) and Corey Washington (23 points) as SMU turned every trip into an easy look. While Miller and Washington stole the show on the perimeter, the Mustangs quietly controlled the game inside on both the offensive and defensive glass.

SMU not only neutralized Henri Veesaar and Caleb Wilson, it also exposed North Carolina’s up-and-down backcourt. The Tar Heels actually shot well enough to stay competitive — 48% from the field and 43% from 3 — but they make their living in the paint, and SMU effectively dismantled their inside-out attack.

Anchored by a bruising frontcourt of 7-foot-2, 272-pound Samet Yigitoglu and 6-foot-10, 230-pound Jaden Toombs, the Mustangs bottled up Veesaar and Wilson, snapping a three-game run in which both Tar Heel big men had recorded double-doubles in the same contest. Neither reached that benchmark Saturday.

“They’re a physical group, they’re athletic, they’re big,” North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said of SMU after the game. “We knew that they were going to be physical. And that’s what teams have been doing against us, being physical with us and trying to get us off our spots and make our passes and our drives difficult, and they were able to do it.”

Veesaar finished with 14 points and six rebounds but struggled from the floor, hitting just 4 of 11 shots (36.3%). Wilson added 13 points, six rebounds and four assists on 6-for-11 shooting, but for the first time all season, the freshman was largely a non-factor.

As they have all year, the Mustangs treated Wilson like the scouting report’s first and last line, sending steady double teams his way. This time, though, the star freshman showed rare signs of cracking. Bumped and bodied on nearly every touch, he forced the issue offensively, committed multiple turnovers and survived on a diet of high-difficulty jumpers in the first half.

After the break, SMU all but erased him. Wilson managed just one field goal over the final 15:21 — a wide-open breakaway dunk off a steal with 1:43 left, long after the outcome was decided.

“Tried to make it hard for him to catch it, push him out, and then when he was in the scoring area, in the low post or in the mid post, we tried to double-team him,” SMU head coach Andy Enfield said. “We doubled with our five man and tried to make other people make shots against us.”

Foul trouble only compounded North Carolina’s problems. Veesaar picked up his second personal and had to sit for the final four minutes of the first half, then was tagged with his third just 45 seconds into the second. From there, he spent the rest of the night walking a tightrope, forced to defend and attack with caution.

Yigitoglu and Toombs combined for only 16 points, but their impact went far beyond the box score. They anchored a front line that helped SMU shoot 60% from the field and better than 50% from 3, while dictating terms at the rim.

SMU outscored UNC 36-28 in the paint, blocked five Tar Heel shots and held North Carolina to just two dunks — a steep drop from the 11 slams the Tar Heels threw down in last week’s win over Florida State and well below their 7.3-per-game average over the previous three outings.

“For Henri and Caleb, it was difficult for them to catch the ball at the spots that they wanted to catch it,” Davis said. “I thought (SMU) did a good job of mixing it up with the double team to keep them off balance. But I just thought their initial defense, not just on those two, but just our whole team. We were starting our offense almost at half court, just very difficult to get in a scoring range. … Just every dribble, every cut, every pass I felt like was difficult, and that’s something that we’ve just got to learn and grow from, because that’s what we’ll face moving forward.”

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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Basketball: How SMU’s physicality neutralized Tar Heels frontcourt

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