Tar Heels open season with 69-56 win over UNC Wilmington. What we learned from game

No. 1 North Carolina didn’t show much of the offensive explosiveness that helped it reach the national championship game last season in its opener against UNC Wilmington on Monday night.

What the Tar Heels showed in their 69-56 victory over the Seahawks, is that they’ll be able to win without relying on simply overpowering teams offensively.

Carolina (1-0) looked like a team of players very much learning to play with each other instead of a team that returned four starters. UNC’s four assists were the fewest it had in a game since 1980.

“I really think, for whatever reason, it was a combination for our guys they were nervous, and they were anxious,” UNC head coach Hubert Davis said. “I just felt like, especially on the offensive end, we were moving at such a nervousness, anxiousness type of pace, that times we couldn’t even catch the basketball. I know we have a veteran group, but it was the first game and I just felt like a lot of it was a result of a combination of being nervous and being anxious.”

Senior forward Armando Bacot, who led the team in scoring and rebounding last season, had trouble handling UNCW’s double teams in the post. His two turnovers came from trying to dribble or pass out of them.

“It was a lot like that last year and (Monday) they did a good job of just doubling me and kind of just throwing me off a little bit, and did a great job boxing me out,” said Bacot, who had 16 points and nine rebounds . “I didn’t really play well today, nobody played good today.”

Caleb Love and R.J. Davis each scored 17 points for Carolina, which tied for a team high, while shooting a combined 12-for-23 from the field.

The Heels, who shot 35 percent from 3-point range last season, made just 2 of 10 from behind the arc. The Seahawks’ pressure on defense took away open looks from behind the arc and challenged them to drive.

“We try to disrupt, that’s what we do, and I thought we did a pretty good job of it,” UNCW coach Takayo Siddle said. “We didn’t score enough to be able to get into our full court press. When we did, I thought it affected him a little bit, kind of stood them up a little bit. I’m proud of my guys, we didn’t back down.”

UNCW outrebounded the Heels 37-32 and kept them from getting out in transition. UNC was only credited with four fast break points.

After the game, the Heels locker room was pretty subdued according to Bacot considering everything they believe they’ll need to improve upon.

“First game, not all games are gonna be pretty,” R.J. Davis said. “But I think if we just tighten up on the little mistakes that we made, we’ll be more than fine.”

Here’s what we learned from Carolina’s win:

Defensive minded

Carolina limited the Hawks to just 21 points in the first half and 29 percent shooting from the floor for the game. Last season, UNC Asheville was the only team the Heels held below 30 percent shooting from the field.

They look like they have the potential to be a much better defensive team than they were last season. The Heels are more athletic, including the reserves from off the bench, and have a lot of length in a lot of places.

“Offense is obviously the pretty thing in basketball, so that’s what everybody wants to do,” UNC forward Pete Nance said. “But if we really put our mind to defense, I think we can be a great defensive team all year against any team.”

In the first half, guard D’Marco Dunn and Bacot blocked shots on consecutive attempts from UNCW players. Freshman guard Seth Trimble harassed Eric Van der Heijden into a turnover when he had nowhere to go with the ball just before halftime. Love anticipated a skip pass by Donovan Newby and raced down the floor for a basket.

Despite the Seahawks starting the game making 5 of 9 shots from the field, the Heels held them to just 4-for-16 the rest of the half and turned eight UNCW turnovers into 11 points.

They also limited the Seahawks to just three assists, which is the fewest for an opponent since Kentucky in 1975.

Photos: North Carolina battles UNC-Wilmington in basketball season opener

It was much of the same in the second half when UNCW cut their lead down to 10, Tyler Nickel blocked a Trazarien White shot that led to transition and Trimble finished with an and-1 opportunity on a layup.

“Our ability to switch defenses throughout the game, we got multiple guys that can defend multiple positions, so we’ll be one of the best in the country,” Love said.

The bench will be a thing

Hubert Davis spent much of the offseason talking about the need to develop depth after relying very heavily on the starters for the closing stretch of last season. Monday’s game showed how dedicated he is to doing so.

Both Styles and Dunn were the first subs in just six minutes into the game. Dunn and Trimble played the most minutes, logging 15 and 13, respectively. Nickel, a freshman, played six minutes and Styles did not play in the second half.

When Bacot picked up his fourth foul with 11:06 left, forward Pete Nance was their only big on the floor and Trimble joined the starters for a three-guard lineup. Trimble scored all four of his points during that stretch.

It should be noted that Carolina can, and likely will, go deeper in non-conference play. Junior forward Puff Johnson did not play due to right knee soreness that also kept him out of the Heels’ Oct. 28 exhibition game against Johnson C. Smith. Davis said freshman forward Jalen Washington was being brought along slowly while he continued rehabilitating a knee injury from high school.

Nance is not Manek

Brady Manek transferred from Oklahoma and his 3-point shooting as a stretch-4 helped Carolina keep defenses honest. Nance, who shot 45 percent from 3-point range last season, is not the shooter than Manek was.

Nance scored six points with three rebounds in his debut as a Tar Heel. The graduate transfer from Northwestern said before the game that he wanted to do whatever it takes to help the team win.

He did that on Monday, but could stand to be more assertive on offense. Nance only had three shot attempts and didn’t appear to be the main option in any set.

“I’m not going into every game trying to figure out how I’m gonna get mine and stuff like that,” Nance said. “R.J., Caleb, Armando had it going tonight and it’s gonna be different guys every night. Sometimes it’ll be me, sometimes it’ll be Leaky, sometimes it’ll be DeMarco.”