The men’s basketball team travels to UNC-Chapel Hill tonight looking to avenge a 93-76 loss earlier this season and losses in 11 of their last 12 contests with the hated Tar Heels. Coach Sidney Lowe met with members of the media Tuesday to talk about the rivalry and how important Wednesday night’s game is.
“You know me, how I feel about these two teams playing. It’s a great game, it’s history, it’s a rivalry, it’s everything,” Lowe said. “So being able to go over there and get a win, that’s big, so hopefully we will go over there and play well.”
While recent games against Carolina have not gone in the team’s favor, the Wolfpack is heading to Chapel Hill with confidence after playing well in consecutive wins over No. 7 Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. The 21-point victory against the Yellow Jackets was the team’s first ACC win on the road since defeating Florida State 69-66 Jan. 26, 2008. Lowe described the strides the team has made recently, particularly in dealing with the full court press.
“What we saw was a progression, being in that situation at Virginia Tech, we were breaking the press but were not aggressive at attacking,” Lowe said. “We were a little better attacking [Wake Forest] when they started pressing, and by the time we played Georgia Tech, we moved the ball around well and stayed on the attack and got easy dunks and layups because we were looking up the floor.”
The Pack has won four of the past six games with the only two losses coming in the season’s first matchup with UNC and in the meltdown in Blacksburg that saw the team hold an 18-point second half lead before falling in overtime.
The recent success has occurred since the team has gone to its “big” lineup, which features 6’8″ sophomore Tracy Smith at center, 6’9″ senior Ben McCauley at power forward, 6’9″ redshirt junior Brandon Costner at small forward, 6’6″ senior Courtney Fells at shooting guard, and a combination of sophomore Javi Gonzales and redshirt junior Farnold Degand at point guard. With this lineup, the team has scored more than 80 points in three consecutive games, the longest stretch in ACC play since the 1990-91 season.
Lowe said the recent offensive production can also be attributed to the point guard play of Gonzalez and Degand, whom he has encouraged to push the ball when possible.
“The attention we have put on our point guards to push the ball, the work that we have done in practice about running and getting out, I think that’s helped too,” Lowe said. “In my meetings with my point guards, I have told them, don’t look over at me, don’t look at me, I will call you when I need you, just go and play and see if we can get something easy.”
And while the Pack has had some success getting up and down the floor, Lowe said they will focus more on controlling tempo against an opponent as athletic as Carolina while still taking advantage of any opportunities for easy baskets in transition.
“We have to try to control tempo. You can’t get into a run and gun, up and down game with them,” Lowe said. “If we get stops and breaks, were going to certainly look to go, but we have got to be smart about it.”
