North Carolina was hurtling toward yet another loss to fellow blueblood Kansas, down after a shaky half marked by turnovers and stagnant offense.
Charging out of the second half with rousing energy and edge changed everything, both for Friday night’s game and in validating Hubert Davis’ retooling of the roster after the Tar Heels barely made last year’s NCAA Tournament.
By the end, the 25th-ranked Tar Heels had rolled to an 87-74 win against the 19th-ranked Jayhawks behind contributions from a star freshman, a transfer-portal big man and a returning senior who took on the toughest defensive assignment against Kansas star freshman Darryn Peterson.
Trailing by 10 in the first half and 37-29 at the break, North Carolina made 18 of 23 shots out of halftime and shot 24 of 36 (66.7%) for the second half on the way to an almost-unthinkable 58 second-half points against Bill Self’s Jayhawks.
“It validates (Davis’) thoughts and the vision that he had,” said Seth Trimble, who had 13 of his 17 points after halftime while leading the defensive effort chasing Peterson. “It takes some early stress off of him, getting a big win like that. And it gives not only him, but this whole team a bunch of confidence going into the rest of the season.”
Changing course
To that point, this was the kind of game that had been getting away from the Tar Heels far too often of late. UNC had lost eight of nine against AP Top 25 teams last year, including one at Kansas in which the Jayhawks blew a 20-point lead but hung on down the stretch at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence.
Getting an opening-week win against Kansas, with fans participating in a whiteout largely triggered by a social-media post by star freshman Caleb Wilson, was quite a change. It was UNC’s first win against Kansas since November 2002, when Matt Doherty was coaching UNC against Jayhawks coach Roy Williams — before Williams returned to his alma mater to take over the Tar Heels the following season.
The Jayhawks had won five straight meetings in the series between programs with a combined 10 NCAA titles along with that interwoven history with names like Williams, Dean Smith and Larry Brown holding deep ties to both schools. That run includes the 2022 national championship game in Davis’ first year, the 2012 NCAA Elite Eight and the 2008 Final Four that Kansas famously led 40-12.
“I wanted this new team, this new group, to have evidence of what it’s like to play in a game like this in the Smith Center, and to come up big,” Davis said. “I just wanted them to have a taste of what it’s like to be here.”
Standout efforts
The versatile 6-foot-10 Wilson, who joined Peterson in giving this game a pair of potential one-and-done NBA freshmen, finished with 24 points, seven rebounds, four rebounds and four steals in a strong start-to-finish show. That included showing off a soft touch on multiple fading turnarounds as well as maintaining his exuberant energy, from diving on the floor to marking the final seconds of this one by motioning to the crowd for noise.
“I want to impress my coach, I want to impress the world,” Wilson said. “I want to let the world know who I am for sure.”
Seven-footer Henri Veesaar, an Arizona transfer, dunked home a feed from Kyan Evans and then dunked a missed 3 from Wilson to start UNC’s second-half surge and finished with 20 points in a clear edge against KU big man Flory Bidunga (eight points).
And there was Trimble, the 6-3 fourth-year returnee who went from nonfactor in the first half to catalyst as UNC took control of the second-half tempo. That included following Veesaar’s quick start with back-to-back push-the-tempo scores, which had Self first waving his hands in frustration and then burning a quick timeout barely two minutes in.
But Self pointed to Trimble’s defensive effort on Peterson, who had 22 points on 8-for-14 shooting. And Davis noted that Trimble held up after the team tweaked its defensive plan to stop switching, leaving perimeter players largely on their own.
“He blanketed Darryn in a way that, to me, was terrific,” Self said. “Caleb was the best player probably in the game. But you can make a strong case for Henri and for Seth, too.
“The way that (Trimble) guarded Darryn and playing on top of everything, even though Darryn got off 14 shots, that was a situation that he probably needed to get off 20 or 22” to win.
After this one, Davis arrived for his postgame news conference in athletic-warmup gear rather than his traditional sideline look of sportscoat and slacks. He had to considering the players had soaked him with a celebratory dousing of water in the locker room.
“I won’t remember the score, but I’ll remember them jumping around in the locker room,” Davis said. “I’ll remember the smiles on their faces.”
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