Minus Paige, No. 1 UNC opens vs. Temple

They’ll have to fight that fight without Paige, an all-league performer in the Atlantic Coast Conference last season when he led the Tar Heels with 14.1 points per game. Twenty-five (points) and 11 (rebounds) and, yes, Roy Williams was quick to point out that Temple didn’t really have any kind of great way to guard against Meeks.

The second half was a time for freshman Skal Labissiere to shine. “I think their depth at the inside position hurt us”. A few of our big guys had foul trouble. I’m a very quiet guy. “But you put your kids on alert, and you train them to the fact that it’s going to be fast and we have to be alert”. For one, they need to find another reliable three-point shooter (outside of Paige). “They get explosive plays all over the place…they’ve got a lot of good players to spread the ball around to”.

Skilled 6-foot-10 Carolina junior forward Kennedy Meeks didn’t mind at all.

After undergoing surgery on his left foot this past offseason, sophomore wing Theo Pinson tallied seven points, nine rebounds and five assists in a career-high 30 minutes on Friday. They were crashing the boards, capitalizing on rebounds, and hitting their shots, especially their free throws.

“That was our whole thing from the beginning of the game – just to get the ball down low”, Meeks said.

“We didn’t want to be arrogant about making the decision, like we’re going to get there”, Wright said.

“This is gonna be a true test of what we will be able to do for the entire year, just in case something else were to happen”, Johnson said.

The Tar Heels’ recruiting over the past year has been hindered by the NCAA’s investigation into the program, but Woods is the third ESPN 100 commitment for Williams since the start of September. The Tar Heels outscored Temple 42-14 in the paint and also went 7-for-12 from behind the 3-point line.

NOTES: This is the first time these two teams have played since an NCAA Tournament game on March 24, 1991 – which the Tar Heels won….

“It’s more from the coaching standpoint than the players”, he said. “They had 15 for the game”. So, they should handle their business in that respect, as well as rolling through teams like Clemson, Wake Forest and Pittsburgh.

By comparison, Temple finished the game with six offensive boards.

Temple is coming off a 26-win season, too, and is without its leading scorer from past year: Will Cummings. At present UNC still needs a little help from rival Duke down the road. “We’re playing Miami, that’s it”.

And if they prove to be consistent shooters, they’ll establish themselves as real contenders.

“I do feel like we’re going to be a good basketball team”, Williams said. “We just didn’t follow through almost well enough”.

The North Carolina vs Temple game tonight will be televised on the CBS Sports channel. Britt has started 19 games the past two seasons while Berry, Williams said, might have been UNC’s second-best player – behind Paige – in the preseason.

But even the presence of the lengthy 6-foot-9 sophomore wouldn’t have made a difference against the huge and talented Tar Heels.

After scoring 16 points in the first half, the Tar Heels’ defense held Coleman to three points on 1-of-3-shooting in the second half.

Three Temple freshmen saw their first collegiate action on Friday. Guards Trey Lowe and Levan Shawn Alston Jr. and big man Ernest Aflakpui each made their debuts. The Hurricanes have won the past two meetings, one with a last-minute rally two years ago and last year in blowout fashion at home….