1. Carolina wasn’t spectacular but did enough to outmuscle Navy in a 73-61 victory.
2. The win marks Carolina’s 2,400th win as a program. The only two schools with that many college basketball wins entering Tuesday night are Kentucky (2,425) and Kansas (2,417).
3. Bryan Ives had a great stat earlier this week about Carolina ranking third in the country in dunks (behind Georgia and Kentucky). The Heels didn’t do anything to hurt that figure on Tuesday night, piling up 10 of them. The national leader, Caleb Wilson (who came into the game with 16 dunks) had several more and finished with 23 points (on 9-for-13 shooting) and 12 rebounds.
4. Quietly, Carolina has been very good defensively this year. The Tar Heels entered the night holding opponents to just 33.3 percent field goal shooting (eighth in the country), and Navy managed just 30.4 percent from the field. A big part of that defense is being bigger than the opponent; the Heels had seven more blocks on Tuesday. Carolina is now 49-4 in the Hubert Davis era when holding opponents below 40 percent shooting.
5. Jarin Stevenson hasn’t been spectacular yet during his Carolina career. But he’s consistently been doing exactly what Hubert Davis has asked him to do, and regularly made winning plays that don’t always show up in the box score. Without attempting a three-pointer in the first half, Stevenson had an important six points (including back to back dunks) and also grabbed four rebounds, with two of them offensive. Wilson’s two biggest highlight reel plays in the second half were created by Stevenson making a couple of hustle plays and fighting for loose balls. The Alabama transfer finished with 11 points and eight rebounds and was a game-high +19.
6. Just a reminder that the Tar Heel Sports Network halftime interviews with an assistant coach continue to provide good insight. Tuesday’s subject was Jeff Lebo, who identified several key areas from the first half, including Navy playing more connected than Carolina and the Tar Heels failing to do a solid job keeping Navy out of the paint (the Middies had a 14-12 edge in points in the paint in the first half, partially a defensive failing and partially another Lebo point of emphasis–the Heels missing too many shots around the rim).
7. Hubert Davis needs more production from his bench. Derek Dixon provided the only first half points from the reserves, as he hit a three-pointer. He finished with eight, and James Brown’s two free throws were the only other points from a substitute. Again, this category will be helped by the return of Seth Trimble, but this is also a stretch when reserves could be forcing their way into the rotation.
8. Carolina’s play in the second half is going to make for some intense practices over the next few days. The Tar Heels allowed a 15-0 Navy run in the closing minutes before Stevenson snapped it with a three-pointer. A point Davis is likely to mention: Carolina had just two more points in the paint (28) than Navy.
9. The win helps alter one of the stranger stats in the program record book. Of all the opponents Carolina has ever faced, the Tar Heel winning percentage against Navy (.300 entering Tuesday night) is the lowest ever against an opponent they have played at least 20 times. That’s despite the fact that Navy hasn’t beaten Carolina since 1959 (Carolina won the only meeting since then, an 88-52 win over the Midshipmen in the 1998 NCAA Tournament).
10. One of the best trivia questions in Carolina history is the list of teams the Tar Heels have played multiple times who have a winning record against Carolina. It’s an exclusive club that consists solely of Army (UNC is 0-3 against them), George Washington (4-6), Indiana (6-10), Iowa (1-4), Georgetown (4-5), Ole Miss (1-2), NYU (7-10), Texas (3-9) and West Virginia (0-5). And the Midshipmen, of course, as Carolina is now 7-14 all-time against them.
11. Congratulations to Greg Cauley, a Tar Heel superfan who attended his 600th straight home UNC basketball game on Tuesday.
12. The win wraps up the season-opening five-game homestand, the first series of five straight home games to open the season since the 1918-19 campaign. It’s the longest homestand at any point of the season since 2013. And now the road gets tougher: the Tar Heels will play St. Bonaventure and Michigan State in Fort Myers next week, then travel to Kentucky on Dec. 3. We’ll know much more about this team by the time we see them at the Smith Center again on Dec. 7 against a good Georgetown team.
