LUCAS: DIFFERENCE MAKER...
BLACKSBURG—Caleb Love had the game-sealing free throws, converting six of six in the game's final minute.
Armando Bacot had the double-double, doing all of his scoring work in the second half on the way to 12 points and 15 rebounds and getting the better of Keve Aluma in what Aluma seemed very interested in making a personal battle.
Those players will get most of the attention from Carolina's must-have 65-57 win at Virginia Tech, and there is one Tar Heel who will be completely fine with them getting that attention.
So say this quietly, and let's keep it between us: Carolina doesn't win that game without Leaky Black.
It began in the first half, when Virginia Tech was trying to ride the momentum from a sellout, blackout crowd. Even with a home game still left to play, the Hokies made this one Senior Day just to ensure they had every possible shred of intangibles in their favor.
The students in the end zone finished off "Enter Sandman" a cappella in the game's opening minute and never got quiet after that. Their energy helped push the Hokies to a 22-16 lead with eight minutes left in the first half, the expected opening surge on an emotional day.
It would turn out to be their biggest lead of the day. It was Black who cut into it. Keep in mind, a big early deficit frequently derails this Carolina team. Let the lead get to ten, watch a couple of Hokie three-pointers fall, and the Tar Heels would have been in trouble.
Black wouldn't let it happen. First he grabbed a defensive rebound and pushed the ball aggressively, turning it into a couple of made free throws. Then he grabbed a steal from Justyn Mutts and turned it into a fast break three-point play, immediately almost eliminating the Tech lead.
Not content to have the biggest sequence of the first half, he almost may have done it in the second half. This time, Carolina was holding a narrow seven-point advantage that felt even tighter. The crowd was chanting things that undoubtedly made Dick Vitale blush. The old barn was shaking.
Caleb Love missed a three-pointer, and Aluma snagged the rebound. For a second, he did. But then Black wrestled it away from him.
The extra possession—on a day when Tech attempted 15 more shots than the Tar Heels—proved beneficial when RJ Davis made a gorgeous dish to Brady Manek for what felt like a back-breaking dunk.
The impressive part of Black's performance is that he would have been a difference-maker even without any of the above plays. His defensive effort was central to Carolina holding Virginia Tech, one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country, to a 5-for-26 performance from the arc. It was Black who logged most of the minutes on Hunter Cattoor, shooting a crisp 45.1 percent from the three-point line on the season, who finished 1-for-6 from three.
That effort was best personified by the Hokie possession with two minutes remaining. Down 55-48, Virginia Tech very clearly wanted to get the ball to Cattoor, with Mutts setting a pair of screens for him that Black fought through and then Darius Maddox trying to set up Cattoor with a dribble handoff designed to either get Cattoor a clean look or give him an alley for penetration. But Black shut down the first option and then cut off the penetration, forcing Cattoor to give up on the play and fire it to Maddox, who stepped out of bounds for a key turnover.
Black did absolutely nothing on that possession that shows up on the stat sheet. But he was the reason the Hokies didn't score, and that's the type of effort Hubert Davis has been talking about with Black for most of the season.
Leaky Black isn't going to win ACC Defensive Player of the Year, because that honor frequently goes to a player with impressive shot blocking statistics—a measurable category—and Mark Williams fits that description this year. "Blew up a designed play" isn't really something that smoothly fits into a voting packet, but Black should absolutely make the All-ACC Defensive team. Game after game he's taking the defensive assignment against the opponent's most talented wing player. He's rarely coming out of the game—he played 34 minutes on Saturday, the eighth time in the last nine contests he's reached that total. You hope that Carolina's set of young wings, including Dontrez Styles and Puff Johnson, are watching the way Black impacts the game and filing away the knowledge that later in their careers they'll be able to make a difference in games even on days their shots aren't falling.
This is exactly the way Black likes it. Not too much attention. Not the player of the game. He had to make a brief five-minute media appearance but spent part of that time answering questions about other players. This is a good night for Leaky Black.
The box score shows he was 1-for-4 with three rebounds against Virginia Tech. Not shown: he made winning plays. And Carolina likely doesn't win without him.
BLACKSBURG—Caleb Love had the game-sealing free throws, converting six of six in the game's final minute.
Armando Bacot had the double-double, doing all of his scoring work in the second half on the way to 12 points and 15 rebounds and getting the better of Keve Aluma in what Aluma seemed very interested in making a personal battle.
Those players will get most of the attention from Carolina's must-have 65-57 win at Virginia Tech, and there is one Tar Heel who will be completely fine with them getting that attention.
So say this quietly, and let's keep it between us: Carolina doesn't win that game without Leaky Black.
It began in the first half, when Virginia Tech was trying to ride the momentum from a sellout, blackout crowd. Even with a home game still left to play, the Hokies made this one Senior Day just to ensure they had every possible shred of intangibles in their favor.
The students in the end zone finished off "Enter Sandman" a cappella in the game's opening minute and never got quiet after that. Their energy helped push the Hokies to a 22-16 lead with eight minutes left in the first half, the expected opening surge on an emotional day.
It would turn out to be their biggest lead of the day. It was Black who cut into it. Keep in mind, a big early deficit frequently derails this Carolina team. Let the lead get to ten, watch a couple of Hokie three-pointers fall, and the Tar Heels would have been in trouble.
Black wouldn't let it happen. First he grabbed a defensive rebound and pushed the ball aggressively, turning it into a couple of made free throws. Then he grabbed a steal from Justyn Mutts and turned it into a fast break three-point play, immediately almost eliminating the Tech lead.
Not content to have the biggest sequence of the first half, he almost may have done it in the second half. This time, Carolina was holding a narrow seven-point advantage that felt even tighter. The crowd was chanting things that undoubtedly made Dick Vitale blush. The old barn was shaking.
Caleb Love missed a three-pointer, and Aluma snagged the rebound. For a second, he did. But then Black wrestled it away from him.
The extra possession—on a day when Tech attempted 15 more shots than the Tar Heels—proved beneficial when RJ Davis made a gorgeous dish to Brady Manek for what felt like a back-breaking dunk.
The impressive part of Black's performance is that he would have been a difference-maker even without any of the above plays. His defensive effort was central to Carolina holding Virginia Tech, one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country, to a 5-for-26 performance from the arc. It was Black who logged most of the minutes on Hunter Cattoor, shooting a crisp 45.1 percent from the three-point line on the season, who finished 1-for-6 from three.
That effort was best personified by the Hokie possession with two minutes remaining. Down 55-48, Virginia Tech very clearly wanted to get the ball to Cattoor, with Mutts setting a pair of screens for him that Black fought through and then Darius Maddox trying to set up Cattoor with a dribble handoff designed to either get Cattoor a clean look or give him an alley for penetration. But Black shut down the first option and then cut off the penetration, forcing Cattoor to give up on the play and fire it to Maddox, who stepped out of bounds for a key turnover.
Black did absolutely nothing on that possession that shows up on the stat sheet. But he was the reason the Hokies didn't score, and that's the type of effort Hubert Davis has been talking about with Black for most of the season.
Leaky Black isn't going to win ACC Defensive Player of the Year, because that honor frequently goes to a player with impressive shot blocking statistics—a measurable category—and Mark Williams fits that description this year. "Blew up a designed play" isn't really something that smoothly fits into a voting packet, but Black should absolutely make the All-ACC Defensive team. Game after game he's taking the defensive assignment against the opponent's most talented wing player. He's rarely coming out of the game—he played 34 minutes on Saturday, the eighth time in the last nine contests he's reached that total. You hope that Carolina's set of young wings, including Dontrez Styles and Puff Johnson, are watching the way Black impacts the game and filing away the knowledge that later in their careers they'll be able to make a difference in games even on days their shots aren't falling.
This is exactly the way Black likes it. Not too much attention. Not the player of the game. He had to make a brief five-minute media appearance but spent part of that time answering questions about other players. This is a good night for Leaky Black.
The box score shows he was 1-for-4 with three rebounds against Virginia Tech. Not shown: he made winning plays. And Carolina likely doesn't win without him.
