Panthers travel to North Carolina to save their season – Sports Illustrated

Pittsburgh-Pittpanthers are confronted with a probable opportunity for Do-Or-Die after suffering losses from back to Wake Forest on the road and Virginia at home.

The loss of 16 points from the cavaliers was so bad that the chief coach Jeff Capel made an apology after the match.

It doesn’t matter, Pete has the opportunity to buy bad performances by traveling to North Carolina and leaving with a victory they encountered on February 8th.

The Panthers downloaded Tar Heels on January 28, 73-65 at home behind a masterpiece from Redshirt Senior striker Zack Austin, who recorded the highest season five blocks and 15 points.

Beating North Carolina gave the illusion that Pete was heading in the right direction, as they made two immediately after four losing games.

But then the Panthers competed on the demons deacons and the cavaliers and returned right where they were when they lost four straight – just outside the NCAA tournament.

Pete and Austin’s heroes are certainly fresh in the minds of North Carolina after their loss last week. They only encountered their hateful rival in # 2 Dukon on the road, as early as February 1, where they lost 87-70.

The fourth year’s head coach Hubert Davis leads Tar Heels. After losing from the Panthers and the Blue Devils, Davis and his tar heels are in a similar place in the Panthers – outside the field of 68 to receive an offer for the NCAA tournament.

North Carolina reached the National Championship in 2023 as # 8 seeds in the first season of Davis, but fell to Kansas 72-69.

UNC came in the ranking of # 1 in the pre -season poll of the AP season next season, but failed to even receive an invitation for the NCAA tournament. They entered this campaign, ranked No. 9, but fell completely from the poll until the 6th week.

Davis won at least 20 games in his first three seasons and seems to support the live series. But this is a game in time, and the next Tar Heels game hosts Panthers.

Returning to the tournament probably relying on the game of another Davis. Rj Davis prom, one of the most beautiful players at the Basketball College, leads Tar Heels.

Davis has started every game, but one in the last four seasons and is among the top five in the game points in the history of the program. He was the finalist of the Naismith Trophy and Wooden Award last season and is an average of 17.3 points in his 34.8 minutes per match this campaign.

He is an excellent 3-point shooter, but he shot badly this season, only 30.8% at 6.8 attempts per game after making 39.5% of his attempts from a deep last season. In the last match against the Panthers, Davis scored just below his average for the season with 16 points, including three three indicators.

Davis’s assistance in the offensive region is the guard of the first year, Ian Jackson, who is an average of 14.4 points in his 27.3 minutes per game.

Jackson’s role and importance in Tar Heels’s crime has increased as the season progresses. He entered as a consensus the top 10 player in the country in the class of 2024 and immediately flourished with Tar Tarels.

Standing six feet-four, Jackson can score at the three levels and is an excellent 3-point shooter. The efficiency of 37.6% of Jackson from deep at 4.6 games leads all players with more than two attempts.

The Panthers kept Jackson up to nine points per 10 shots last week, but on his home court, Jackson could easily explode for a bigger night.

The back of North Carolina has another young star in the security of the sophomore Elliott Kado, a consensus five -star perspective in the 2023 class.

Cadeau has distinguished himself as a passerby at a collegial level. The teams often dare to shoot and his confidence to try to try to spoil rarely.

Capel admitted that after the victory, the panther strategy was to allow Kado to make some open looks, if it meant better other players, and Kado immediately punished the strategy by making a three-pointer at the beginning of the race.

After Davis also made some difficult shots, the Panthers adjusted their protective scheme in the second half to turn on each ball screen.

Cadeau is an average of 10.6 points in its 29.3 minutes per game and leads Tar Teels with six assists per match.

The junior guard Seth Trumbs leads Tar Tarels with 5.4 fights per game and is the third leading goal scorer of the team with 12.2 points per game.

Standing six feet-three, Trimble is mostly an internal goal scorer who likes to take pictures of jumps around the rim. He has scored double -digit in the last three games of North Carolina, including 18 points in the victory for overtime work over the Boston College. However, Trimble’s effectiveness was not great because of the two Tar Teels travelers of Tar Heels. Perhaps returning to the home will show an improvement in the creation of tromb shots.

The Panthers kept Tar Heels up to 29.2% of deep in their last competition and forced 14 rpm while only turning the ball over six times. Given that Capel admitted that he had discovered a solid defensive strategy in the second half of this victory, re -execution could be on the table for Saturday.

Although the early and very late play struggles have struck the panthers in almost all their losses, they are not hopeless. Junior striker Jorge Diaz Graham says the Panthers simply: “You have to get better photos.”

In many ways he is right. A better choice of shot and the confidence of others can take the panthers away. But the view of a bird’s eye view during the panther season and where they can go, has not received them anywhere. For now, Pete has to take one game and try to beat Tar Heels for the second time after less than two weeks.

Pete travels to North Carolina at 4 pm on February 8 in the center of Dean E. Smith. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU.

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