Duke Basketball: Carolina will try and use its depth to down Blue Devils

In its first matchup this season with the Duke Basketball team, the North Carolina Tar Heels will try and use its depth and deep rotation to its advantage.

In terms of the history of the North Carolina Tar Heels, it was a shaky beginning.

With wins over a cupcake schedule, the ‘Heels lost its first game to an actual opponent in a pre-season tournament against the Texas Longhorns. Carolina would respond with a win over then No. 17 UCLA, but would then get steamrolled in Ann Arbor against then No. 7 Michigan Wolverines.

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Perhaps its most impressive win of the season cam a few weeks after that loss at home to the then No. 4 Gonzaga Bulldogs, but North Carolina could not build on that victory, falling to the then No. 19 Kentucky Wildcats in Chicago.

North Carolina would then rattle off four wins in a row before being embarrassed by Louisville at home, losing by 21 points.

From that points, the ‘Heels have won eight of its last night with the lone loss coming against the then No. 4 Virginia Cavaliers, a game where North Carolina seemed to be in control late in the second half, but could not score late against Virginia’s pack line defense.

At 20-5 overall and 10-2 in the ACC, North Carolina will be looking for its signature win on the road this season against the No. 1 Duke Blue Devils.

Head Coach Roy Williams will try and use the depth of his team to combat the tight bench that Mike Krzyzewski has with the Blue Devils.

One player that Williams will not have at his disposal is Sterling Manley. Manley has yet to play in an ACC game with a sore knee and in the 12 games that he has played, Manley is averaging 4.4 points and 4.3 rebounds.

Williams normally uses the starting five of Cam Johnson, Coby White, Luke Maye, Kenny Williams, and Garrison Brooks.

Cam Johnson leads the way averaging 16.3 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.4 steals per game. Johnson is also shooting 51.7% from the field and a sizzling 47.9% from 3-point range.

Freshman Coby White is the leading assist man for the ‘Heels with 4.3 assist per game but is also averaging 15.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.0 steal per game.

The veteran Luke Maye is the top rebounding man for North Carolina at 9.6 rebounds per game, while averaging 14.5 points and 2.1 assists per game and while shooting 43.7% from the field, Maye has struggled from 3-point range, only shooting 32.6%.

The other two in Williams’ starting five seem to be more of rotational pieces in Kenny Williams and Garrison Brooks.

The shooter and slasher Kenny Williams is averaging 8.9 points per game as well as 3.7 assists per game and 1.0 steals per game, and despite shooting 41.3% from the field, has been struggling from 3-point range at 32.0%.

In just over 20 minutes per game, Garrison Brooks is averaging 8.2 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.

The North Carolina bench starts with what was a potential lottery pick in Nassir Little. Roy Williams continues to limit the potential in Little this season as the freshman who was ranked among the starts of the Duke class is only playing about 19 minutes per game and averaging 9.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.

Brandon Robinson will come into Wednesday night averaging 3.5 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game and he has proven he can knock down the shots he is given at 49.2% from the field and 45.5% from 3-point range.

Seventh Woods also came in to Chapel Hill with high aspirations as a freshman, but has not lived up those expectations this season, yet having high shooting percentages.

Woods is averaging 3.2 points, 2.4 assists, and and 1.2 rebounds per game and his efficiency from the field sticks out with a 43.5% field goal percentage and 50.0% from 3-point range.

Along with Sterling Manley, the Tar Heels may be without guard Leaky Black who has not played since January 29 with an ankle injury. While he was on the court, Black was averaging 2.9 points and 2.1 rebounds per game.

Two other players that Williams could turn to off the bench are Brandon Huffman and Andrew Platek.

Huffman is only averaging 2.8 minutes per game and averaging 1.4 points and 1.0 rebounds while Platek is averaging 4.0 minutes per game and 1.3 points per game.

Roy Williams has the talent on this team to definitely upset the Blue Devils, but the Tar Heels have yet to gel and put together a capable 40 minutes, worthy of beating Duke and that will be tough to do on the road.

The first 2019 edition of this historic rivalry will tipoff on Wednesday night from Cameron Indoor Stadium at 9:00 pm ET and can be seen on ESPN.

Stay tuned to Ball Durham on Twitter, @Ball_Durham, and here at our website, balldurham.com, for complete coverage of the Duke Blue Devils vs. the North Carolina Tar Heels.

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