The nation’s 11th-ranked team is about to find out how it fares without the nation’s No. 8 player.
North Carolina freshman forward Caleb Wilson, ranked eighth in KenPom.com’s Player of the Year ratings, fractured his left hand in Tuesday’s loss at Miami and the Tar Heels announced Thursday afternoon that he’ll be out indefinitely.
His first game in street clothes will be Saturday afternoon’s Atlantic Coast Conference clash with Pitt in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Wilson’s injury deprives the Tar Heels (19-5, 7-4 ACC) of their leading scorer (19.8 ppg), rebounder (9.4 per game), shot-blocker (1.4 per game) and thief (1.5 steals per game).
North Carolina got a taste of life without Wilson during Tuesday’s 75-66 loss at Miami. He played just 26 minutes (his lowest in ACC play) due to the injury and settled for 12 points, six rebounds and two turnovers.
To be fair, not much went well for the Tar Heels against the Hurricanes. They shot just 39.7% from the field, earned just 10 free-throw attempts, got outrebounded 41-35 and committed three more turnovers than Miami.
North Carolina coach Hubert Davis dismissed the idea that his team was victim to an emotional hangover after its thrilling 71-68 victory over Duke just three nights before.
“We just couldn’t find a rhythm offensively, getting to the basket, getting points in the paint, which allows us to generate those good threes, that allows us to shoot a high percentage,” Davis said. “We just didn’t play well enough in the second half to be able to pull away to win.”
Davis would have been fixated on fixing that minus-6 rebounding margin anyway, but Wilson’s absence makes it even more important against Pitt.
“Rebounding is something that we talk about every day, and talk specifically about over the last five games, heading into (the Miami) game,” Davis said. “We’ve got to be better at rebounding the basketball. We talked about taking care of the basketball, and not just turnovers, but also shot selection. I count that as turnovers.”
Meanwhile, Pitt (9-16, 2-10) has much bigger worries than just one aspect of the game. The Panthers share last place in the ACC with Georgia Tech and Notre Dame and are in danger of missing the ACC tournament. The bottom three in the 18-team league won’t be invited to Charlotte, N.C.
Pitt averages just 65.9 points in ACC play — only Boston College (63.0 ppg) is worse — and hasn’t scored more than 67 points across its four-game losing streak. For head coach Jeff Capel and company, part of the problem has been finishing at the rim.
If there’s any chance of the Panthers making a late push toward a top-15 finish, Capel says they need to get tougher.
“We’re in the middle of February. We should know it’s a contact sport,” Capel said. “These guys have been playing basketball long enough to understand that it’s a contact sport. We’ve not been good at finishing at all. I hope we can be better, but we’re probably not going to be. Just being completely honest.”
Making matters worse, leading scorer Brandin Cummings (12.5 ppg) hasn’t played since Jan. 31 with an ankle injury and has no timetable for a return. Cameron Corhen leads the available Panthers with 12.0 points per game, followed by Barry Dunning Jr.’s 11.7.
