University of North Carolina Athletics

1. Very tough loss for the Tar Heels, losing 72-71 to Stanford on a last-second shot from Duke transfer Jaylen Blakes. It was the first time Carolina lost at the Smith Center while leading at halftime since February 8, 2020 against Duke.

2. A late change by the Cardinal was the difference, as they moved back into a zone with 2:20 left. At this point, Carolina had only committed four turnovers. They quickly coughed up their fifth and Stanford scored to take the lead. There weren’t many, but Stanford was extremely effective at turning turnovers into points: UNC had five and the visitors scored 11 points.

3. Stanford big man Maxime Reynaud was as advertised, scoring 25 points with 13 rebounds. But Blakes was just as problematic in the second half, as he had ten points and six assists (he finished with 20 points). He scored or assisted on eight of Stanford’s 13 second-half field goals. You knew Reynaud had a big advantage against this particular Carolina team. Blakes had such a big day against a team with a lot of guards.

4. Carolina once again shot poorly from three-point range, hitting just five of 18. That’s 27.8 percent, which left the door open for Stanford on a day when the Cardinal hit 7 of 22 at distance. The Cardinal also did a pretty good job of limiting Carolina’s transition chances. The Heels mustered just 11 fast break points and it felt like much of the second half – until the final possession – was played in half-court. Carolina’s best offense came at the free throw line, where it made 20 of 24 chances.

5. Part of those struggles was a first day of Ian Jacksonwho went 1 of 8 from the field and 0 of 5 from three. This illustrates how important he has become to Carolina’s offense. When he’s not scoring, the Tar Heels just aren’t as good offensively.

6. Highlights of the offense on a day where the offense was not a highlight: RJ Davis scored 19 points on 15 shots (and 3 of 7 from three, which was solid) and Elliot Gift scored 12 to go along with his five assists. Cadeau was limited in the first half by foul trouble, opening the door for Davis to tally five assists in the first half (also his game total).

7. Stanford’s final possession looked like Notre Dame’s last possession, but this time the opponent converted it. Blakes was able to run the length of the court and get a good look, which he knocked down.

8. Ven-Allen Lubin had one of his best games in Carolina, playing 24 minutes, scoring 13 points and grabbing five rebounds. And despite Reynaud’s big numbers, Lubin was reasonably effective against him in the second half, forcing him into three points (he only scored three of 12, but one of them was key late in the match) instead of working inside. Lubin was part of a Carolina reserve offense that dominated Stanford 23-1.

9. If you’ve been watching on TV, you may be wondering about the empty seats for a game that has long sold out at the box office. The problem perfectly illustrates the delicate balance faced by ticketing: students have not used almost all of their allocation of distributed tickets. But there’s no way to know that this is going to happen before the game begins, creating a situation where some tickets remain unused (and unsold) despite the fact that it was a hot ticket at the box office -office. It’s a very delicate situation. You want there to be as many students in the building as humanly possible. On Saturday, it was a very, very rare occurrence that probably looked confusing on TV, but is unlikely to happen again.

10. Saturday also marked the 39th anniversary of the very first game at the Smith Center. On January 18, 1986, the Tar Heels defeated Duke, 95-92 in an inaugural game that had been postponed a few months. The Smith Center’s original first game was supposed to be against UCLA, but construction delays pushed back the opening.

11. A healthy dose of Tar Heels in town for the game. Caroline alumnus Cooper Alan, part of a large family of Tar Heels involved with the basketball program, sang a terrific national anthem. Former UNC quarterback Sam Howell sat behind the scorer’s table, and the usual host of basketball program notables were in attendance: Roy Williams, Marcus Ginyard, Brice Johnson, Luke Maye. New football coach Bill Belichick was also at the game and shared a moment with Williams before the tipoff, and longtime MLB star Kyle Seager was on hand as a guest speaker at tonight’s first pitch banquet. And yet, with all these luminaries, the biggest cheer of the day came for the game’s military hero, Hal Kushner. Look for it.

12. This was obviously a game Carolina had to win, and that probably reinforces the importance of Tuesday night’s game at Wake Forest.