BLOOMINGTON—From the moment the schedule was released, this was never going to be an easy assignment.
Coming off three games in four days in Portland, the Tar Heels had a long travel day Monday with an unexpected diversion to Indianapolis. Granted, this is the very definition of first world problems: your charter flight lands roughly an hour away from the airport where you meant to land, giving you a longer bus ride to Bloomington.
Exams are approaching later this week, and Carolina made this weeklong trip with two members of the academic staff, since players will be in the heart of exams when they next play—yet another road assignment at Virginia Tech.
Combine all the external factors with the fact that essentially every bit of Indiana’s early season schedule led up to this primetime nationally televised white-out matchup for which students waited outside almost all day in the blustery cold, and you had all the ingredients for a very challenging game.
The Tar Heels did not meet the challenge.
Carolina’s starters went 17-for-50 from the field and Indiana dominated the paint 50-24, with untimely turnovers eventually proving the final undoing.
“At this time, Indiana has something we don’t have,” Hubert Davis said on the Tar Heel Sports Network after the game. “They have something offensively they can automatically go to to generate the shot they want.”
That something on Wednesday was usually Trayce Jackson-Davis, who added four assists to his 9-for-16, 21-point performance. Those four assists were only one fewer than the entire Carolina team, which managed just five assists on 20 field goals. Through eight games, the Tar Heels now collectively have more turnovers than assists.
It was an ignominious way to end Carolina’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge competition. The environment and atmosphere was exactly what the Challenge was supposed to create. Assembly Hall has perfected making Hoosier games the embodiment of a college basketball environment. They’re not trying to emulate any professional arenas, and don’t even pretend to do so. In the minutes before tipoff, the band took the court when the lights went…
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