Carolina, and its NCAA aspirations, crushed by woeful Pitt

CHAPEL HILL — As optimistic as Carolina coach Hubert Davis likes to keep things, it was hard to stay positive after the Tar Heels’ 76-67 loss on Wednesday to Pittsburgh.

Davis’ frustration showed up by way of a 15-second pause while answering the first question of his postgame press conference, while he gathered the words to describe a home loss that will leave many around the ACC speechless.

“We just didn’t play the way that I hoped, anticipated, thought that we would play with so much to play for, so much motivation to compete in to have fun,” Davis said. “Just very disappointed.”

Carolina (18-8, 10-5 ACC) had managed to avoid losses to teams in quadrants 3 and 4 of the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings. The Heels were a combined 14-0 against the two lowest quads until Wednesday.

The Panthers (11-16, 6-10 ACC), who were ranked No. 179, handed them their first quad 4 loss in nine games against such opponents.

At 0-7 against quad 1, it’s particularly troublesome as UNC tries to prove worthy of an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.

“We got a game on Saturday, so it’s no reason to hang our heads,” said guard Caleb Love, who scored 19 points. “Yes, this is a bad loss for sure. But we got a game on Saturday, and we still gotta go get a win.”

The Heels travel to Virginia Tech to face the hottest team in the ACC. The Hokies (16-10, 8-7) have won six straight.

Carolina beat Virginia Tech 78-68 at home.

“We are upset and this is a terrible loss,” Love said. “But like I said, we got to get ready for Saturday. And we got to come in and not do what we did tonight. We continue to come out and let them take the first punch. And I feel like that’s the reason why they got the jump on us. They were the aggressor.”

Fans aggressively headed for the Smith Center exits with 10 minutes left in the game as the Panthers held a 20-point lead. They missed what came late as the Heels cut their deficit to 69-63 with 1:49 left.

Brady Manek got a steal on the ensuing in-bounds pass. For a brief moment, it seemed like Carolina would score and put more pressure on Pitt. But Manek’s outlet pass to Love sailed out of bounds and UNC’s chances floated away with it.

What Love called getting punched in the mouth, Davis put in terms of toughness. He said Pitt wanted to play a physical game and make them play through contact. The Heels just haven’t responded to teams that have been physical with them.

The main example was watching Pitt forward John Hugley battle with UNC’s Armando Bacot inside. Hugley, who is 6-foot-9, 280 pounds, muscled his way for seven of his 18 points in the first half. He also kept Bacot from getting clean looks early on and essentially took him out of the game.

“There’s been more times than not that we don’t handle and we can’t respond to that type of physicality,” Davis said. “What can we do against that, to fight that, is to be physical ourselves. And that’s something that’s a narrative and a reputation that we’re going to have to change. And that’s something specifically that we’re going to have to change really quickly.”

Bacot didn’t score his first basket until the second half with 16:38 remaining. It wasn’t that the Heels weren’t trying to get him the ball, it’s he had trouble handling it. Bacot had three turnovers in the first half and missed his only two shots from the field. Bacot finished with seven points, his lowest total since scoring six against Boston College on Jan. 26.

Love, who had 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the 3-point line against Florida State, reverted to the player who shot 27 percent from the field during an eight-game shooting slump that preceded the win over the Seminoles. Love missed his first five 3-pointers and was 2-for-9 from the field in the first half.

Love was more effective in the second half when he attacked the basket instead of settling for jumpers.

Carolina easily played its worst first half at home all season, shooting just 27 percent from the field, which was a season-low at the Smith Center, and were 3-for-14 from 3-point range. Pitt led by 17 at halftime.

The Heels allowed one of the worst offensive teams in the ACC to have its most explosive opening half in a conference game this season. Pitt scored just 17 in the first half of a road loss at Virginia Tech last week. But against the Heels, the Panthers ran off 40 points while shooting 60 percent from the field.

Compounding their struggles shooting, the Panthers didn’t take care of the ball. UNC had 10 first-half turnovers that led to 20 points for Pitt. And they came in multiple forms. R.J. Davis had two turnovers that both came from being called for charging fouls. Manek had one of those, too. Two of Bacot’s three first-half turnovers came from not being strong enough with the ball.

Senior Leaky Black said he believed the Tar Heels tend to get complacent after having a win like Saturday’s over Florida State. Carolina scored 62 points in the first half that day.

“We all got to figure out what really gets us going before a game, night in and night out, no matter who the opponent is, where we’re playing,” said Black, who had 11 points. “We really got to figure out a way to just not take our opponents lightly, or, not just wait until we’re down 20 again to come back and, ‘Now let’s start playing’. Nah, do it from the jump and we won’t have to worry about that. I really don’t have the answers. I’m kind of tired of talking about it.”