Watch: UNC's Seth Trimble posterizes UC Riverside
The 2023-24 North Carolina men's basketball team is undefeated on the young season but ahead of Friday night's matchup with UC Riverside had yet to truly dominate an opponent from whistle to whistle.
The No. 20 Tar Heels finally grabbed control of a game early, going on a 17-0 run in the first half, punctuated by a monster dunk from sophomore guard Seth Trimble en route to a 77-52 win.
For anyone casually glancing at UNC's first two final scores of the year, the 16- and 22-point margins of victory against Radford and Lehigh seem fairly comfortable and unremarkable, but fans who watched the contests know they're a bit deceiving.
In UNC's first two games, both opponents played within a single possession into the second half before UNC eventually took control. While UC Riverside did hold a 4-2 lead after Benjamin Griscti's three-pointer with 18:48 left in the first half, sophomore center Jalen Washington hit a three of his own to put UNC up 7-4, and the Tar Heels never looked back.
Friday's result is an encouraging sign for head coach Hubert Davis going forward as he tries to put a historically disappointing 2022-23 season in the rearview mirror, especially with the production that came from the bench.
UNC's run to the national championship game in 2021-22 helped distract from the fact it squeaked in to the NCAA Tournament as an eight seed, and when the Heels tried to run it back in 2022-23 with essentially the same team, many of the same issues reared their heads. As a result, North Carolina became the first team to miss the NCAA Tournament after starting the season ranked No. 1.
One problem was the limited production from the reserves last year, with UNC near the bottom of the country in bench minutes.
In the win against the Highlanders on Friday night, Davis played five different bench pieces at least 11 minutes, with Trimble and Washington tallying 11 points each and ACC Preseason Rookie of the Year Elliot Cadeau adding eight and two assists.
"They've earned it in practice," Davis said about the uptick in minutes for bench players this year after the game.
Like most years, there's plenty of talent in Chapel Hill to make a legitimate title bid in March. Featuring a nice combination of youth and experience, the Tar Heels should be one of the best teams in the ACC this season.
If not, the seat underneath coach Davis will start to get pretty warm.
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