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Off the cuff: The Carolina bench situation has quickly become a problem. Almost every game the opponent's bench outscores the UNC bench and it was no different against Miami. In fact, the Tar Heels got a grand total of two points contributed from reserves. Those two points came from Puff Johnson, who many of us had been clamoring to become a starter in place of Pete Nance. (Miami got nine points from its bench.) Johnson missed five of six shots in 14 minutes while Nance missed four of five shots in 30 minutes of play. Four other reserves combined for just 12 minutes of playing time. Much of that came in the last few minutes when Coach Davis was substituing offense (Tyler Nickel) for defense (Seth Trimble). Nickel, Trimble, D'Marco Dunn and Jalen Washington combined for three shots. While Coach Davis has done a great job recruiting, with the way guys are moving around these days, you have to think some of the subs are getting disgruntled with their playing time and may look to transfer. When you're winning and contributing a little bit, those aren't big problems. But losing and hardly playing has to wear on guys. Coach Davis' job is to put the best players out there for as long as possible to get wins. But when there is foul trouble or cold shooting or uninspired play, you need a strong bench. And he hasn't developed one. The talent is there but the experience is not. The big story of the game was the cold shooting by Carolina, especially from the three-point line. But the Heels were also outrebounded 40-32 by Miami, which is just a superior team at this juncture. The N.C. State game Sunday should tell us all we need to know about the Tar Heels chances in the ACC and NCAA (or NIT) tournaments.
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