A pair of first-year tar heels — elliot cadeau and harrison ingram — have been fast at work getting north carolina basketball back on track.
Sometimes, it only takes one play to understand a team’s M.O.
For North Carolina, that play occurred around the six-minute mark of the first half during its Nov. 29 win over Tennessee. Following a Dalton Knecht miss, Harrison Ingram secured the rebound for the Heels and found Elliot Cadeau. The freshman guard then rifled a pass to Armando Bacot for a transition slam:
The bucket pushed UNC’s lead to 21 in a contest that ended in an emphatic 100-92 victory. But more notably, it illustrated the identity shift that Hubert Davis has engineered for North Carolina this season. The pace, the ball movement, the connectedness — all of it stands in stark contrast to last year’s Heels.
The numbers attest to these improvements beyond a singular highlight. For instance, UNC ranks 34th in the country in offensive tempo (compared to 111th in 2023) and 168th in assist rate (compared to 310th), per KenPom. The team has also logged an effective field goal percentage of 61.7 in transition, up from 54.4 a season ago, per Hoop-Math.
The style of play likely doesn’t change — or, at least, not as radically — without the addition of Cadeau. The 6-1 floor general is an exceptionally gifted passer thanks to his combination of vision, accuracy and feel. As the Bacot assist above exhibits, Cadeau anticipates his teammates’ movements and leads them like a quarterback to a receiver.
“I think just pushing the pace, that’s my big thing,” the rookie point guard told reporters following the Tennessee win. “If I push the pace, everybody gets more shots. People know just to run the floor hard, and they’re gonna get their shots.”
In addition to the flashy passes, Cadeau plays with a poise that belies his youth. Circling back to the Tennessee game, the Vols’ defense has dismantled numerous young guards throughout Rick Barnes’ tenure. However, Cadeau was able to buck that trend. While Tennessee extended its pressure in its second-half rally, he remained unfazed, finishing with 10 assists and zero turnovers.
“I played nationals in high school, and that was a big stage. I’ve played in a lot of big games,” Cadeau said from the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill. “It helps with my poise, too, because in Sweden, we didn’t play in front of this many people — but it’s a packed, crazy gym, so that kind of adds to it.”
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A multi-dimensional threat
Three days later, the Tar Heels needed Cadeau’s scoring just as much as they needed his facilitating.
After falling into a 14-point hole at home against Florida State, UNC unleashed a diamond-and-1 press to get back into the game. As the Seminoles’ turnovers piled up, the Heels capitalized on their opponents’ mistakes. Cadeau provided a key basket that gave UNC its first lead since the three-minute mark of the first half.
Once Florida State switched the action between Seth Trimble (7) and Cadeau, the point guard recognized a mismatch with the 6-7 Jamir Watkins (2 in red) guarding him. He then flashed his impressive handle and burst to blow by his man for a finish off the glass.
Because of Cadeau’s gravity as a passer, help defenders Darrin Green (22) and Chandler Jackson (0) couldn’t leave Harrison Ingram and RJ Davis. If they had, Florida State would have been susceptible to an open 3 off a kick-out.
Ingram’s offense taking shape
Speaking of Ingram, he too deserves plenty of credit for the above play.
Earlier in his career, teams would have gladly sagged off of him in the corner. The 6-7 wing entered his junior campaign having made just 31.6 percent of his 228 attempts from long distance. But a month into the season, Ingram is on pace to shatter career-highs in points per game (14.5), field goal percentage (46.4) and, yes, 3-point percentage (43.2).
After the Tennessee game, Ingram shed light on the tweaks he made to his jump shot.
“My freshman year, my sophomore year — I’ll be honest, I was a little cocky, and I didn’t think I had anything to work on,” he told reporters with a laugh. Of course, Ingram did have things to work on, and that work is already paying dividends.
“Going back and watching film, breaking down my jump shot and getting more lift on my jump shot,” he recalled, listing his offseason activities. “I worked with Brandon Payne, I worked with a guy named Anish (Sharda) out in L.A. I worked with a lot of different shooting coaches and took a little bit from them and applied it to my game.”
In addition to building his confidence internally, Ingram also takes comfort in knowing that head coach Hubert Davis has his back.
“I feel like Coach Davis, he gives me confidence. There’s no shot he doesn’t want me to take on the court.”
As Carolina gears up for a grueling second half of nonconference play — including neutral-court bouts with UConn, Kentucky and Oklahoma — it’ll need its newcomers to maintain and even exceed their current levels of brilliance. And if that aforementioned confidence melds with on-court execution? Well, UNC fans might start quoting Michael Jordan again.