SPOKANE, Wash. — Historically, Gonzaga's game against North Carolina is one of the biggest to be played in The Kennel. Match up-wise though? Well, the Tar Heels currently leave a lot to be desired and have lost their last three games.
BITTEN BY THE INJURY BUG
North Carolina is not in a good spot injury-wise. Their starting point guard and undisputed leader Cole Anthony is out for at least the next month as he recovers from a partially torn meniscus. Anthony has averaged 19 points per game this season and North Carolina’s next leading scorer, Garrison Brooks, only averages 12. That’s a pretty big disparity.
Just to put that in perspective: Gonzaga’s leading scorer is Filip Petrusev, who averages 16 points per game. Corey Kispert, who’s the Zags’ second leading scorer, averages 14.
But it’s not just Anthony who could be out.
UNC guard Leaky Black is game-to-game with a sprained foot. He had started all of UNC’s games this season prior to his injury.
For the Zags, it seems likely that Anton Watson will be out after popping his shoulder out multiple times against Arizona. We have no intel on this whatsoever, but I think they’re going to rest him because that shoulder popping out more could lead to a season-ending injury.
Killian Tillie sprained his ankle against Arizona, but he seemed pretty determined to play in this game when the media spoke to him on Monday.
WOFFORD WOES
UNC is most likely playing without two of their best players. The only game we can really reference for how this team looks without Anthony and Black is last Sunday’s 68-64 loss to Wofford.
Expect the Tar Heels to really hammer it inside to their second leading scorer who we mentioned earlier, Garrison Brooks. He went 8-of-10 for 17 points and added 12 boards against the Terriers. Their other forward, Armando Bacot, can be explosive— he had 23 points against Oregon— but in the game against Wofford he was awful. He went 2-of-14 from the field for eight points. He did have 13 boards. These two will be the backbone of the Tar Heels with Anthony recovering.
It also makes sense for them to hammer it inside with the Zags most likely only having three capable forwards. Petrusev, Timme, and Tillie have had to guard their fair share of tough forwards this year. This is just the latest in the long list.
THREE-THROWS
With UNC more dependent on their forwards, Gonzaga needs to empower their three-point shooters in this game.
Gonzaga is shooting 38% from three. North Carolina? Just 29%. Gonzaga also averages 8 threes per game, compared to Carolina’s 5.5 threes per game. That’s 10.5 points right there for the Zags.
We can also see the impacts of Anthony and Black being out against Wofford. The Tar Heels went 6-of-19 from three for the game. Guard Brandon Robinson took most of the threes for the squad and finished just 3-of-9 from the field. By the way, UNC is averaging shooting just 40% from the field this season.
GAME INFO
Gonzaga and UNC tip at 6 PM on ESPN2 on Wednesday.