Breaking Down the Saturday Seahawk Shocker
UNCW is going to be tough to beat when it can replicate that toughness
There’s a pretty good chance you’re wearing teal this morning and it’s pretty likely you’ve had a smile on your face for most of the past 36 hours.
Looking back on UNCW’s historic 80-73 win over Kentucky at Rupp Arena, mine certainly got even bigger — I might even be stuck like this for a bit.
There’s a lot to love about what the Seahawks were able to accomplish in the course of the game against the 12th-ranked team in the nation, and one chock full of future NBA Draft picks.
“What a great experience it was for our young men and our program in general,” UNCW coach Takayo Siddle said. “It was one of those game where we knew it would be tough and we knew we would have to withstand some adversity.
“Our guys never wavered. They hit us with some haymakers, we responded with our own haymakers and we finished the game off like veterans.”
Let’s get into the details on the program’s first road victory against a ranked opponent…
KENTUCKY UPSET EDITION feat. Trazarien White
UNCW just pulled off its greatest regular-season win in program history, knocking off a ranked opponent on the road for the first time! And it just happened to be the program with the greatest tradition in college goops. Bill, Hunter and Brant break down the Seahawks' incredible gameplan, a huge night for Trazarien White and what this win means for the UN…
Thanks, ECU?
What a roller coaster it was.
In the span of 48 hours, UNCW had one of its bigger letdown games in the past few seasons in losing to East Carolina, then going into Lexington to knock off the winningest team in college basketball history.
But it wouldn’t have been possible without the Pirates showing the Seahawks exactly wasn’t working for them on Thursday evening.
“I think the ECU game helped us,” Siddle said. “We didn’t handle that adversity well when they made their run; we fell apart. We didn’t adhere to the gameplan, we divvied away from our system, we weren’t connected.
UNCW Photo Gallery vs. Kentucky
“It came up again, and we responded like champions.”
The end of the first half was eerily similar to UNCW’s two previous losses, watching a 14-point lead shrink to 41-33 as Reed Sheppard gave the Cats some momentum headed into the half.
Here’s how things played out each time UK made a second-half run:
A quick 6-0 run pulled the Cats to 44-43, but KJ Jenkins answered with a jumper.
Building on that run, Kentucky gets its first lead at 48-46, and with the crowd back to life, Eric Van Der Heijden knocks down a 3-pointer.
Then it’s a 7-0 run for the home team and UNCW trails 55-49 with 12:51 to go. Trazarien White immediately answers with a 3-point play as part of a personal 7-0 run to put the Hawks back in front for good.
On two occasions Kentucky got within two points, White answered immediately.
On the next two occasions Kentucky got within three, Shykeim Phillips answered immediately to stretch the lead.
Watch sports any given weekend, and you’ll see a mid-major giving a Power Five team hell for 20 of 30 minutes before the home crowd gets rolling and the five-star talent comes to life to escape with a win.
With 20,000 fans trying to will the Cats to a win, the Seahawks responded with the opposite of what happened on Thursday in front of 5,100 fans at Minges Coliseum.
“The moment got us a little bit at ECU and I thought we froze up a little bit and that’s why you saw all those misses and free throw misses. It came up again, and we delivered; we were the team we all know we can be.”
Everybody Eats
After shortening up the rotation at ECU, Siddle said during the pregame show that he planned on — appropriately for Lexington — ride all of his horses in this one.
In all, the Seahawks played 12 different players with 10 receiving 11+ minutes. Six reached the 20+ minute mark, with White (30) and Newby (26) leading the way — a major departure from playing three guys 30+ minutes on Thursday.
And every single guy in the stable did something to win the game.
Jenkins rebounded from a tough outing to hit three from 3-point range while having a much-improved performance on the defensive end.
Noah Ross and Khamari McGriff brought exactly the energy and toughness the Hawks needed.
Nolan Hodge hit a big 3-pointer to silence the crowd as the Hawks opened a 14-point lead.
Newby with big-time 3-pointers, and just as helpful, just one turnover in 26 minutes.
And more on Eric Van Der Heijden’s contributions coming up momentarily, but they were plentiful.
All of those guys allowed the Seahawks to pull off this win without a typical scoring day from Maleeck Harden-Hayes, who ended up with five rebounds.
Because everybody ate in the game, everybody had the chance to eat ice cream on the flight home. Total team effort in every sense, with 46 points off the bench — although 27 of those belonged to White, who is a reserve only in name.
The Tra Tasting, Then Shy Time
The final 20 points and six minutes of this game belonged to Phillips and White, with the duo hitting 6 of 8 field goal attempts, including a momentum-killing 3-pointer from White, who scored 18 points in the game’s final 12:27.
“Those are our two money guys,” Siddle said. Everybody on the team can score the basketball; those guys are a little different because they — we call it ‘boogie’ — they can boogie a little bit and go get it off the bounce.
“They’re strong, they’re physical, they’ve been in these moments before and I trust those guys; we trust them as a team, as a program, and they delivered in a major way today.”
Emphasis on strong and physical, with each doing their best work in the paint.
Phillips had a 3-point play early in the second half, but otherwise, had taken only two shots while White went to work.
But when Shy Time arrived, there was no hesitation from Siddle or the Seahawks in trusting their closer.
“We call it Shy Time,” White said. “It’s that moment where it’s Shy Time, and he always delivers.”
This time around, it was beating his man off the bounce three times, including chasing down his own miss with under a minute to play and ultimately converting a second-chance bucket.
The Elements of Toughness
Both of UNCW’s losses this season have involved an opponent getting more physical and imposing its will on the Seahawks in the second half.
It was toughness — physical and mental — that helped the Seahawks close this one out.
“Our guys showed a lot — a lot — of toughness,” Siddle said. “Three things that we talked about before we came out on the court, we talked about the three elements of toughness: fight, resilience and fearless, and we were all three — at a high level — tonight.”
Toughness can show up in a number of ways, but the easiest place to spot it is in those few feet around the bucket.
A few guys deserve major shoutouts for that, and especially Van Der Heijden for his 20-minute effort in the center spot.
To truly appreciate what he did on Saturday, you have to think back to when he arrived as a player known for his perimeter shooting, while defense was a struggle.
After seeing fewer minutes through December and part of January, he rejoined the rotation due to some injuries, and appeared to have added a new level of toughness to his game.
After dealing with a preseason injury, Van Der Heijden had played just 11 minutes coming into this weekend before jumping in head-first for 20 minutes against lottery picks.
Along with the rest of the frontcourt rotation, they did an excellent job of bringing effort and contesting seemingly every shot that went up as Kentucky shot 18 of 36 in the paint and around the basket.
Coming into the game, Kentucky had shot 54 of 105 from 3-point range over the past four games, while assisting on 66.9 percent of their field goals overall.
Saturday, they were 5 of 17 from beyond the arc and assisted on 58 percent of their buckets.
“We wanted to extend our pressure up the court and be really aggressive in the passing lanes and try to heat the basketball up, and it probably flushed them to the paint a little bit,” Siddle said. “They probably thought they had an advantage on the inside with their athleticism, touching the paint — that may have something to do with it. I thought our guys were really aggressive; it felt like they were on their heels a little bit, and we stayed aggressive throughout the game and it paid off for us.”
ATO Wizards
When the coaching staff has a moment to prepare the offense, UNCW ranks among the best in the nation.
After timeouts, the Seahawks have hit 42 of 78 attempts from the field, averaging 1.12 points per possession — good enough to rank in the 98th percentile nationally.
There were several huge plays that came out of timeouts on Saturday, like Van Der Heijden’s 3-pointer off an incredible set to go back ahead 49-48 or Phillips delivering the dagger.
We compiled a few of them here, including a great play for Jenkins that resulted in an open look that just didn’t fall.
Credit goes to the entire staff for getting the team prepared to execute out of timeouts, but especially to assistant Paul Hemrick, who is generally responsible for the offense.
The UNCW defense is actually pretty solid out of timeouts, too, allowing .80 points per possession — ranking in the 61st percentile.
More Takayo Siddle Quotes
Here’s what else the UNCW coach had to say after the game…
On shooting 3 of 23 from 3-point range at ECU…
The ECU game helped us. It wasn’t fatigue, it wasn’t anything but the moment. The moment got us a little bit at ECU and I thought we froze up a little bit and that’s why you saw all those misses and free throw misses. It came up again, and we delivered; we were the team we all know we can be.
On staying focused through the seven-day layoff…
You have a big win, you don’t want them to get fat and happy, so I’ll have to do my best job and my best work at making sure we stay grounded, making sure we stay humble and wanting more. That’ll be something we talk about a lot, but for the next couple of days, we’re going to enjoy this one.
On winning in Rupp as a coach vs. his victory as a player in 2007…
This is a better feeling as a coach, because when I got into it, when I got into coaching, I wanted to help young men. I wanted these guys to experience these types of things that I did as a player, make these types of memories together — this is much sweeter.
On how much he talked about winning in 2007 with Gardner-Webb…
I mentioned it briefly yesterday and it was so long ago, they don’t want to hear about my glory days at all. My message was, ‘Believe, and anything can happen,’ and little old Gardner-Webb came in here back in 2007 and we had the same outcome. then, we quickly moved on because they don’t want to hear that. I think they understood the message I was trying to get across to them. We came in here and we believed that we could win the game. We know how good we are as a ballclub, and our guys did a tremendous job of executing.
On his conversation with Phillips before going to the locker room at halftime…
My job is just to help these guys as much as I can on and off the court.
We were trying to get him to lead and talk a little bit more. I just grabbed and told him, ‘Hey, this is the message that you need to go back and talk to your team about.’ Cal, I’m sure he’s said it a million times, the good teams — the really elite teams — the players coach themselves, so that’s what we’re trying to get to. I just told them, ‘Hey look, that was a good half, but the game is not over.
I know Cal probably went in and went off on his guys, and we need to be ready to exceed it — their toughness, their energy, their fight, everything — so go in there and tell your guys, good half; we’re not done yet. We didn’t come here to win a half; we came here to win the ballgame, so settle in and let’s do it for 20 more minutes.
John Calipari Quotes
Again, that’s a good team. I’ve got to give it to them, and I knew it; I told them prior to the game, after watching the tape, ‘Why are we playing this team?’
I thought the other team was who we were.
They played their butts off and they deserved to win the game. The way they played and the shots they made, and they were big shots> When they needed to make a shot, they did. When we needed to make a shot, we didn’t — we just didn’t.