Defensive stopper role suits UNC senior Leaky Black as 100th career game arrives at Miami
CHAPEL HILL — Leaky Black hasn’t attempted a shot from the field in three games this season, has finished five other games with one made bucket, and has totaled 11 points across North Carolina’s five games in Atlantic Coast Conference league play.
But those modest numbers and other scoring-driven columns on stat sheets aren’t the instruments with which to fully measure the dimensions of the three-year starter’s value to the Tar Heels.
“He’s been unbelievable,” coach Hubert Davis said. “He’s having a great year, and he’s a huge reason for us in becoming the team that we want to become.”
The senior swingman Black’s 100th career college basketball game, and likely his 75th start, arrives in the form of Tuesday night’s road test for North Carolina (12-4 overall, 4-1 ACC) at league leader Miami (13-4, 5-1).
Black supplied a career-best 16 points last January when the Tar Heels visited Miami, but a similar scoring punch shouldn’t be expected Tuesday night in South Florida. He has yet to reach double figures this season, settling into character as a defensive stopper and facilitator, while teammates such as Armando Bacot (17.4 points per game), Caleb Love (15.5 points per game), RJ Davis (13.4 points per game) and Brady Manek (12.8 points per game) fuel North Carolina in that capacity.
“I feel like I’m very comfortable with my role, honestly,” Black said. “We obviously have a lot of guys that can shoot the ball and can score it in many different ways. I don’t have to do much on that end (of the court). I just have to do my job to get them open. On the other end, that’s where I kind of pick up my role (defensively) and take pride in that, and try to be a leader.”
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Black had two points, two rebounds and four assists in North Carolina’s last game, and provided the type of performance that underlines his worth. He put the clamps on Georgia Tech standout Michael Devoe, the 6-foot-5 senior guard who entered Saturday night’s matchup in Chapel Hill as the ACC’s second-leading scorer at 20.5 points per game, before getting smothered by the stretchy 6-8 Black.
The Tar Heels held Devoe to a season-low two points on 1-for-5 shooting from the field, with Black shouldering the primary defensive responsibilities and reducing Georgia Tech’s top option to a non-factor. The crafty lefty Devoe had delivered five games with 25 points or more, including 37- and 33-point outbursts. Previously, he had scored in single digits only once this season, an eight-point outing against Georgia State.
Devoe went scoreless against North Carolina until the second half nearly was seven minutes old Saturday night. He finished with more turnovers (six) than shot attempts from the field (five) and didn’t register an assist, prompting rave reviews for Black from Bacot and RJ Davis.
“The team highly appreciates Leaky,” RJ Davis said. “For him to guard the best (perimeter scorer) every night and do a great job on them, making it tough for them to make shots, making them frustrated, that’s something that goes around the locker room and something that we notice. Other people may not notice, but Leaky does a great job.”
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Bacot, who produced his seventh straight double-double and equaled his career high with 29 points against Georgia Tech, quickly shifted his postgame session with reporters toward Black’s effort after the Tar Heels rolled to their convincing 88-65 victory.
“I just wanted to shout-out Leaky,” Bacot said, “because he did a tremendous job. It would’ve been a lot closer game if he didn’t take Devoe out the game, and it was just huge. That was big-time. That just really helped us, because a lot of their offense is through Devoe.”
Black, who’s from Concord, is playing 25.5 minutes per game, mainly at small forward. The Tar Heels are 7-0 this season when he contributes three assists or more. He’s grabbing 4.5 rebounds per game and shooting a career-best 44.7 percent from the field, though his 3.7 points per game is his lowest scoring average since his freshman season in 2018-19.
In North Carolina’s five ACC games this season, Black has checked in at 2.2 points per game. He went scoreless while not attempting a shot during the Tar Heels’ routs of Boston College and Virginia.
“There’s nobody in this conference that is a better individual defender than Leaky Black,” Hubert Davis said. “He should be the Defensive Player of the Year. Every game his assignment is to play the best offensive player on the perimeter, and he loves that challenge. He loves that assignment. And he’s been fantastic on both ends of the floor.
“From an offensive standpoint, he doesn’t shoot the ball very much. But he takes care of the basketball. He has the best assist-to-turnover ratio on the team. And for him defensively, it’s just fun to watch.”
Tip-off
Who: North Carolina (12-4, 4-1) at Miami (13-4, 5-1)
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday (ACC Network)
Where: Watsco Center, Coral Gables, Fla.
Series: North Carolina leads 26-8, including 10-3 on the road and 8-3 at the Watsco Center. The Tar Heels have won five straight meetings, and eight of the last 10.
Up next: North Carolina plays at Wake Forest on Saturday night. It’s the only meeting of the regular season between the teams, and the beginning of a stretch of four games in nine days for the Tar Heels.
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Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @adam_smithTN on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC basketball: Stopper role suits Leaky Black ahead of Miami matchup
