Theo Pinson sparks North Carolina to statement win over Florida State

Through 34 minutes of North Carolina’s clash with Florida State at the Dean Smith Center Saturday in Chapel Hill, there wasn’t much separating the Tar Heels and Seminoles. The home team had held multiple double-digit leads, but every time, Florida State had charged back. And that’s exactly what the visitors were doing again with six minutes remaining.

Xavier Rathan-Mayes sunk a free throw, and the lead dwindled to four, 80-76. North Carolina needed a lift. It needed something to separate it from a team that had proven to be every bit its equal. So it turned to one of the best secret weapons in college basketball, one whom the Tar Heels had been without for the season’s first 16 games, and one who may very well make them the best team in the ACC.

They turned to Theo Pinson. And Pinson went coast to coast, then soared to the rim as the Dean Dome rose with him:

“It felt like I was floating,” Pinson said after the game. “I was gliding to the basket. And then when I dunked it, I was like, ‘Did it go through?’ And then I heard everybody screaming … then I blacked out.”

Pinson wasn’t done either. Far from it, in fact. After Dwayne Bacon drilled a jumper to bring Florida State back to within four, Pinson tossed a lob to Isaiah Hicks, who flushed the alley-oop to push the lead back to six. Then the exclamation point, after a few inspirational defensive shifts, came minutes later: Pinson rose up from the wing and hit a three to put the Heels up 11, a lead that would finally last.

At the under-four timeout, Pinson flexed his muscles at midcourt and let out a triumphant yell. The entire Tar Heel bench rushed out to him as the Carolina blue-clad crowd saluted the effort. All of them knew the significance of the Pinson-led late-game flurry they had just witnessed. They knew the significance in the short term — it allowed North Carolina to pull away from the impressive Seminoles to a 96-83 victory.

They also knew the significance in the long term. A preseason foot injury had sidelined Pinson throughout non-conference play, and through the first two games of ACC play, when North Carolina had fallen to lowly Georgia Tech on the road before scraping out a win at Clemson thanks to some heroics from Joel Berry.

Just as North Carolina did Saturday afternoon, its season needed a spark. And that’s exactly what Pinson is. Off the court, he’s an incessantly cheerful comic who lightens a room whenever he arrives in one. On it, he’s the type of player whose impact won’t necessarily show up in the box score, but will nonetheless be large. The dunk was his first field goal of the season. The energetic junior took only five shots in his third game back from the injury, but that’s all he needed to record a double-double and help lead the Tar Heels to victory.

“I just try to bring that passion every time I come out on the court,” Pinson said postgame. “Just play hard … Make plays. And that’s just not scoring. I try to do everything.”

In addition to doing everything, he guarded everyone Saturday — even 7-foot-1, 300-pound Florida State center Michael Ojo when Roy Williams went to a small lineup. Pinson’s versatility is yet another one of his assets.

Williams and the Tar Heels needed Pinson’s 12 points, 10 rebounds and three assists too, because for the majority of the afternoon, Florida State demonstrated the exact qualities that had led it on a 12-game win streak, to the top of the ACC, and into the AP top 10.

The Seminoles did anything but deviate from their winning formula. Instead, they just ran into a talented, buoyant team employing a carbon copy of that formula. That team was North Carolina, and the Tar Heels were just slightly better. They matched Florida State’s size. They matched the Seminoles’ tempo. They matched them in the paint and on the glass. And the perimeter duo of Joel Berry and Justin Jackson made a few more difficult shots than Florida State’s guards did.

A few of Florida State’s imperfections arose at inopportune times too. In the first half, the visitors made just 6 of 14 free throws, and turned the ball over 11 times. Five of those 11 came from point guard Rathan-Mayes.

Even after digging itself an early nine-point hole, Florida State climbed back into the game by doing what it does well. But whereas in previous games those strengths overrode any imperfections or opponent advantages, North Carolina just had a bit too much to throw at the Seminoles.

Even without Tony Bradley, the Tar Heel frontcourt equaled a Florida State team that had scored 56 points in the paint and rebounded 40 percent of its own misses against Duke four days earlier. Reserve forward Luke Maye pulled down five of his 15 rebounds on the offensive end. The Tar Heels had 21 offensive rebounds — Florida State had just 25 defensive boards — and scored 28 second chance points.

Hicks was also able to give North Carolina a crucial inside scoring presence against Florida State’s massive front line. His 22 points balanced out Justin Jackson’s 22 and Berry’s 26 from the perimeter.

The win, along with Pinson’s return and impact, likely makes North Carolina the new favorite in the ACC — though Notre Dame currently sits alone atop the conference after its 76-71 win Saturday over Virginia Tech. It in no way knocks Florida State out of the conference’s top tier. The Seminoles are still 3-1 four games through a murderous six-game stretch that will conclude with Notre Dame and Louisville at home next week. The Seminoles have proven over the past four games that they belong among the ACC elite.

But with a full rotation, and one that boasts talent and experience at all five spots, North Carolina just sprung back to the top of that ACC ruling class. That’s the statement it made Saturday.