From one court storm to another. This time, UNC on the wrong end in loss at Miami

Given the emotional intensity of Saturday night’s win over Duke — what with UNC’s best buzzer-beater since Luke Maye’s shot in 2017 and the subsequent celebrations on the court (twice) and on Franklin Street — it wasn’t surprising that there were lingering effects.

But Tuesday night was more than a simple lull. Instead, the No. 11 Tar Heels were beat wire-to-wire by coach Jai Lucas’ unranked Miami squad, 75-66, prompting the Hurricanes to indulge in a court storming of their own — complete with House of Pain’s “Jump Around” blaring from the speakers.

“I think it was a little bit of a hangover,” said junior Jarin Stevenson, who finished with a team-high 13 points. “I feel like we didn’t come out with the right mindset.”

The points of frustration for the Tar Heels (19-5, 7-4 ACC), particularly coach Hubert Davis, were numerous. Midway through the first half, when an errant pass from Miami bounced out of bounds, the UNC coach corralled the ball and, with it wrapped around his arms, began pumping his fist and shouting.

Kyan Evans responded promptly with a 3-pointer, part of a much-needed eight-point first half performance from the Colorado State transfer. That triple capped off an 8-0 run for the Tar Heels midway through the first half, which help cut a 10-point deficit to one.

But, just after that, Miami’s fourth offensive rebound of the game — which came with over nine minutes left until halftime — led to a second-chance alley-oop dunk for the Hurricanes.

Davis called a 30-second timeout and slammed down his clipboard. The UNC starters didn’t even sit down, with Davis taking the entire timeout to yell at his players, clearly attempting to inject some energy into the team.

But the Tar Heels never found their stride. Lucas’ team entered Tuesday with a 16-1 record when leading at halftime, and the Hurricanes weren’t about to add a second loss. Despite a productive showing from the Tar Heels’ bench — which provided 24 points — the majority of North Carolina’s starters proved streaky.

“We just couldn’t find a rhythm offensively,” Davis said. “(We struggled) getting to the basket, getting points in the paint, which allows us to generate those good threes that allow us to shoot a high percentage. We just didn’t play well enough in the second half to be able to pull away.”

Stevenson cut the deficit to five points at two different moments with under two minutes remaining. The Hurricanes (19-5, 8-3 ACC) responded each time.

With the loss, North Carolina has only led for 0.4 seconds over the last two games.

Here are some observations from UNC’s loss:

Inconsistency from Tar Heel starters

With 5:44 left in the first half, Miami’s Dovrat Noam rose up for a 3-pointer that was tightly contested by Caleb Wilson. Both players fell to the floor. The ball swished through the net. The whistle blew. Wilson threw his hands over his forehead as he lay on the ground, the frustration at giving up a potential four-point play palpable on the freshman’s face.

There were plenty of reasons for agitation, as both Wilson and Seth Trimble struggled for large stretches Tuesday night.

After making the biggest shot of his life Saturday night, Trimble didn’t attempt a shot for nearly the entire first half in Coral Gables. His first attempt came on a missed floater with under two minutes remaining until halftime. It was no good.

By halftime, Trimble and Wilson had combined for just three points. Go back to the Duke game, in which Wilson recorded his last field goal with just over 13 minutes remaining, and Wilson went a stretch of 33 combined minutes with just three points.

The second half was more of the same for Trimble, who managed four points after the break.

Wilson picked up his production with nine after halftime, despite missing six minutes as trainer Doug Halverson tended to an apparent left-hand injury.

It was the inverse for Henri Veesaar, though, who managed two points on three shot attempts in the second half after a nine point first half performance.

“Shots, sometimes you make them, sometimes you don’t,” Davis said. “That’s not a concern to me. Stuff that shows up every day — and that’s defense, rebounding, taking care of the basketball — those are the boxes that we didn’t definitively check today.”

Tar Heels start (and end) sluggish

After Miami missed its first two shots on Tuesday night, it made nine of its next 10 attempts — nearly all of them coming at the rim or on wide-open jumpers — to jump to a 24-15 lead.

The Hurricanes took full advantage of the Tar Heels’ first-half turnovers. Miami recorded six steals on nine UNC turnovers, leading to eight points the other way. The Hurricanes also dominated points in the paint, 26-14, in the first half.

“We just didn’t have the aggression and the ball pressure that we needed to have,” Veesaar said. “And down (low), I made a couple mistakes, like stepping up too early. We just gotta do a better job of making them finish over us.”

But it wasn’t just North Carolina’s defense that was sluggish. The Tar Heels struggled to play with pace on the offensive end. A Wilson layup through traffic with 6:24 remaining marked UNC’s first and only fast-break points of the entire game.

Davis has talked often throughout his tenure about wanting to be “fastest team in the country from free throw line to free throw line,” but North Carolina largely let Miami dictate the pace on Tuesday night.

It didn’t help that the Tar Heels couldn’t buy a shot in the second half. UNC started 0-of-5 from deep out of halftime. By the time Miami took a timeout with 3:34 remaining, up 63-60, North Carolina had made just three of its last 15 attempts from the floor. Those struggles continued as UNC failed to close out the game.

Derek Dixon struggles against pressure, with shot

Coming off a brilliant performance Saturday — including, of course, the assist on Trimble’s game-winner — Derek Dixon appeared to struggle against Miami’s defensive pressure. The freshman point guard led the team in assists, with four, but also in turnovers (4).

North Carolina has had stretches this season with historically great ball control and offensive efficiency. The Tar Heels entered Tuesday night with a top-15 turnover percentage, but gave up 11 turnovers on the game.

Down 63-60, Dixon had a chance to tie the game when Stevenson zipped a pass to him. The freshman rose up from behind the arc, but his trey was no good. Dixon finished with two points on 1-of-9 shooting, including 0-for-6 from deep.

Evans said Miami played a lot of different defenses, making it difficult to get into the flow of the game.

“He’s young, but he’s extremely mature,” Evans said of Dixon. “The whole team knows he’ll bounce back for sure.”

This story was originally published February 10, 2026 at 9:22 PM with the headline "From one court storm to another. This time, UNC on the wrong end in loss at Miami."