Iowa State’s second-round victory over North Carolina Central came at a cost, losing Georges Niang to a fractured foot. Now the third-seeded Cyclones will have to play the rest of the NCAA Tournament — starting with Sunday’s game against North Carolina — minus their star forward.
Niang’s broken foot won’t break them, however, according to the team.
“Obviously it’s a very big loss for our team, the way we utilize his skillset,” Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg said. “We’ll miss Georges, and what he brings to the team, not only that, but his enthusiasm and way he keeps everybody together. But, that being said, somebody will step up. They always do. We have guys itching to step in and get on the floor. The guys know I believe in them.’’
Niang, who scored 24 points Friday and averaged 20.4 over his last five games — suffered a broken fifth metatarsal in his right foot. The athletic sixth-seeded Tar Heels (24-9) are looming in the third round, with the victor earning a trip to New York and an East Regional Sweet 16 berth at the Garden.
“This doesn’t change anything with this team,” Niang said early Saturday morning. “I still believe in these guys. My role just changes from being on the floor to being their biggest fan on the sideline.’’
The Cyclones (27-7) share the ball and shoot well, but they’re not big or deep. They have just six players left on their roster averaging more than 6.2 minutes. If All-American forward Melvin Ejim didn’t already have enough weight on his shoulders, the Big 12 Player of the Year surely does now.
“After you lose one of your key contributors, one of our brothers, it’s definitely tough,” said Ejim, who missed time himself earlier in the season. “It was a bittersweet feeling winning that game and losing Georges. But basketball is a game of adjustments, and it’s an adjustment we have to make. We’re definitely motivated. We definitely want to get this done for him.’’
The Tar Heels have their own issues, namely their suddenly-leaky defense. They couldn’t stop Providence’s Bryce Cotton from tearing them up for a career-high 36 points, tied for the most a North Carolina team ever has allowed in the NCAA Tournament. Now they’ll have to deal with a Cyclones team that leads the nation in assists (18.6), is sixth in scoring (83.2 ppg) and shot 63.6 percent Friday.
“They shot 65 percent … they’ll shoot 75 percent the way we’ve been playing,’’ North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. “I haven’t been pleased with our defense. We won 12 in a row, and the first 10 of those we held the other team under 45 percent.
“Everybody was saying, ‘Boy, you guys are really good defensively.’ I kept saying ‘They’ve missed a lot of open shots.’ Well, they stopped missing the daggum open shots we’ve been giving them. We’ve got to play better defensively, there’s no question about that. It’s a big-time concern.’’
Those defensive struggles could attributed to North Carolina’s youthful lineup of Marcus Paige, Leslie McDonald, J.P. Tokoto, James Michael McAdoo and Kennedy Meeks, with a freshman and two sophomores. They used their size and athleticism to escape Friday and will need to use it again Sunday.
“There is a responsibility to carry on the tradition and the easiest way to so that is by winning,’’ Paige said. “We felt a little pressure to get it done and we want to challenge and make a run in the tournament. There is a little pressure wearing the Carolina blue, but you have to respond. That’s why you chose to come to this school in the first place.’’