Breaking News: what a bad day for Blake Hinson as his wife divorced him immediately after he ………more
WASHINGTON — It doesn’t take much to get Harrison Ingram going, but he’s constantly in search of a motive. Something to make games “personal.” To give him an edge.
That goes for basketball or just about any board game — from Catan to heated Spades battles with his grandfather. Just ask his teammate, fellow transfer James Okonkwo, who’s competed in some heated online chess battles against Ingram. The junior wing talks trash; he tries to get Okonkwo off his game.
And on Friday night, in a slightly more serious context, Ingram found his motive: disrespect. His assigned man, Pitt’s Blake Hinson, entered the game as an ACC first-team selectee. As for Ingram, he filed in at third team, despite leading the conference in rebounding through ACC play.
And the junior took it personally, “100 percent.”
In No. 4 UNC’s 72-65 win over the Panthers in the ACC tournament semifinals, Ingram held Hinson to five points — tying the senior’s season-low — on two field goals. Hinson entered the game leading the ACC in 3-point field goals, but on Friday he made none. The Pitt guard also paced the conference with 18 points per game (behind UNC’s RJ Davis). And on Friday? Well, he wasn’t anywhere close.
“A lot of teams guard me a lot of different ways,” Hinson told reporters in the locker room following the game. “They try their best not to let me score. It’s my job to score. I didn’t do my job tonight.”
And a big reason for that comes down to, not Xs and Os, but wants and desires. Passion — even if it comes from anger.
Sophomore guard Seth Trimble said “a lot of people had motives in this game.” He was quick to list them out. For one, Pitt has historically “bullied” the Tar Heels. Going back to 2020, North Carolina is 3-5 against the Panthers. Pitt’s Ishmael Leggett was named ACC Sixth Man of the Year. Trimble, UNC’s own resident sixth man, “thought otherwise.”
And as for Ingram’s beef with Hinson? The junior said it’s not that deep.
