UNC looking to Bounce Back vs. ND

Written by Sharon Thorsland

North Carolina returns from a dismal west coast road trip that ended with two losses and an eight-place drop in the national polls. Now the 22nd ranked Tar Heels (14-4, 2-3 ACC) are back at home to take on Notre Dame on Wednesday night and are looking to get back in the win column before the season starts unraveling. The Fighting Irish are just 10-8 on the season and 1-4 in the ACC, but have plenty of offensive firepower. Tip-off is set for 7:00 on WBT.

The Irish took a huge hit last month when leading scorer Markus Burton went down with a broken ankle. He’s out indefinitely, and the Irish have gone 3-5 without him, dropping their last four games. And now on top of that, senior big man Kebba Nijie has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a knee injury. So, to say that the Fighting Irish are in a bit of a free fall right now is probably a bit of an understatement. But they’re still got a lot of talent on the team, starting with freshman guard Jalen Haralson. He’s taken over for Burton as the leading scorer, averaging 14.7 points per game. Haralson starts alongside Braeden Shrewsberry and Logan Imes, and Charlotte native Sir Mohammed has moved into the starting power forward spot. sophomore Cole Certa adds 9.2 a contest.

With Nijie out of the mix, 6’8 grad student Carson Towt will anchor the inside, he’s averaging 6.5 points and 10 rebounds a game. And freshman Brady Koehler will also be in the mix. He’s seen limited minutes up until this point but had a career high 17 points against Virginia Tech after Nijie went down on Saturday. This game will be a battle on the boards, as these are two of the top rebounding teams in the ACC. The Tar Heels feature star freshman Caleb Wilson and big man Henri Vassear and rank fourth in the league in rebound margin; the Irish are 6th.

One thing to keep an eye on is UNC’s defense, or lack thereof. After not allowing anyone to score point than 74 points in their first 14 games, the Tar Heels have now allowed an average of 90 points a game over their last four. They’ve been particularly atrocious on perimeter defense, allowing teams to shoot over 40% from three-point range the past four games, including 62.5% against Cal on Saturday. Shrewsberry is the sharp-shooter for the Irish, knocking down nearly 43% of his attempts from behind the arc. The Tar Heels must find a way to stop him and be better on defense all the way around.

The good news is, Notre Dame has only won one time in the Dean Dome, back in 2015. They’ve lost the other seven games there and are 5-16 overall against the Tar Heels. UNC might be having some issues, but the Irish seem to be worse off. Look for the Tar Heels to get back in the win column and hand the Irish their fifth straight loss. Go Tar Heels!