UNC Basketball vs Notre Dame: Game preview, info, prediction and more

UNC basketball program looks to rebound from back-to-back losses, faces off with Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday afternoon

The North Carolina Tar Heels are coming off of consecutive losses in which they simply got outplayed and outhustled, dropping conference road games to NC State and Georgia Tech within the span of a week. They aren’t playing like a team, and they aren’t playing with a ton of purpose. Both of those notions have essentially been reiterated by members of the team who have suggested that players simply aren’t “buying into the system” in the early-goings of the 2020-21 season.

Consider that the Tar Heels are lacking a consistent knock-down shooter (43.6 percent overall, 27.7 percent from three-point range) and a true point guard on top of that (16.2 turnovers to just 13.4 assists per game), and it’s a really bad combination for Roy Williams’ group. They’re going to have to figure it out on the fly, though, and soon, otherwise this thing could get really out of hand really fast. We saw that happen a year ago when they began the season with a record of 5-0 before tumbling to a disastrous 14-19 mark. And while injuries and some serious bad fortune marred their 2019-20 campaign, we’d be remiss to act like that’s all that was missing. They also weren’t a very good team, and so far, that looks to be the case this season, too.

Saturday’s impromptu game at home against Notre Dame might be a good barometer for just how good (or bad) they really are. If they can’t come together after a pair of bad losses to win a game against a substandard Notre Dame team, then I’m not sure where they go from here, or just how bad it gets. My guess is something in the neighborhood of what they did last year, when they sat tied at the bottom of the Atlantic Coast Conference rankings with a league record of just 6-14.

Key to victory for UNC

Actually try hard? Play like you mean it? I know that shooting is a problem, but many of the Tar Heels’ mistakes have nothing to do with their inability to knock down shocks with a modicum of consistency. They turn the ball over at an alarming rate, and most of their miscues are more mental than they are about about talent and athleticism. Forget the X’s and O’s, just play hard, play smart, play tough and play like you are a Tar Heel.

Don’t be surprised if…

Don’t be surprised if the Tar Heels come out looking lazy, lackadaisical and uninspired, because that’s pretty much all we’ve seen lately, particularly at the beginning of games. It’s inexplicable how a group of players with “North Carolina” on the front of their jerseys could lack heart, passion and pride out on the basketball court, but I for one am not going to be surprised if they show it to us again.

This season has not been any brand of UNC basketball that I’ve witnessed before, and I made it through the 2019-20 season. Last season, however, dissimilar from this season, injuries could be blamed for at least some of their struggles and lack of success on the court. That’s simply not the case this season. But make no mistake, nobody is without blame, as the coaching hasn’t been perfect either. Players have to play, but when I watch a team continually begin games with no energy and getting down by double-digit points, I have to look over at the bench and wonder what’s going on.

Starting lineup

G – R.J. Davis – 9.6 ppg, 3.0 rpg
G – Kerwin Walton – 3.4 ppg, 1.2 rpg
G – Andrew Platek – 6.4 ppg, 1.9 rpg
F/C – Armando Bacot – 12.3 ppg, 8.0 rpg
F/C – Day’Ron Sharpe – 7.9 ppg, 7.2 rpg

We’ll go with this as our projected starting lineup for Saturday’s game, but who really knows? Nothing has worked all that well over the season’s first nine game, and I’m 100 percent certain that we haven’t seen anywhere close to our last new starting five this season. Roy Williams and his staff will likely continue to tinker with things until they find something that works a little better than what we’ve seen to this point.

What you need to know

WHAT? Notre Dame Fighting Irish (3-5, 0-2 ACC) at North Carolina Tar Heels (5-4, 0-2 ACC)
WHEN? Saturday, January 2 @ 4:00 p.m. EST
WHERE? Dean E. Smith Center – Chapel Hill, North Carolina
TV? ACC Network
RADIO? Tar Heels Sports Network
LINE? UNC -10
LAST MEETING? Notre Dame won 77-76 in South Bend (2/17/2020). Cole Anthony led UNC with 23 points and seven assists.
ALL-TIME SERIES? UNC leads 25-8
PREDICTION? UNC 79, Notre Dame 72

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