UNC Basketball vs. NC State: Game Preview, Info and More

The UNC basketball team finishes up their three-game in six day stretch with a Saturday afternoon match up against N.C. State as the school will honor Roy Williams with a special ceremony.

UNC is coming off a 58-47 win against 8-11 Boston College in a sweet but sour victory. Even though the game ended in a Carolina 11-point win it still felt like one of the worst performances of the season. What went so terribly wrong?

Well for starters, UNC’s cold shooting streak continued…

The Tar Heel offense struggled throughout with Boston College being just that bad to bail out a 29.1% from the field performance. Thankfully for UNC the Eagles couldn’t hit a shot from behind the arch going 1 for 16 compared to Carolinas’ 6 for 17. UNC did win the rebound battle 44 to 38 and protected the paint with seven blocks.

Now with a day of rest in between, they turn their attention to the Wolfpack.

There’s no better way to forget this week’s performances than by ending Friday night with arms locked singing the Alma Mater. NC State is the perfect team for UNC to regain momentum lost after the Miami and Wake Forest games last week.

The Wolfpack comes into this match-up playing underwhelming ball so far with a 3-7 record when playing inside of the Atlantic Coastal Conference. When playing outside of the ACC, NC State is 10-11 with an away record of 2-3. Even though UNC wins the match-up on paper, if the cold-shooting performance continues then this could end up being a tight game with NC State’s Dereon Seabron leading the charge.

Seabron leads the Wolfpack in points(19.0), rebounds(9.2), and assist(3.3). His presence in the paint with his ability to crash the offensive glass makes him the player to watch out for. Outside of Seabron the next key player to focus in on is Jericole Hellems who is NC State’s threat behind the three-point line. Hellems is 41% from behind the arch with an average of 6 three-point attempts per game.

Key To Victory

Better shots…better lineups.

The blame for UNC’s struggles isn’t all on the shooting. A team that started out the season so hot on offense has cooled down significantly. To make matters worse, the substitutions have been like a game of Tetris with inconsistent spread of minutes. This is the perfect game to find the shooting stroke with NC State’s defense giving up an average of 39% from three in conference play and seeing which rotation works best on the court.

Something To Watch

Armando Bacot’s double-double streak ended but the Dean Dome streak is still alive…

Bacot nearly kept his 10 game double-double streak alive against Boston College with 18 rebounds, but failed to hit double digits in points. Seeing how Bacot bounces back after a 1 for 10 shooting performance is what everyone should be tuned into. If I had to bet for Bacot to pull out another 20 and 20 performance, it would be in this game to disprove the flukiness of his last outing.

The Bacot streak may have ended but Carolina is still a perfect 11-0 at home, keeping the opposing teams on their heels. This will be UNC’s last home game before hosting Duke, and what better way to go into Coach K’s last Dean Dome game with an undefeated home record on the line.

Projected Starters

No. 4 R.J. Davis (So., 6-0, 175) – 13.5 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 3.3 apg
No. 2 Caleb Love (So., 6-4, 195) – 15.0 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 3.4 apg
No. 1 Leaky Black (Sr., 6-8 200) – 3.9 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 2.3 apg
No. 45 Brady Manek (So. 6-9, 230) – 12.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 1.7 apg
No. 5 Armando Bacot (Jr., 6-10, 240) – 16.3 ppg, 12.1 rpg, 1.5 bpg

What You Need To Know

WHAT?  NC State Wolfpack (10-11,  3-7 ACC) AT North Carolina Tar Heels  (14-6, 6-3 ACC)
WHEN? Saturday, January 28 – 2:00 p.m. EST
WHERE? Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
TV? ACC NETWORK
RADIO? Tar Heels Sports Network
LINE? N/A
LAST MEETING? UNC beat NC State 86-76, January 23, 2021
ALL-TIME SERIES? UNC leads all-time 115-58
PREDICTION? UNC 65, NC State 61

Be sure to check back with Keeping It Heel for more coverage on the UNC basketball program.