UNC Basketball looks for revenge against Pittsburgh

After suffering a loss to Pittsburgh on a road about a month ago, the UNC basketball program looks for payback as they host the Panthers on Wednesday night.

The UNC basketball program returns to the court on Wednesday night after a seven-day break, as they’ll host ACC foe Pittsburgh at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Having long breaks before competing against Pittsburgh was a common trend in this year’s schedule. Prior to their loss to the Panthers on December 30, the Tar Heels were idle for eight straight days, their longest stretch of the season.

Now, a week after defeating Syracuse, the Tar Heels will look for a better outcome than the first time around.

Coming into this game, North Carolina trails Pittsburgh by a half-game in the ACC standings. Of course, it’s easy to look ahead to Saturday, but this is also a very big game for the UNC basketball program.

Key To Victory for North Carolina

In the first half of the first matchup between the two squads, North Carolina shot the ball very well from the floor.

After connecting on 51.6% percent of their first-half attempts, the Tar Heels followed it up by shooting just 33.3% percent over the final 20 minutes of play, as Armando Bacot was the only Tar Heel to make multiple shots in the second half.

As they held a lead of as much as 9 (while leading for 34:13 minutes!) North Carolina didn’t do enough to close out the game.

If they want to win the rematch, they’ll need a strong effort for 40 minutes of play, and will need to shoot the basketball better, especially from three-point range.

Something to Watch For

Two big question marks coming into this game:

The first is the status of RJ Davis, who is expected to play after taking a few major hits in the Tar Heels’ win at Syracuse. Along with his facial injuries, Davis also dislocated a finger on his shooting hand, which could impact him offensively.

Our second question is, what’s the plan to make sure that Jamarius Burton doesn’t explode offensively once again?

Burton connected on 14-17 shots in the first matchup, scoring a game-high 31 points. It will be interesting to see if Hubert Davis elects to have Leaky Black shadow Burton, at least for the start of the game.

Last Meeting

As mentioned earlier, the UNC basketball program blew a 9-point lead as their four-game winning streak was snapped by Pittsburgh in the team’s final game of the 2022 calendar year.

Armando Bacot led the Tar Heels in scoring (22) and rebounds (13) and tied for the team-highs in assists (3) and blocks (2). This is the first a Tar Heel has led the team in all four categories since Luke Maye accomplished the feat against Tulane on December 3, 2017.

Projected Starters

No. 4 R.J. Davis (Jr., 6-0, 175) – 16.4 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 3.2 apg
No. 2 Caleb Love (Jr., 6-4, 200) – 16.3 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 3.1 apg
No. 1 Leaky Black (Gr., 6-9 205) – 7.0 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.5 apg
No. 32 Pete Nance (Gr. 6-11, 230) – 10.9 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 1.7 apg
No. 5 Armando Bacot (Sr., 6-11, 235) – 17.9 ppg, 11.4 rpg, 1.1 bpg