The UNC basketball program holds a 14-2 record and a 2-1 record in conference play leading up to their two-game West Coast trip that begins with a bout against Stanford on Wednesday night.
While the record overall is extremely good, there's still plenty of room for North Carolina to grow, especially on the defensive side of the floor.
Even Caleb Wilson can't solely fix this problem
Caleb Wilson is an elite-level basketball player who impacts the game in a variety of ways. However, even he can't single-handedly fix this issue that the UNC basketball program is having, especially against ACC foes.
Conference opponents have been having a field day shooting the basketball from three-point range against the Tar Heels.
In three ACC games thus far, here's how opponents have shot the basketball from deep:
Florida State: 12-40
SMU: 14-27
Wake Forest: 14-35
Total: 40-102 (39.2%)
Knocking down just under 40% of attempts from beyond-the-arc? Yeah, that's not ideal...
The scary thing is: if you take out Florida State (given they were chucking up three-point attempts), SMU and Wake Forest shot the basketball at an elite level, knocking down 45% of their makes.
Something's got to give!
North Carolina has to do a better job of limiting wide-open opportunities. Once good shooters see one go through, it gets them in a rhythm, one that will be very difficult to stop once they get rolling.
After a few makes, the shooter will see a wide-open look regardless of who is in the vicinity of them on the court.
This recent trend is one the UNC basketball program can't continue to allow. Of course, it shows that a heavy emphasis needs to be made on the defensive side of the floor, a challenge that will take the whole team to accomplish.
We've seen this team play elite-level defense early on this season. The potential to get the job done is withoutadoubt there, it's just a matter of the guys on the floor stepping up and doing so.
If they can't improve in this area, conference play isn't going to be very fun for the Tar Heels as they navigate a competitive schedule against ACC foes, some of which are really good at shooting the basketball.