Defending the Three
North Carolina is having an issue guarding the perimeter. Stanford is the latest team to go heavy from deep and punish the Tar Heels with three after three.
Carolina has allowed 10 or more made three pointers in each of its four ACC games this season.
— Sherrell D. McMillan (@RellDMC) January 15, 2026
There are a couple of issues. Switches are leading to bad match-ups, and individual defenders are getting cooked. For all of the early season talk about Jarin Stevenson looking comfortable defending all five positions, he's looking less and less capable of shutting down shifty guards who can shoot. Also, Seth Trimble, who is physically gifted and fleet of foot enough to be considered one of the best defensive guards in the country, was not at his best last night. He had a team-worst +/- rating of -11. He was also alarmingly loose with the ball (three turnovers), so he'll warrant further monitoring moving forward.
With true size in the post, perhaps Hubert Davis won't have the team help so much on drives, leaving wide open shooters. It won't take many more nights like last night in Palo Alto to show this form of defense is not sustainable.