Only four regular season games remain in what will go down as one of the worst seasons in North Carolina basketball history. The opportunity to close with some positives remains, though, as that stretch incudes two meetings with archrivals, beginning Tuesday night when N.C. State visits the Smith Center for a 9 pm tip.
Carolina enters riding a seven-game losing streak that began in its game following a win at State in late January. The Heels have lost four of those contests on the last possession and were mere points from Florida State in Tallahassee with 40 seconds left.
State is coming off a tough home loss to FSU a few days after clobbering Duke by 22 points.
UNC is 10-17 overall and 3-13 in the ACC, State is 17-10 and 8-8.
Here are 3 Keys for UNC to defeat N.C. State:
It's A Rivalry, Play With Emotion
Sometimes, playing with too much emotion can backfire on a team, but given how things have gone for the Tar Heels and that they are coming off a performance at Louisville in which they didn’t have great energy in stretches, riding some serious emotion can only help against the Wolfpack.
Carolina needs to play with fire, play with grit, and play as if this is the most important game any of the players have ever been involved in. If they can get a win over State and sweep the regular season series, that will at least give the players something positive to corral from this season. But it’s not going to happen if the Heels don’t play with an edge.
Make Markell Make Mistakes
In other words, when N.C. State point guard Markell Johnson is focused and plays well, as he did scoring 28 points in a rout of Duke last week, the Wolfpack is an impressive team that can make a run if it gets into the dance. However, if mediocre Markell shows up, the Pack can lose to anyone.
The Heels have no clue which Johnson will arrive at the Smith Center, but they can try to get him out of his game early and perhaps tilt his evening toward the negative. That would be an effective strategy if it works.
Cole, Brooks & BRob
The Heels’ top three players are without question Cole Anthony, Garrison Brooks and Brandon Robinson, and to notch a victory it’s a near-must that all three play well and are productive. Nobody has to go off for 30, but it wouldn’t be such a bad thing, especially if it’s Brooks, who can stress State’s defense a lot by forcing its bigs to roam a lot and cover a lot of ground.
