The last gasp for the 2020 North Carolina Tar Heels begins Tuesday versus Virginia Tech in the opening round of the ACC Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum.

UNC heads into the event the program has won 18 times and advanced to the championship game in eight of the last 13 years, but to get that far this weekend the Tar Heels must win four games. To cut down the nets and qualify for the NCAA Tournament, they need to win five games in five days.

Carolina must first defeat the Hokies, which tips Tuesday night at 7 pm.

UNC enters the game at 13-18 overall after finishing the ACC regular season 6-14. Virginia Tech is 16-15 and finished 7-13.

Here are 3 Keys for the Tar Heels to defeat the Hokies:

Andrew Platek played 49 minutes and Justin Pierce logged 45 minutes in the Tar Heels’ double-overtime loss to the Hokies in Blacksburg on Jan. 22, but they won’t get nearly as much playing time Tuesday because the Heels will have Cole Anthony and Brandon Robinson, neither of whom played in the first meeting.

Jeremiah Francis played 23 minutes that night yet Christian Keeling was in for just nine minutes. So the Tar Heels are a vastly different team than they were 48 days ago, especially since they will have two of their top three scorers on the floor. Thus, it stands to reason Carolina will be – or should be – much better than it was in the first game.

Yep, Captain Obvious is back and for good reason. When the Tar Heels hit shots they win, when they don’t their inability to get easy buckets in the open court and less-than-typical numbers scoring off of their own misses makes the offense end far more challenging for this UNC team than any other Roy Williams has coached.

But there’s been one constant in most of their wins, and that’s when the Tar Heels make shots they win. The Tar Heels are 7-3 when they shoot 45 percent or higher, with the losses coming at Gonzaga and Duke and Virginia at home, and they’re 6-14 when shooting below 45 percent.

So, Carolina must hit shots to win.

It wasn’t long ago when the Tar Heels experienced a seven-game losing streak, so they know what it’s like to go through a long stretch without winning but they eventually fought through it. The Hokies have won just twice since their win over the Heels, dropping 10 of 12 in that span. The Heels won three straight before falling at Duke over the weekend in a game they trailed by only one point with 11:07 remaining even though Anthony had just one made field goal at the time.

The Tar Heels should be the more confident team going in and early success in the game could fuel them even more while feeding the Hokies more doubt. So that’s a key: Start strong and continue the disposition that has made the close of this season far more interesting for the Heels than appeared possible just a few weeks ago.