North Carolina returns home Monday night to host Miami for a 7 pm tip at the Smith Center. The Tar Heels will take the court 47 hours after the conclusion of their win at Duke on Saturday, and for the Hurricanes, they will take the floor less than 53 hours after suffering a gut-wrenching overtime loss at home to Virginia Tech.

The Tar Heels went from their worst performance of the season in a loss last Tuesday at Clemson to their best offensive game of the season in a 91-87 win at Duke over the weekend. Which UNC team will show up at the Smith Center on Monday?

Miami defeated Duke last week before taking No. 16 Virginia Tech to overtime Saturday, and the Hurricanes enter at 7-11 overall and 3-10 in the ACC. UNC is 12-6 and 7-4.

Here are 5 Keys for UNC to defeat Miami:

Part of growing into a mature team capable of fully taking the next step is learning to quickly move on from games, wins or losses, and even highly emotional rivalry games. The Heels will put that to test tipping off versus the Hurricanes 47 hours after finishing off Duke on Saturday night.

Facing anyone two days after a playing a game that consumes so much energy is difficult regardless, but having to get up for a team the Heels defeated last month on the road and that is struggling is an even more challenging task. So, what are these Heels made of? Are they maturing?

Some of that question will be answered in how the Heels come out.

Roy Williams obviously wants his team to pound the ball inside and dominate games with his interior, which might comprise the best post presence in the ACC. The thing is, the big guys weren’t why the Tar Heels won last month in Coral Gables. Carolina was 12-for-41 shooting the ball inside the arc and had just 12 second chance points.

UNC won because Leaky Black scored a career-high 16 points and converted all four of his three-point attempts. In addition, the Heels were 9-for-20 from beyond the arc, which was just enough for the 67-65 win. That and Andrew Platek’s baseline game winner.

The Canes don’t have much inside other than Nysier Brooks, so the Heels should pound it inside over and over and over and ride the bigs to the finish line. Correct what didn’t work a month ago and move on.

Miami has once again been ravaged by injuries, and as a result only seven players saw time in its two games last week, a win over Duke and an overtime loss to Virginia Tech. Now, the Canes had their best week in a while, so they are improving, as Jim Larranaga teams do, but they are not deep at all.

So, the Tar Heels’ mission should simply be to wear them down. A big part of that will come by the two things above: Be ready and start the game with energy, plus go inside over and over. Furthermore, if the Heels can get into transition that will help, too. That they are coming off scoring 28 fast break points at Duke, which was a positive sign, or at least something Williams can point to as he continues massaging this team into something more Carolina-like.

Doing more of that will help Monday and as the team continues its growth.

Isaiah Wong is one of the better players in the ACC and has been terrific for Miami of late. In the first meeting between these teams, however, he scored just eight points on 3-for-8 shooting and didn’t convert his only attempted three. But he likely won’t have a repeat performance Monday at the Smith Center.

In the nine games since the January meeting, Wong has scored 14 or more points eight times, 16 or more seven times. He went off for 30 in a narrow loss to Louisville and had 24 in a close loss to NC State one game after UNC’s win at Watsco Center.

On the season, Wong is averaging 17.4 points per game, and he’s 11-for-22 from the perimeter over Miami’s last four games. Keep him from going off and the Heels will have a much better chance at earning a victory.

Caleb Love played two games last week, and his performances were polar opposites. In UNC’s loss at Clemson last Tuesday, Love played 29 minutes scoring nine points on 2-for-10 shooting from the field, including 1-for-6 from three-point range, he also had just one assist and four turnovers. He didn’t exactly manage the game in a manner that pleases his coach, either.

Saturday at Duke, Love played 31 minutes and scored a career-high 25 points by shooting 9-for-16 from the floor, including knocking down four of the five threes he attempted. He also handed out seven assists against five turnovers. Williams said it was his best game as a Tar Heel but was quick to challenge that he can and must get much better, noting the turnovers and defense as examples.

So, if Love plays against Miami more like he did versus Duke than Clemson this past week, not only will it help the Tar Heels get a win, but also offer a bit more evidence that he is finding his game. That’s big for Monday and every contest moving forward.