5 Keys To Beating Notre Dame

Instead of having an open date after Syracuse postponed Saturday’s schedule game with North Carolina at the Smith Center, the Tar Heels will now host Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish were slated to face Pittsburgh, but the game was postponed on the Pitt end because of COVID protocols, so the ACC moved Dame to UNC. The game tips at 4 pm and will air on the ACC Network.

The Irish come in at 3-5 but have played a very challenging schedule. They have defeated Detroit, Kentucky and Bellermine while losing to Michigan State, Ohio State, Duke, Purdue and Virginia. Each of the losses was by 10 points or less, so Mike Brey’s team was competitive each time out.

The Tar Heels are 5-4 (0-2 ACC) and have dropped consecutive games at NC State and Georgia Tech.

Here are 5 Keys for UNC to defeat Notre Dame:

Notre Dame is No. 328 in the nation in steals per game and No. 283 in turnover margin at -3.1 per contest. The Irish’s adjusted defensive efficiency rating by KenPom.com is No. 189. Notre Dame is not a good defensive team and could be the cure for UNC’s ills. But just because the Irish haven’t been forcing turnovers and stopping opponents doesn’t mean Carolina will have success.

Many of the Tar Heels’ issues taking care of the ball are their own doing, not because they’ve played a series of terrific defensive teams. In games not against the College of Charleston or Kentucky – the only games in which UNC took care of the ball – the Heels are averaging 18 turnovers leading to 18.4 points for their opponents.

Dame can score in the open court, so if the Heels give the Irish gifts, they will gladly take them and usually convert.

Leaky Black was right after the loss Wednesday night when he said the bigs need to get touches every time down the court. There was a period in Atlanta when the Heels were feeding the post, and it was one reason Carolina had a rare halftime lead. But the Tar Heels went away from it too much in the second half, especially the last 12 minutes and eventually blew a lead in the loss.

Right now, Carolina’s best players are in the interior, so why not get Armando Bacot more touches? Why not get Day’Ron Sharpe more touches? Why not get Garrison Brooks more touches in spots where he can do something? Imagine if that’s all it takes to finally get him going?

Feed the post with regularity and the Tar Heels will win.

Dominating the glass has been a key for every game Carolina has played and will be for the remainder of the season. UNC has a clear advantage in this part of the game every time it plays. The problem, however, is the Tar Heels aren’t making it pay off enough.

In their four losses, UNC has grabbed 50 more rebounds than its opponents, including a 63-36 edge on the offensive glass. The average margin overall: 45-32. When a club pulls down 13 more missed shots than its opponents it should win pretty much every time. But that hasn’t been the case.

Now, UNC’s issues taking care of the ball and taking bad shots have been huge parts of the equation, but the Heels still need to make their rebounding advantages pay off more.

Through Carolina’s first four games, three wins and a loss essentially at the buzzer to Texas, it scored 94 points on 71 offensive rebounds, but in the five games since, in which the Heels have won just twice, they have scored only 72 points on 69 offensive boards.

Getting 1.32 points per offensive board, as they did in the first four games, as opposed to 1.04 points per offensive rebound, is a big difference in close games. Losing to State by three and Tech by five are examples where more pay off from glass dominance could have resulted in victories.

Okay, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. It’s hard to imagine UNC going into any game thinking it should convert eight 3-pointers like it did in Atlanta, but why not?

Kerwin Walton is 7-for-8 from beyond the arc over UNC’s last three games, Andrew Platek is shooting 38.5 percent (10-for-26) and Caleb Love hit two threes at Georgia Tech. Now, Love is just 6-for-39 from three, but maybe those makes in Atlanta – both swishes – could be the start of something?

The bottom line is simple: If Carolina is fully intent on feeding the post and allowing its bigs to be the offensive focal points, more open perimeter looks may come as a result, and then if the Heels can knock down just enough, that would be an enormous step forward for this offense elevating to another level.

Without being in the locker room or on the bench during games, it’s hard to get a full gauge on the kind of leadership Roy Williams is getting from his veteran players. And because of that, it’s not entirely fair to assume he’s not getting any, which has been the case, particularly since the loss to the Yellow Jackets.

That said, there hasn’t been an obvious appearance of on-court leadership, or at least enough of it. Maybe that was part of Williams’ point in not starting Brooks and Black the other night, hoping to ignite something within one or both of them that would reflect in more leadership. The Heels have looked rudderless on the court at times, so maybe more obvious leadership will help get them through the rough patches that have hit in every game and are sure to continue.

It goes without saying the Tar Heels must be much better on defense if they’re going to turn the season around. They don’t have to be great if they handle the things above, and it’s hard seeing this club morph into a great unit defensively. But they can and should be better. NC State was as bad as it gets, Williams said, and the Heels were pretty bad late at Georgia Tech. Handle ball screens better, clear out on perimeter shooters more, and when trapping, they must do a better job on the second pass after the ball leaves the player being trapped.