North Carolina finally takes a break from its brutally touch schedule with a tune up for ACC play as Campbell visits the Smith Center on Sunday night for an 8 PM tip off.

This will be UNC’s first game in eight days and comes three days before launching back into conference play, with the final 19 contests of the regular season all ACC affairs.

The Tar Heels are coming off a win over UCLA at Madison Square Garden and are 7-5 overall. The Camels are 5-7 and have dropped consecutive games to Morgan State and Longwood. In Campbell’s two games against power conference teams, it lost to Virginia, 65-56, and Ohio State 104-60.

Here are five things for UNC fans to watch for as the Tar Heels take on the Camels:

The likelihood UNC loses this game is incredibly slim, but the Heels need to approach this as they did the UCLA game. This club must use every opportunity it can to get better, which doesn’t necessarily mean winning by 40 points, but doing so playing the right way.

And that begins with effort on both ends of the floor, focus, and intensity.

The halfcourt offensive approach improved some in the win over UCLA, but it was terrible in the loss to Florida and hasn’t been a work of art in most games this season. This game presents the Heels an opportunity to work on approaching the halfcourt properly.

*Don’t move the ball around well because Campbell can’t hang, do it because it’s how this club must play moving forward if it’s going to make anything of this season.

*Don’t feed the post for actual tradition scores on the lower blocks because the Camels are overmatched, do it because it’s the right way for this team to play, even with some of its limitations there.

*Don’t drive and dish, feed cutters, and lob the ball to the rim because Campbell has no answers, do it because it’s the right way for this team to play.

A defensive problem for the Tar Heels we have not talked about enough is how poorly this team switches. It’s just not very effective at it. And one of the reasons is due to how quiet the Heels are. They don’t talk on the floor much, and that has shown up with so many poor switches.

Often, two Heels find themselves on the same man while an opposing player is wide open. It happens too often and must change if the Heels have any chance at being relevant in March.

Rotating down low when teammates are beaten on drives or dishes must be there. And simply on-ball D can and should be better.

Campbell isn’t at the level of any ACC team, even with the league being so bad, but there is no excuse to not play the game with proper intent on both ends of the court.

We’re gonna keep saying this, but RJ Davis needs to get going and creep toward his form from last season.

He is 24-for-94 from the perimeter this season, which is 25.5%. He shot 39.8% last season on 284 attempts.

Davis is actually more efficient scoring inside the arc this season than he was a year ago. He’s shooting 49.0% inside the arc right now and was at 45.5% last season. So, it’s really only the perimeter misses that separate him from his ACC Player of the Year campaign.

And the ball going through the basket doesn’t much care if it’s against a quality opponent or a patsy, shooters simply need to see it go through. And with two road games coming up in ACC play, the Heels need for Davis to find his stroke.

KenPom loves blowouts, and while it’s not a metric that determines much in the final evaluation by the NCAA Tournament selection committee, it can steer some thinking.

The Camels are No. 315 this week in the NET, which is around 100 spots lower than American, which UNC beat by 52 points and is the next lowest-rated Carolina opponent. So, the Heels need to wax the Camels for a lot of reasons, including this one.