Boston College Men’s Basketball vs UNC: Previewing the Tar Heels

The Eagles don’t have long to lick their wounds, nor do they have far to travel, as they visit Chapel Hill tomorrow to take on the Tar Heels. North Carolina currently sits 6th in the ACC with a conference record of 5-3 and an overall record of 13-6. The Tar Heels recently rebounded from a blowout loss to Miami by defeating Virginia Tech 78-68.

Nationally, and even within the ACC, this is not one of the strongest teams to come out of Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels are 1-4 against the top 25 and all 3 of their losses have come against teams in the top 3 of the ACC. Yet for BC this team still presents a monumental challenge.

That challenge starts with UNC’s leading scorer, Armando Bacot. The junior forward leads the team in scoring, rebounding (in fact, he leads the conference with 11.7 rebounds per game), blocks and field goal percentage (which is 4th best in the conference). Another player to watch is certainly the Tar Heels’ sophomore guard Caleb Love, who leads the team in assists and is second on the team in points per game.

As a team, the Tar Heels possesses the 3rd best offense in the ACC, which averages 77.9 points per game and the Heels are the 4th best 3-point shooting team as well. In addition to their offense, North Carolina leads the conference in rebounding, which is certainly something that could hurt BC’s upset chances.

The Tar Heels interior presence is the biggest problem facing the Eagles. The Eagles love to center their offense around getting the ball into the paint and using that penetration to create offense. With UNC players like Bacot, Brady Manek, and Dawson Garcia, the Eagles are going to really have a tough time if they can’t find ways to spread the Tar Heels out. Now, North Carolina is not an exceptionally stingy defensive team, surrendering 72.6 points per game, but winning will require the Eagles to shot the ball from mid and long range, something that they have not been able to do consistently.

You never want to say a team has no chance but with a road game against a team that is well equipped to keep them from doing what they are best at, BC has a really tough climb ahead of them.

Prediction:

UNC 82, BC 71