College Basketball

UNC Basketball: Five Bold Predictions for the Rest of the Season

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 2:58 p.m. ET

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Fansided, Bryson Gordon/FanSided via Keeping It Heel

Prior to the beat down that was the NC State game, the Tar Heel’s looked very questionable in ACC play.

They had a real head-scratcher in the Georgia Tech loss, and struggled for a majority of the Clemson game, before pulling out the win.

With ACC play ramping up this week, the Heels will need full effort in every single game the rest of the way.  The games at Georgia Tech are games that the Heels have to win, as they are categorized as “easy wins”, even though there are no real easy wins in the ACC.

I will be giving my bold predictions for the rest of ACC play for the Tar Heels, so click on the next slide to see the first one!

The Heels run the table at home

This is a harder task than it sounds. Even last season, while winning the ACC, the Heels could not go undefeated at home in the ACC. The tough stretch began with a win over Florida State at home on Saturday.

Following that, the Heels will host, Virginia, Louisville, Duke, and Virginia Tech, and several others. With the ACC being the toughest league in the nation, winning the home games are imperative.

While many believe that the ACC is won on the road, holding serve at home is just as important in the conference.  Winning all the home games would go a long way in winning the entire ACC. If the Heels can run the table at home, it would set them up with at least nine wins.

Nine wins, plus how ever many road wins they could bank, would put the Heels in a good position to finish around the top of the ACC. 

Theo Pinson will record a triple-double

Theo would be only the third player in UNC history to record a triple-double. Props to you if you can name the other two… Brendan Haywood, and Jason Capel.

We all know how effective Pinson can be for UNC, by just watching his first two games back. In his first appearance back, Pinson recorded five assists, and zero turnovers, in limited minutes. Over the last two seasons, Theo has shown that he is best playmaker on the team.

Theo has also shown he has a strong knack for cleaning up the boards. The best thing about Pinson’s rebounding, is that he can grab the rebound, and immediately run the fast break.

Being able to do that allows Pinson the opportunity to get rebounds, and assists in the same sequence.

While scoring would normally be the easiest, it might be harder for Theo. Getting ten assists and ten points in a game is hard for anybody, much less a two-guard, or small forward. Getting a triple double in college basketball is much harder than the NBA.

But if anybody could do it for this Tar Heel team, Theo would have the best shot to do it. 

Joel Berry rides a good month of February to the ACC Player of the Year

There is no doubt who the alpha-male is on this Tar Heel basketball team. While Berry missed time with an ankle injury, the Heels struggled mightily.

In the two games against Davidson and Tennessee, the Heels struggled to get the half court offense rolling.

Since missing time, except for the games he was fighting the flu, Berry has been spectacular.  Berry is averaging 16 points, 4 assists, and 4 rebounds per game since returning. Berry is also shooting 44% from the field, and 40% from three in that stretch.

There is no doubt that when the offense runs through Joel Berry, the UNC offense is much better. According to KenPom, Berry leads the Tar Heel team in offensive efficiency. Offensive efficiency is how productive a player is at producing points for his team.

With a bulk of UNC’s difficult conference games coming in February, it makes it perfect for Berry to put together his campaign. UNC hosts Virginia, Louisville, and Notre Dame, and then travels to Duke, NC State, Pitt, and Virginia.

The whole month Berry will be facing tough competition. His point guard matchups include, Dennis Smith, London Perrantes, Quintin Snyder, Frank Jackson, and Matt Jones.

Player of the year awards are often won in February, and with the slate Berry will be up against, if he plays good, he could be a sleeper pick. 

The Heels sweep Duke, NC State, and Virginia

This sounds like a Tar Heel fans ultimate dream! Sweeping all three of our rivals would go a long way towards winning the ACC. To find the last time UNC has done this, you have to go all the way back to the 2008-2009 season, and we all know what happened that year! (National Championship)

Duke is struggling early in the ACC, and they lack a true point guard.

There has also been questionable play from Duke’s big men, except Amile Jefferson, who is now hurt again.

Carolina has already blown out NC State, by a whopping 51 points! Dennis Smith recorded two fouls early, and things seemed to spiral out of control after that.

The Heels rained in threes all day on the Pack, and never looked back, after an early 20-0 run. If Carolina expects to sweep the Pack, they better be ready for State’s best game all season the second time around.

Aside from Duke, Virginia could be the toughest game the Heels play this season. Virginia has seemed to have UNC’s number in the regular season recently, winning four of the last five.

Now that does not include the ACC Tournament, where the Heels have won the last two matchups. This year UNC gets Virginia twice.

Virginia gives UNC issues, because they control the tempo better. If UNC can get out and run, they should be able to handle a pretty good UVA team. 

Carolina wins the ACC regular season, and tournament again

Of course winning the regular season would require either the number one prediction, or the number two prediction to happen.

But it is not out of the realm of possibility the Heels could do both.

We are watching one of the all-time great Roy Williams offenses this season, capable of scoring with anybody, as we saw in the Kentucky game. This team could hang 100 points on nearly any given night in the ACC.

Winning the ACC tournament would be the hard part. That would require winning four games in four days, against four great ACC opponents. We all have seen how vulnerable the top teams in the ACC are, but imagine that when teams are fighting for their postseason lives.

Roy Williams has won the ACC Tournament three times, back to back in 2007-2008, and of course last season. Maybe it is a good omen that he won it in back to back years the first time.

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