North Carolina vs. Notre Dame Primer: ACC Tournament 2nd Round

The Tar Heels and Irish will meet at 9:00pm ET on ACC Network in the 2nd Round of the ACC Tournament.

These teams met once during the regular season, with North Carolina winning 66-65 in Chapel Hill. Leaky Black scored the go-ahead basket with 0:09 left on the clock and the Tar Heels survived a final shot attempt from the Irish to escape with the victory.

 The first meeting was just the second start of the season for Kerwin Walton. UNC has since solidified the starting line-up of Walton alongside Caleb Love, Leaky Black, Garrison Brooks, and Armando Bacot and are now operating at a higher and more efficient level. 

Also in the first matchup, Carolina surrendered a season-low eight turnovers (tied with eight against Virginia) against Notre Dame and dominated the Irish on the glass 48-27 (+21), the biggest margin of the season. With the establishment of Walker Kessler as a more active part of the rotation, the rebounding discrepancy will likely be similar. 

The teams are mismatched in offensive vs. defensive efficiency. Notre Dame has a top-20 offense (currently 16th), while UNC has a top-20 defense (currently 19th). The Carolina offense, on the other hand, is 64th, but the biggest outlier of the group is Notre Dame's defense: 175th. That's the lowest-rated defense for any team in the KenPom top 100. Overall KenPom has the Tar Heels 31st and the Irish 69th. 

Injuries to watch

• Garrison Brooks (UNC) - tweaked his ankle against Duke on Saturday, but came back to play a solid game. Will it hold up? 

• Cormac Ryan (ND) - hurt his hip last night, but returned and made key plays in the final winning sequence. 

Keys to the game

• How much energy did Notre Dame expend last night in overcoming a 16-point 2nd half deficit? 

• Can UNC stop dribble penetration? 

• Rebounding (UNC dominated 48-27 last time, including 21-3 on the offensive glass)

On one hand, Notre Dame expended a great deal of energy last night while overcoming a 16-point second half deficit against Wake Forest. On the other hand, they are in the rhythm of having already played in the ACC Tournament and Carolina will be playing their first game of the tournament. If the Tar Heels can get off to a quick start, they will be in good shape. If not, it should be a tight battle. 

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