North Carolina will try to continue its push for an NCAA Tournament bid when it travels to Florida State on Monday night. The Tar Heels have won back-to-back games over Notre Dame and No. 6 Virginia, but they are still on the wrong side of the bubble in most projections. Florida State snapped its four-game losing streak with an upset win at No. 13 Miami on Saturday.
Some warning signs about this North Carolina team started to pop up early in the season when the defending national champion runner ups played multiple close games against inferior opponents. The Tar Heels then went on a four-game losing streak to confirm the critics’ opinion. They bounced back with a 7-3 start in a down year for the ACC, but they lost five of their next six games to play themselves out of the NCAA Tournament picture. North Carolina has responded with wins over Notre Dame and No. 6 Virginia to get back in the mix, sitting in the “first four out” of the latest bracketology update from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi (on Sunday).
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— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) February 26, 2023
The Tar Heels are in a must-win position on Monday night, and they have a huge rivalry game against Duke coming up on Saturday night. One of their major issues throughout the season has been their outside shooting, as they rank No. 337 in 3-point percentage (30.4). They have been much better from 2-point range (51.2) and are No. 18 in turnover rate. Florida State has been a disaster defensively, ranked No. 295 in effective field goal percentage. Senior forward Armando Bacot leads North Carolia with 17.0 points and 10.9 rebounds per game. Caleb Love (16.9), RJ Davis (15.7) and Pete Nance (10.2) are all scoring in double figures as well.
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