Three things to watch in UNC’s road game against Virginia

Although we are decently removed from the Tony Bennett Era, it’s hard to look at a road trip to UVA and not shudder in disgust. There were so many trips up north that the Tar Heels made that involved slow games full of fans cheering for shot clock violations, bad hair, and yes, losses. There’s still a decent chance that the last thing could ring true over the weekend — Ryan Odom’s squad is doing really well so far this season, though it would be irresponsible of me to not point out that their schedule hasn’t been as interesting as UNC’s. However, they did beat both Louisville and SMU, and the Heels do own a loss against the Mustangs, so this is at worst a team that knows how to handle some of the tougher teams in the ACC.

This game could either be huge for the Tar Heels, or it could be an absolute nightmare as we get closer to closing out the month of January. Also, an important note about this game: tip-off time has moved to 12 PM ET due to the incoming winter storm. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at a few ways that UNC could leave Charlottesville with a victory.

Who starts for Hubert Davis?

While this isn’t a question to be asking in January, Hubert Davis has been playing around with the starting lineup ever since Seth Trimble returned from his injury. Against Notre Dame, we saw Jaylon Young take the place of Jarin Stevenson, which didn’t end up going so well. Young found himself in foul trouble pretty quickly, and overall he only played 14 minutes. Davis must be seeing things in practice that is making him make these kinds of tweaks during ACC play, but that leads us to the question: who will start this Saturday?

Let’s say that he has already concluded that the Jaylon Young experiment was a flop. The two scenarios that seem likely are plugging Jonathan Powell into the starting lineup, or going back to Stevenson at the three. The problem that Davis runs into with Stevenson is that he needs him to share minutes with Wilson and Veesaar when one of them are on the bench. Powell would be a decent choice because of the toughness that he plays with, and he is a threat from the perimeter that teams have to respect. It could be that Young just had a bad game and that Davis has enough faith to start him again, though, so we will see what he ends up deciding.

Can this defense hold up against good competition?

While UNC definitely took a step forward in the defensive department against Notre Dame, there were more than enough moments that still gave fans pause when it comes to their ability to stop opponents from going off on them, especially from the perimeter. The bad news is that Virginia will be a bit harder to deal with from deep — so far this season they are shooting 37.1% from deep, and their leading scorer, Thijs De Ridder, is knocking down 38.9% of his attempts. The good news is that he is not a guard, but Malik Thomas and Chance Mallory are just as capable of shooters, so it will be a headache to deal with all afternoon.

UNC will have to find a way to defend the perimeter better than they have since conference play started if they want to come away with a win. The common denominator in their two losses is that they shot pretty poorly in those games, and it’s worth pointing out that even in their more impressive wins they didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard. This is one of those efficient teams that can score just enough to win, but we’ve seen this movie before with the Tar Heels (looking at you, SMU). If the Heels can keep the Cavaliers from going off on the perimeter, their chances of winning look pretty good.

Solving rebounding woes

Considering the fact that UNC is one of the biggest teams in the country, it hasn’t made a lot of sense that they aren’t blowing teams out of the water in the rebounding department. Size doesn’t necessarily equate to skill, but also Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar have more than enough talent by themselves without even factoring in the reset of the roster. That’s why it’s been puzzling that teams have been able to keep up with them on the boards, and at times even best them in a particular category. For example: Notre Dame pulled down 18 offensive rebounds while UNC only grabbed 10.

Things will be tougher with Virginia, who average 41.9 rebounds per game, which is a little higher of an average than UNC’s (40.7). Their roster does have some size, but it shouldn’t be anything that the Heels can’t deal with. They will have to be the more physical team if they want to keep the Cavaliers from getting second-chance buckets. Making teams miss is one thing, but if UVA gets repeated chances to put the ball in the hoop, then good defense is pointless.