Perennial Atlantic Coast Conference heavyweight North Carolina will invade the Hill on Saturday to face Syracuse basketball, and the Tar Heels are by no means a conference juggernaut so far in the 2024-25 season.
UNC has lost five of its past seven games. The ACC's preseason media poll forecasted North Carolina to finish at No. 2 in the league standings, although for the moment, UNC is hovering near the middle of the pack in the ACC race.
Unless North Carolina starts piling up some victories, the Tar Heels could miss out on this season's NCAA Tournament, according to current bracketology projections. Of course, the Orange is nowhere near the conversation for this spring's Big Dance and, barring a miracle, Syracuse basketball will miss the annual March Madness for the fourth straight term.
Earlier this week, the 'Cuse put forth a terrible defensive effort, falling at Miami, a group that is among the worst squads in the ACC this stanza. Most recently for North Carolina, the Tar Heels got blown out on the road to top-25 Clemson.
How to watch North Carolina at Syracuse basketball.
The Tar Heels (14-11, 7-6 in the ACC) and the Orange (11-14, 5-9 in the ACC) will battle inside the JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday, Feb. 15, with the tip-off scheduled for 6:00 pm. ESPN will air this ACC affair, with live-streaming coverage also available on FuboTV.
Per SU Athletics, the 'Cuse is just 7-17 in its all-time series with UNC, although in their most recent encounter, roughly a year ago, Syracuse basketball at home stunned No. 7 North Carolina, 86-79.
When I wrote this article, the Orange had an NCAA NET ranking of No. 148 overall, as compared to No. 50 for UNC, making this a quadrant-two opportunity for Syracuse basketball. To date this term, the 'Cuse is 1-5 in quad-two contests.
One thing I'll note here is that while North Carolina's overall record isn't impressive, many of the team's setbacks have come to highly ranked foes. The Tar Heels' 2024-25 roster, by the way, includes former Syracuse basketball recruiting targets Ian Jackson and Elliot Cadeau.
At this juncture, North Carolina has one of the highest-scoring offenses in the ACC, averaging 80.0 points per game, yet UNC isn't a good 3-point shooting squad, only making 32.3 percent from beyond the arc.
As such, I'll be curious if head coach Adrian Autry decides to utilize more zone defense than usual, to entice the Tar Heels to take a lot of shots - and hopefully, miss a lot of attempts - from the perimeter.
Naturally, when the Orange is in a zone, defensive rebounding becomes more of a concern, yet by and large in 2024-25, Syracuse basketball has proven one of the better groups on the glass in the ACC.