North Carolina Basketball: 3 keys for Heels to pull off upset over Virginia
Apply backcourt pressure!
The Virginia Cavaliers have a trio of veteran guards who take care of the basketball, make heads-up plays, and will their team to victory. Seniors Kihei Clark and Armaan Franklin, along with Junior Reese Beekman are three of the team’s top four scorers. They are also the three best 3-point shooters on the team, with Beekman shooting a blistering 50 percent from beyond the arc. If the North Carolina Tarheels are going to pull off the upset, they must contain these three dangerous perimeter players in order to do so.
One way to disrupt the scoring capabilities of elite guards is to pressure the backcourt, trap before passes and cause turnovers. Virginia has the fifth-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the nation at 1.66 per game. The fact that they average nearly twice as many assists as they do turnovers is a direct reflection that their three primary ballhandlers have been playing in big games for three or four seasons and are not easily rattled. If the Tarheels want to rattle the Cavaliers’ veteran ballclub, they must start with the guards; a few uncharacteristic turnovers will have a ripple effect that will shake the confidence of the entire roster.
Heading into the season, many pundits predicted that the North Carolina Tarheels would win the ACC championship, gain a one-seed heading into the NCAA Tournament and have a great chance of returning to the Final Four. However, their four-game losing streak shook the confidence of casual observers and they fell out of the Top 25. Still, the Tarheels’ faithful still believes that they are every bit as capable of making a run at the ACC title and performing well in March Madness.
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Beating a respected team like Virginia would do wonders for their confidence. In order to do so, they must play with pace, rebound at a high level and force their opponent to commit turnovers. Virginia is a veteran ballclub that will not get easily rattled, but if the Tarheels stick to the script, an upset is well within their grasp.