UNCut gems

How good has North Carolina been the last few weeks? So good I needed to bring in unabashed UNC fan Riley Davis to deliver the top headline for today’s Daily.

You’re stuck with me for the rest of the weekend’s games, though.

1. A year later, Tar Heels finally look like a Final Four team

Let’s start this North Carolina headline with an homage to On This Day in History.

On Jan. 15, 2023, the Tar Heels sat at 12-6 overall and 4-3 in conference play. Their preseason No. 1 ranking was firmly in the rearview, as their slow start snowballed into a lost campaign.

Fast forward a year later, and North Carolina is one of seven power conference teams that remain unbeaten in league play. Moreover, it has started 5-0 in the ACC for the first time since 2016, will land in the Top 5 of the AP Poll this week and has the metrics to validate the ranking. Perhaps most surprising, though? This is how UNC wins: Defense.

Heading into the season, that side of the ball posed the biggest questions for Carolina. Its lack of elite length and athleticism didn’t bode favorably in terms of getting stops. Early season struggles (notably against Villanova in Atlantis and UConn in MSG) gave further credence to this notion, but something changed on Dec. 20. That evening, the Heels faced Oklahoma in Charlotte; since that contest, North Carolina has ranked first nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency, per T-Rank, after placing 69th through its first 11 games.

Hubert Davis manufactured this turnaround with a variety of tactics. The coach has his players staying disciplined in their gaps, communicating on help defense and altering their ball screen coverages.

Plus, they force turnovers. In Saturday’s 103-67 demolition of Syracuse, the Heels forced 17 of them (the Orange’s second-highest total of the season). Their suffocating defense fueled a 21-4 run in the second half that broke open an already substantial 15-point lead.

“I’m a smaller guard, so [it’s] just being able to kind of be a pest and be aggressive on the defensive end without fouling,” senior guard RJ Davis told reporters after Saturday’s. “It’s kind of showing [in] the steals and being in the right position to get those steals.”

Speaking of Davis, his offense has also played an integral role in Carolina’s winning streak. The 6-foot guard made four 3-pointers against Syracuse, marking his 13th straight game with multiple made triples (the second-longest streak in UNC history). Additionally, he’s leading the ACC in scoring, and his playmaking has only improved with his uptick in usage.

After three straight road contests before the Syracuse game, the Tar Heels will enter a softer part of their ACC schedule. They welcome Louisville to Chapel Hill on Wednesday, then travel to Boston College on Saturday. We’ll see if they can handle business ahead of a Jan. 22 showdown with a surging Wake Forest squad. —Riley Davis

For more North Carolina coverage, subscribe to The Pod is the Roof, the UNC basketball podcast of the Field of 68, hosted by Riley and Jacob Karabatsos.

2. A week (most) ranked teams would like to forget

Except for Monday and Friday (when no ranked teams had games) a ranked team lost every day last week. And that wasn’t just the bottom teams in the AP Top 25.

The best example of that was No. 2 Houston, which lost at Iowa State, then 68-67 at TCU on Saturday. The Cougars (14-2, 1-2 in Big 12) struggled with fouls —10 in the final eight minutes of the first half helped TCU pull ahead for the first time — and couldn’t much beyond the arc (4-of-18, including 1-of-7 from LJ Cryer, a 38% shooter).

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