North Carolina is in crisis mode after losing two straight to Stanford and Cal on the road.
The Tar Heels enter what feels like a must-win game against Notre Dame (10–8). That might sound extreme for a team that sits at 14–4 overall, but Carolina is just 2–3 in ACC play and has dropped three of its last four.
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Notre Dame isn’t a good team — it’s a mediocre one that lost to Purdue Fort Wayne in December. Even worse for the Irish, they’ll be without star guard Markus Burton for a large portion of the season.
So why is this a must-win game given those circumstances? Because North Carolina’s defense has been terrible.
Carolina has been one of the ACC’s worst defensive teams since conference play began. The Tar Heels rank 16th in field-goal percentage defense (49.7%), 17th in points allowed (85.4 per game) and defensive efficiency (120.5), and last in both 3-point field-goal percentage defense (44.9%) and effective field-goal percentage — a metric heavily influenced by 3-point shooting.
Opponents have hit at least 40% from 3-point range against UNC in four straight games. Since the start of conference play, teams have made 72 3-pointers against the Tar Heels — an average of 14.4 made 3s per game, the worst mark in the ACC.
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The larger point is this: every game is essentially a must-win the rest of the way. After Notre Dame on Wednesday, North Carolina closes January with road trips to No. 14 Virginia in Charlottesville and to a struggling Georgia Tech. As rough as this month has been for Carolina, this stretch was supposed to be the softest part of the conference schedule.
February offers no relief. The Tar Heels play Syracuse twice, host No. 5 Duke, travel for tough road games at Miami and NC State, and welcome No. 23 Louisville and Virginia Tech to Chapel Hill.
A home game against Clemson and a trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium to face Duke round out the regular-season schedule.
For a team that can’t stop anybody right now, there aren’t many safe nights left.
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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Basketball: Tar Heels face must-win stretch vs. Notre Dame
