The No. 1 North Carolina Tar Heels are still dancing in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. But a tough opponent is on the horizon of the ACC powerhouse, with the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide waiting for Hubert Davis’ squad in the Sweet 16 round, which will take place on Thursday at crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Davis knows that the Crimson Tide are going to be a tough assignment for the Tar Heels, who defeated the No. 16 Wagner Seahawks in the first round, 90-62, before outlasting the No. 9 Michigan State Spartans in the second round, 85-69. It has been smooth sailing for the Tar Heels so far, but that is likely not going to be the case versus Nate Oats’ Crimson Tide.
Hubert Davis Lays Out What North Carolina Tar Heels Need vs. Alabama
Davis said that the Tar Heels have to recover their dominance on the glass after getting outworked on the rebounding front by the Spartans, 37-32. Alabama, however, isn’t too shabby in that area as well. In fact, the Crimson Tide are 11th nationally in rebounds per game (39.7). The Tar Heels, on the other hand, are fifth with 41.0 boards per outing.
Davis also highlighted North Carolina’s need for better ball security.
Via Blake Byler of BamaCentral:
Q. What are the keys for your team to win tomorrow as you see it?
HUBERT DAVIS: All year we’ve identified what allows us to have success, whomever we play. We’ve got to get after it on the defensive end. And all year consistently we’ve been a really good defensive team.
We’ve got to rebound the basketball. Prior to Michigan State in our last game, we had out-rebounded our opponent 25 straight games. So we’ve got to get back to that. We’ve got to dominate the boards.
And then taking care of the basketball on the offensive end. Really that’s two parts. One, obviously limiting turnovers; but two, our shot selection has to be good. I’ve always felt that your defense is really dictated by how you perform on the offensive end.
With guys like Armando Bacot and Harrison Ingram, the Tar Heels should be a problem for Alabama on the glass. Bacot leads North Carolina with 10.2 rebounds per contest, while Ingram is pulling down 8.8 rebounds per game.
North Carolina also turned the ball over just five times in the Michigan State game and are 17th in the nation with just a 12.1 percent turnover rate.
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