All is looking good in Chapel Hill right now.
The UNC men’s basketball team is 12-3, undefeated atop the ACC and in the midst of a 5-game winning streak. Carolina just took down one of its in-state rivals, NC State, in a comfortable victory on Wednesday night.
It’s not the high-flying offense that has the Tar Heels playing their best basketball – it’s the newly-found, shutdown defense.
UNC’s held opponents to under 60 points in three straight games, all the more impressive against a 3-point happy Wolfpack squad and a ranked Clemson squad. Carolina played some challenging non-conference games, dealing Oklahoma its first loss and holding off a late charge from Top-10 Tennessee.
Because of all this, the Tar Heels climbed one spot to ninth in the latest NET rankings.
Unlike last year, when UNC would typically lose to strong teams, it’s taking care of those juggernauts in 2023. Carolina did drop games to Kentucky and Kansas, but look better than both teams since.
The Tar Heels get a chance to continue asserting themselves as a legit ACC threat on Saturday afternoon, hosting the Syracuse Orange at 12 p.m. ET. While beating Syracuse (73rd in NET) might not boost UNC’s ranking much, it’ll certainly help in terms of ACC Tournament positioning.
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