The North Carolina Tar Heels will wrap up the Phil Knight Invitational on Sunday hoping to avoid a two-game losing streak following a tough loss to Iowa State on Friday.
UNC is set to play in the third-place game and will face another tough challenge against Alabama. After getting by Portland in the opening game, UNC held the lead late against Iowa State before watching the Cyclones rally in the final few minutes to upset the Tar Heels. Now, in between an off day, UNC needs to get on track as they face their first Top 25 team of the year.
Alabama enters this game ranked No. 18 overall and has beat Michigan State before falling to UCONN on Friday night.
They are a team that can really score the basketball, averaging 81.2 points per game compared to 79.5 for UNC. Freshman forward Brandon Miller has been fantastic this season, averaging 20.5 points per game and 9.2 rebounds per game, proving a tough test for UNC in the post. The Tar Heels are really going to need Armando Bacot and Pete Nance to show up in this one or it could get bad early on.
The Crimson Tide has been dominant on the boards as well.
Alabama enters this game averaging 49.8 rebounds per game, nearly 11 more than UNC. If there’s one area in which the Tar Heels have struggled, its been rebounding the basketball and Sunday will provide another tough test for them there.
Let’s get into our game preview for Sunday’s matchup: