Last Saturday, the UNC men’s basketball team picked up arguably their biggest win over the season so far, as they rallied past Virginia on the road. In addition to just being able to put a road win over a good team on their résumé, it was also a big win to try and get them back on track after the last couple weeks have been a struggle at points. However, if they are truly back putting their best foot forward, this Saturday will be a chance to prove it.
This weekend, the Tar Heels will head down to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech. The McCamish Pavilion has not always been happy hunting grounds for UNC. They lost their last trip there in January 2024 and are just 2-3 in their last five trips. Not all of those teams have been particularly great Yellow Jackets teams, either.
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This year’s Tech team isn’t quite knocking on the NCAA Tournament door or anything, as they come in with a 11-10 record after a loss to Virginia Tech on Tuesday. However, as we’ve seen from Carolina already this season, there’s no truly easy games in the ACC. Ahead of this Saturday’s clash, let’s see what the Yellow Jackets will bring to the matchup.
On the offensive end of the floor, Tech is led by guard Kowacie Reeves. The senior is averaging 16.3 points per game, while also going for 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists. He’s quite capable from three, making 38.9% of his attempts on the season on over five attempts per game, but he also does a lot of work inside. He’s making 50% of his two-point attempts and at 6-6 he could prove to be a somewhat difficult matchup for UNC’s wings.
As a whole, the Tech team only takes 18.7 threes per game. While that would be quite a lot a decade or two ago, these days, it’s ranks in the mid 300s in the country. They’re quite capable at making their threes, hitting over 36%, but in general, they don’t rely on threes.
Besides Reeves, Tech’s other top two scorers are also guards, but between relying a lot on interior scoring and having a good amount of size in general, UNC’s frontcourt should be tested on defense. We saw said frontcourt tested against Virginia, and they ended up allowed a lot of offensive rebounds and second chances. Tech starting bigs Baye Ndongo and Mouhamed Sylla go for over 15 rebounds a game just between the two of them, so that’s something the Tar Heels will have to be wary of again.
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Defensively, the Yellow Jackets have been pretty solid, holding opponents to just over 40% field goal shooting. Both teams play at enough of a pace that UNC should be able to score even on a bad shooting night, but buckets won’t necessarily be easy.
One thing that opposing teams have been able to do against Tech is get to the free throw line. Obviously, doing that and getting opposing players in foul trouble would be helpful, but UNC hasn’t always proven capable of taking advantage at the line.
It also should be noted that the Yellow Jackets haven’t played the toughest of schedules to this point. Their non-conference run in particular ranked 355th out of 365 D1 teams according to KenPom. Since ACC play began, they have faced a pair of ranked teams, including Duke, but UNC will be a step up in talent from most of the games they’ve played.
Once again, this is a game that if UNC tries sleepwalking through, especially on defense, then they absolutely could get burned. One would hope that they’ve learned their lesson in recent weeks, but we shall see.
