North Carolina escaped its season opener with a win over Western Carolina, but the performance left plenty of warning lights flashing for Michael Malone’s team.
The Tar Heels were supposed to handle this one with ease. Instead, Western Carolina pushed them far harder than expected and exposed a roster that still has some obvious holes.
The biggest one starts on the interior. North Carolina looks heavily reliant on perimeter scoring, and that showed up again Monday night.
With all due respect to Sayon Keita and Alexandros Samodurov, the Tar Heels do not have a true post presence right now. Keita is not developed enough in that area, and Samodurov does not have the physicality to muscle opposing centers around in the paint. That leaves North Carolina’s offense coming almost entirely from the backcourt.
The result was a heavy diet of threes. North Carolina took 30 of them, including 17 in the first half.
That is a lot of long-range volume, and when those shots stop falling, it gives opponents a chance to hang around. That was exactly the problem against Western Carolina.
If the Tar Heels want to clean that up, the coaching staff has to accept that this approach cannot be the norm. The personnel make it a difficult fix, but North Carolina needs to create more of an inside game, get Keita touches in the paint, and use the former Barcelona center more in pick-and-roll situations to open up lobs and easier baskets.
The other glaring issue was on the glass. North Carolina lost the rebounding battle 41-32 and gave up 13 offensive rebounds. That had already been a concern in the preseason, and it carried right into the opener.
That kind of number is bad enough against Western Carolina. Against conference opponents, it could get ugly fast.
Duke, Louisville, Virginia, and Miami all bring frontcourts that are at least above average, and some are elite. If the Tar Heels are getting beaten on the boards like this now, the problem could become much bigger later.
And there may not be a quick fix. As the roster stands, the solution is not currently on it.
South Dakota transfer Cameron Fens was ruled ineligible by the Tennessee Court of Appeals in August while seeking a fifth year of eligibility, and that ruling has not been overturned. Until that changes, and there is no guarantee it will, North Carolina may be stuck with this weakness.
It could end up being a season-long headache and a real Achilles’ heel.
In Other News...
UNC Recruiting Momentum Just Got More Interesting For Belichick
North Carolinas push toward bowl eligibility has been the immediate concern, but the recruiting trail keeps giving the program reasons to look ahead. The Tar Heels are 4-4 and still need two more wins in their final four games to get back to the postseason, yet they also just added a notable piece for the future with a commitment from four-star tight end Greg Kirwan in the 2028 class.
Kirwan is ranked as the 21st tight end nationally for 2028, and his pledge gives UNC another building block at a position that should matter in the years ahead. For a program trying to stabilize on the field while stacking talent for the next wave, it is the kind of addition that keeps the recruiting momentum moving in the right direction. [Read more 🡒]
UNC Is Still Battling For A Guard Who Could Shape Its 2027 Class
North Carolina remains in the thick of the chase for Jalen Davis, a four-star guard in the Class of 2027 who has narrowed his list to Gonzaga, UNC, UCLA and Washington. With one official visit still to come at Gonzaga, the Tar Heels are still very much in the mix for a player who could become one of the defining pieces of their next recruiting class.
For UNC, the appeal is obvious. Davis is the kind of guard prospect the staff has been prioritizing as it looks ahead to 2027, and the fact that the Tar Heels are viewed as a strong contender says plenty about where things stand. The final stretch of his recruitment now shifts toward the last visit and whatever comes after it, with Carolina waiting to see if it can close on a target that would carry real weight for the future. [Read more 🡒]
UNCs Opening Win Did Nothing To Quiet A Real Concern
Opening night across the ACC offered a first look at where the league stands, and North Carolinas narrow win over Western Carolina did little to settle the biggest question around this group. Matt Able led the way with 18 points, but the Tar Heels still had to grind through a close game while several other freshmen around the conference, including Chase Foster, Jakub Szumert and Gavin Placide, made their own early impacts in victories for their teams.
For UNC, the result was a win on the board and not much else in the way of reassurance. The Tar Heels showed the same lingering issues that have been hanging over them, the kind that can be easy to overlook in November but become harder to ignore as the schedule tightens. In a league where most teams opened with a victory and Miami was the lone ACC loss against preseason No. 1 Florida, North Carolinas performance stood out less for what it solved than for what it left unresolved. [Read more 🡒]