UNC Basketball: Tar Heels' 5 Biggest Conference Games

A few weeks ago, Bleacher Report took a look at North Carolina's most important remaining games. It was during the sweet spot of nonconference play wrapping up, but at least one more big game remained against a non-ACC foe.

Now, heading into 2015, North Carolina has just one final, winnable game to play before there is nothing but ACC opponents left on its slate. This is the perfect time to address the biggest conference games UNC will play this season.

The conference as a whole is rounding nicely into form. All of Duke, Louisville and Virginia are ranked in the Top Five nationally. Carolina, as well as Notre Dame, round out a quintet of ACC teams inside the AP poll's Top 20.

The Tar Heels would not be among the ranked teams if not for their comfortable victory over Ohio State before the holidays. That win solidified the team's schedule. When the time comes to study North Carolina and put it somewhere in the NCAA tournament bracket, grabbing a third win over a ranked nonconference foe will be huge.

The rest of UNC's success will come down to holding serve against the weakest of the ACC, defending home court and grabbing some splits elsewhere.

Because of the breadth of the conference, the Tar Heels play home-and-homes against just four foes: Louisville, North Carolina State, Duke and Georgia Tech. It will be of the utmost importance to at least grab home wins in all four of those matchups while hopefully sweeping both NC State and GT.

Outside of those games, the biggest conference tests will obviously come against the better teams. Notre Dame, Syracuse and Virginia are all on the schedule one time apiece, and UNC will host all three games. This is a pleasant bit of luck for North Carolina.

From there, scheduling comes into play. Clemson hosts UNC just two days before that Notre Dame game; the Syracuse match is squeezed in between two other games, giving the Heels three contests in a span of eight days.

Overall, the season will be a success if Carolina avoids upsets and takes care of business at home. For that reason, here are the top five conference games UNC will play in 2015 (in chronological order):

1. January 5 vs. Notre Dame
2. January 10 vs. Louisville
3. January 26 vs. Syracuse
4. February 2 vs. Virginia
5. March 7 vs. Duke