UNC Basketball: What's on the Line for Tar Heels in Crucial Home Stand?

They're not the biggest games of the season, but North Carolina's next two contests will serve as a strong indicator of what the team will be capable of doing in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Following Saturday's dominant 74-50 win at Clemson, the No. 19 Tar Heels (11-3, 1-0 ACC) are home for a critical pair of games against ranked one-loss teams. First up is Monday's visit from No. 14 Notre Dame (14-1, 2-0), and then No. 5 Louisville (13-1, 1-0) comes to Chapel Hill.

Win both, and UNC gets off to a fast start in league play. Lose both, or even one, and the Heels will be playing from behind in a conference stacked with title contenders.

It helps that Carolina is coming off a big road win in its ACC opener, the first time it's started 1-0 since 2012. It was also the Heels' first win in their conference road opener since 2011, and just the second time in the past seven years they've won their first league road game.

To illustrate how tough it is to win on the road in the ACC, besides UNC, only Louisville, Syracuse and Virginia were victorious away from home during this weekend. Virginia needed double overtime to win at Miami (Florida), while Syracuse nearly blew a lead late at Virginia Tech and Louisville trailed in the second half at Wake Forest.

Those three won by a combined 19 points, compared to the 24 that the Tar Heels won by at Clemson.

Coach Roy Williams called the first half at Clemson—which saw UNC take a 39-17 lead into the locker room—as "the best that we've played this year," per Andrew Carter of the Raleigh News & Observer. Those 20 minutes saw UNC hold Clemson to just 17.9 percent shooting, and 28.3 percent for the game, the fifth straight opponent it has limited to under 38 percent from the field.

Date	Opponent	FG Pct.	3-pt FG Pct.
Dec. 16	at UNC-Greensboro	35.7	20.8
Dec. 20	Ohio State (in Chicago)	34.7	34.5
Dec. 27	UAB	30.5	12.0
Dec. 30	William & Mary	37.7	25.9
Jan. 3	at Clemson	28.3	23.1

Not surprisingly, UNC has won all five of those games, its longest streak of the season. Since losing at Kentucky, the Heels have locked it down on defense and as of Sunday ranked eighth in the country in field-goal defense (34.8 percent) and third in three-point field-goal defense (24.9 percent).

"Coach always tells us to take the other team out of what they want to do," forward Isaiah Hicks told Adam Lucas of GoHeels.com. "When we pressure the ball with everyone denying and getting in passing lanes, it takes them out of what they want to do offensively. And from there, everything we do builds off of that."

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This approach will be imperative against Notre Dame, which at 55.3 percent is the top-shooting team in Division I. All five Fighting Irish starters are shooting at least 49.7 percent, with 6'10" junior forward Zach Auguste shooting 67.7 percent.

Five days later, though, it will be a case of UNC needing to win a physical battle against one of the best defensive teams in the country in Louisville. The Cardinals allowed a season-high 76 points in their win Sunday at Wake Forest, but before that they were giving up 54.2 points per game and holding opponents to 35 percent shooting.

Louisville also features one of the most imposing post players in the country in 6'8" junior forward Montrezl Harrell, who had 25 points and 13 rebounds at Wake Forest and averages 16.7 points and 9.5 rebounds while shooting 60.4 percent.

By next week, UNC will either be among the leaders of the ACC or in the deep pack of teams chasing whoever is at the top. And with the league having an unbalanced schedule, with each school getting a home-and-home series with four of the other 14 teams, the teams you face and where you face them have a big impact on how things will shake out.

Carolina doesn't have to return its trip to Notre Dame, but it does play Jan. 31 at Louisville. UNC has a favorable schedule in that four of its six games against currently ranked opponents are at home. That includes getting unbeaten Virginia at home without having to visit Charlottesville, while the team does have the traditional home-and-home with unbeaten Duke.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.