UNC Basketball: 5 Things Tar Heels Must Prove in Conference Play

It has been a wild and crazy start to North Carolina's conference season.

A rout over Clemson was followed by a shootout, last-second loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Monday night. UNC finds itself sitting at 1-1 in the early going of ACC play.

As with any set of games, no matter the outcome, there were positives and negatives to take away. Of course, there was less to be learned from the Tar Heels vanquishing Clemson. When a team can't hit a shot, not much else is relevant.

The Notre Dame game was a different story, though. There were a number of key ingredients to that contest that Carolina must prove it can handle moving forward through the rest of the year.

Ability to Play Pick-and-Roll Defense

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Despite other shortcomings, the downfall of North Carolina against Notre Dame was its inability to defend the pick-and-roll.

The Irish disrupted and confounded the defense all game long by putting the bigs in pick-and-rolls.

UNC was hedging out, forcing the guard to dip under to get back to his man. This left three-point shots open. When the bigs did successfully hedge and deter an outside shot, there was such a struggle to rotate back that Notre Dame was left with a number of easy bounce passes for layups.

In fact, on at least one occasion, Kennedy Meeks was so slow on the pick-and-roll that he set a second pick on his own teammate to give ND an opening.

To combat this, Roy Williams went small for much of the second half, leaving just one big on the floor. This helped, but the team needs to prove it can defend better with its normal rotation or opponents are going to take advantage all season—regardless of if they shoot the ball as well as Notre Dame did.

Taking Away an Opponent's Best Player

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UNC was considerably more effective at this against Notre Dame Monday night.

The Irish's best player, Jerian Grant, struggled to find his stroke all night, even forcing a number of poor, deep threes.

He finished 1-of-8 from the floor for eight points and fouled out of the contest. Of course, he also grabbed four rebounds and dished out eight assists while turning the ball over just twice. It's not possible to completely stop a player of Grant's caliber, but J.P. Tokoto and company did pretty well.

This is something that must continue. Carolina has a good matchup defender for bigger guards and wings in Tokoto, but if a team's best player is a big, someone else must step up and prove they can get the same job done.

Sean McDonough and Shane Battier pointed out during the ESPN game telecast that North Carolina coaches had named Isaiah Hicks the defensive player of the game six different times already this season after reviewing game tape.

Perhaps his talents can be leaned on if starters struggle with defending in the post.

Control of the Paint

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UNC has had little issue dominating inside on the offensive end this season.

Even against Notre Dame, though, the defensive paint remained a spot of worry. The Irish got 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting from forward Zach Auguste and had others finish a handful of uncontested baskets inside.

This is particularly alarming since Notre Dame is such a small and outside-oriented basketball team.

In the starting lineup Monday night, UNC started four players taller than 6'6" while ND started four players smaller than 6'6". It was as drastic a height difference as you'll see in the ACC.

With that said, Notre Dame's one forward still managed to be the game's leading scorer.

On a positive note, the defensive glass was covered well as Notre Dame grabbed just six offensive rebounds.

Guard Without Fouling

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While protection of the defensive glass is coming along—Clemson managed just 10 offensive boards the game prior—playing actual defense inside is still something North Carolina needs to prove it can do successfully without fouling.

Meeks collected four fouls pretty quickly into the second half and still ended up fouling out after sitting for a long spell.

Brice Johnson committed another four fouls in the Clemson game even though the outcome was never in doubt.

Despite the glowing accolades from the coaching staff staff, Isaiah Hicks is also one to foul too regularly.

If UNC can't solve this problem, it won't matter how deep it can go in the frontcout because opponents will crush the team from the foul line.

Salvage the 3-Point Matchup

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The Tar Heels may find this final point the hardest to prove this season.

The ability to salvage the three-point matchup is what is going to either keep UNC in title contention or force it into the dregs of the conference.

As Notre Dame proved, a three-point shot is quite the equalizer.

Going 10-of-23 from deep, the Irish outscored UNC by 18 points from distance.

During the rest of the regular season, North Carolina has two options. It can either defend the three-point line at an elite level, making this ND performance seem like an aberration, or it can start to hit some threes of its own, narrowing the gap.

A combination of both would be ideal, but that would seemingly involve a complete overhaul of the lineups and the rotations.

Perhaps if Williams decides to go back to the freshman-heavy, small-ball lineup he unveiled Monday night, it will be a possibility.