UNC basketball aims to avoid pitfalls of short turnaround at Florida State
North Carolina travels to Florida State attempting to buck the trend for road teams playing the ACC’s dreaded Saturday-Monday game schedule. Visiting teams making the short turnaround have only won twice this season — Miami’s 80-72 win over UNC in Chapel Hill and Virginia’s 67-62 win at Syracuse.
Carolina (18-11, 10-8 ACC) has a 3-7 record on the road this season. And as big as the Tar Heels’ 71-63 win was Saturday over No. 6 Virginia, they almost immediately began to pivot to preparations for the Seminoles.
FSU (9-20, 7-11) hasn’t won at home since a 75-64 win over Georgia Tech on Jan. 7. But it has done something Carolina has not: post wins over Pitt and Miami, the teams currently first and second in the league standings.
The Noles’ rally from down 25 at Miami on Saturday for an 85-84 victory on Matt Cleveland’s 3-point heave at the buzzer was the biggest comeback in ACC history.
“Florida State is a weird team ’cause they switch everything (defensively) and that’s something we’re not really used to it,” UNC forward Armando Bacot said. “They just got a big win, so really we kind of just gotta flush this game out (beating Virginia) and start getting in that mode.”
UNC coach Hubert Davis has ensured the Heels stay in that mode. He said he was more upset about their first-half performance in Wednesday’s win at Notre Dame in the days that followed than he was immediately after the game.
Davis wasn’t pleased with their level of intensity as the Heels only managed to score 19 points in the first half.
“Irregardless of what happened (at Notre Dame), there’s a level of competitiveness and fight that you have to have to play here,” Davis said. “I told them that.”
The Heels responded against Virginia and tied their high in ACC play with 42 points in the first half. And Davis expects that same level of effort at Florida State on Monday.
It would certainly help if Pete Nance can continue to be a factor offensively. Nance led the Heels with 22 points against the Cavaliers, which along with his 11 points at Notre Dame marked just the fourth time this season he’s scored double figures in consecutive games.
“Next game I might go 3-for-4, I might go 0-for-5, that’s just the business we’re in,” Nance said. “I’m going to stay confident and keep shooting.”
Carolina cannot afford to lose as it tries to dress up its NCAA tournament resume. For as much that’s been made about the Heels’ lack of Quad 1 wins in the NCAA NET rankings, they haven’t had any losses to bad teams that make up Quads 3 and 4. A loss to the Seminoles would change that.
UNC guard R.J. Davis said the team was in a better mindset as they close out the regular season knowing what’s at stake with each game.
“We’re just coming together and just believing that we can do this,” R.J. Davis said. “Yes, we had a lot of games that we should have won. We didn’t play our best. We didn’t have our best performances. I think we’re just really just locked into each other, believing in each other that we can really do this.”
Tipoff time + TV channel for the game
The game will start at 7 p.m. Monday and will air on ESPN.
How to stream UNC vs Florida State game online
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Game day details: UNC at Florida State
Teams: UNC Tar Heels at Florida State Seminoles
Where: Donald L. Tucker Center, Tallahassee, Fla.
Date: Monday, Feb. 27
Time: 7 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Series history: The Tar Heels lead the overall series 52-16 including their last meeting, a 94-74 win over the Seminoles on Feb. 12, 2022 in Chapel Hill.
