The showdown between No. 10 Alabama and No. 20 North Carolina in the SEC/ACC Challenge might have lost a bit of luster after results from the past few weeks.
But it sure hasn’t lost its importance.
It’s a vital outing in many ways for the host Tar Heels when the teams clash Wednesday night in Chapel Hill, N.C.
“I believe in this team,” said North Carolina coach Hubert Davis, whose Tar Heels lost two of three games in the Maui Invitational last week. “I love coaching them. They’re a bunch of unbelievable and great kids, and I’m honored and blessed to be their coach.”
Wednesday will be a rematch of last spring’s NCAA West Region semifinal, with Alabama capturing that Sweet 16 matchup on the way to the Final Four.
North Carolina (4-3) will play its third home game of the season. Alabama (6-2) mostly has maintained its lofty preseason status, though there has been slippage, falling 83-81 to Oregon on Saturday in Las Vegas after five-point victories against then-No. 6 Houston and Rutgers.
“We have to learn from it, and we got to play better and get ourselves regrouped for Carolina on Wednesday,” Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said.
Alabama led for more than 22 minutes against Oregon but gave up the winning basket off an offensive rebound with four seconds to play. A potential tying basket from Grant Nelson was determined to come after the buzzer.
Oats said turnovers have been at the crux of Alabama’s problems.
“We have been giving up points off turnovers, and it is hard to overcome that, so we have got to figure a way to take care of the basketball better,” Oats said. “It is everybody that is turning the ball over.”
North Carolina will need to be attentive in numerous areas defensively against the Crimson Tide, who hurt them considerably from the perimeter in last season’s meeting. Nelson had 24 points in Alabama’s 89-87 victory.
But the Tar Heels look vulnerable in several areas this season, particularly after an overtime loss to Michigan State in the third-place game in the Maui Invitational.
“They scored 50 points in the paint,” Davis said. “You guys can keep asking me questions, but it’s right here. We have to improve defensively. To say that we took it to overtime letting a team (hit on) 55 percent from the field, 50 points in the paint, they beat us on the boards, and they beat us at the free-throw line.”
The week between the Michigan State game and the upcoming Alabama game was viewed as valuable time off for Davis. An overhaul isn’t anticipated, but the Tar Heels are bound to be emphasizing certain areas.
“I definitely think this gives time to be able to look and do a deep dive in terms of doing something, maybe tweak, a little pivot, alter, or maybe even change because what we’re doing defensively is not sustainable, especially against good teams,” Davis said.
North Carolina also has been hampered by ragged beginnings of games, facing big deficits several times this season. They’ve rallied against Kansas, Dayton and Michigan State, but they only pulled out a victory against the Flyers among those encounters.
“We’ve got to find a way to get off to better starts in the first half and find a way to get better defensively and rebounding the basketball,” Davis said. “Those are things that we’re going to look at and fix and try to get better at.”
