By Harry Barsan

Louisville will enter a full slate of conference play when they take on the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Both teams sit at 8-5 on the year, and are desperate to get a big win.

Run and gun

North Carolina clearly enjoys a shootout. Led by four different guards averaging double-digits, North Carolina commands an offense averaging 86.5 points per game, which is tied for 13th in Division-1.

They’re certainly a guard heavy offense, as their top four scorers are all guards.

The bunch is led by senior RJ Davis’s 18.8 points each game, which is top-five in the ACC. Davis is a dynamic athlete and one of the best scorers in UNC history.

Davis is a three-level scorer, but his three-point shooting has dipped significantly this season to only 27.9%. The key to slowing him down will be to force him into contested outside shots, but even then he can still get hot from behind the arc.

Seth Trimble and Ian Jackson are great second and third options with supreme athleticism and knockdown shooting. Jackson has scored a combined 50 points over the last two games, so he has been on a scoring tear as of late.

Elliot Cadeau is the prototypical point guard, averaging 6.2 assists a game. His facilitating ranks 18th nationally with his assist rate ranking 37th.

One area where Cadeau has stepped up his game in a major way is his scoring. He not scores 11.2 points a game, but still struggles mightily from deep at just 25% shooting.

While the four-headed monster of UNC’s guards can be scary, they have a severe lack of size.

The Tar Heels are one of the shortest teams in the country at an average height of just six-foot-four. Their most common lineup caps out at six-foot-eight.

While they might give up some size inside, they can make up with it by drawing mismatches and forcing opponents to foul. The Tar Heels shoot 24.8 free throws a game.

Even with the reintroduction of Aboubacar Traore, the Cards still have a thin bench. If Louisville gets in foul trouble early, they could be in for a long night.

Their lack of height limits their rebounding capabilities as the Tar Heels only grab 38.6 boards a game and have the just the 216th offensive rebounding rate. Louisville has struggled themselves at times with rebounding, but they’ve held their own against shorter teams.

If the Cards can beat UNC on the glass, they can give themselves multiple chances to score per possession and force the Tar Heels to be perfect offensively.

Give and take

UNC matches their stellar offense with an abysmal scoring defense, ranked 307th in college basketball.

However, it is worth mentioning that the Tar Heel defense is by no means abysmal. In fact, they rank 57th in defensive efficiency on Kenpom.

It’s just that they just run the nation’s fifth fastest offense so they raw scoring data looks a bit skewed.

Ironically, for a team as short as Carolina’s, the weakness of their defense comes at the perimeter.

The Tar Heels are bad at defending the three, and force a limited amount of turnovers each game. Louisville has had some issues with holding onto the ball since their slew of injuries, so UNC will likely help the Cards out in that category.

Louisville has also had a problem with three-point shooting all season, despite getting open looks. Louisville will get even more open looks Wednesday, they just need to make the Tar Heels pay for it.

This game is a toss up between two teams that are one win away from getting their seasons’ back on track.

If the ball bounces the Cards’ way, Louisville could advance to 9-5 on the year and get a nice 2-1 start in the ACC.

Photo Courtesy // Chris Carter, Louisville Athletics