Three ways for UNC to beat NC State

North Carolina and N.C. State will meet in Chapel Hill for the 99th time on Saturday (noon, CBS).

Three ways for the Tar Heels (16-5, 5-3 ACC) to beat the Wolfpack (14-7, 4-4) for the 14th time in 15 games in Chapel Hill:

1) Watch the Boston College tape

Roy Williams wasn’t happy with how his team played in Monday’s 80-69 loss at Virginia Tech. The final score is actually closer than the game was. UNC wasn’t very good, and Williams was left questioning his team’s effort.

The good news for Williams is his players just went through this. After a loss at Virginia on Jan. 6, the Tar Heels were scolded by Williams for many of the same problems.

Their response was a 96-66 win over Boston College on Jan. 9. The Heels made a concerted effort to get forward Luke Maye going inside and both Cam Johnson and Theo Pinson were aggressive in attacking the basket.

UNC doesn’t have a traditional post option on offense, as all of Williams’ teams did before, but that doesn’t mean it can’t generate points in the paint by taking the ball to the basket.

In that BC win, both Johnson (14 points, 11 rebounds) and Pinson (eight points, eight rebounds) played the kind of game this UNC team needs to play to be successful.

The two, more so Johnson, reverted to “passenger” mode in the loss to the Hokies on Monday. UNC’s not deep enough, or quite frankly, good enough to just rely on Maye and guard Joel Berry.

2) Go after Omer Yurtseven

To date, Omer Yurtseven’s contribution in this series is getting shook and then dunked on by Maye in UNC’s win last year in Raleigh.

That was last year’s version of Yurtseven. This year’s is the one closer to NBA scouts’ vision of the skilled 7-foot Turk.

He has scored at least 20 points in three of N.C. State’s past five games. He was a force, with 16 points and nine rebounds, in State’s 96-85 win over Duke on Jan. 6.

“He can score on the block better than anybody we have,” Williams said.

But the sophomore forward is still prone to foul trouble. In Wednesday’s win at Pittsburgh, Yurtseven picked up his second foul at 12:23 in the first half. N.C. State was up 17-14 when coach Kevin Keatts took him out of the game

By the time Yurtseven got back in the game, Pitt — which is on track to join Boston College in the ACC’s “0-18” club — had a 35-26 lead.

Yurtseven was able to stay out of foul trouble, and on the floor, in the second half to help the Wolfpack come back for a 72-68 win.

Former N.C. State guard Dennis Smith’s early foul trouble in last year’s game in Chapel Hill was how that game, a 107-56 UNC win, started to spiral out of control.

3) Find a new “hero”

N.C. State has a propensity to bring out the best in an unheralded role or bench player. It’s like a community outreach program, the “Wolfpack Hero for a Day.”

Former Louisville guard Anton Gill is the most famous example in the 2015 NCAA tournament and reserve Miami forward Ebuka Izundu is the most recent. Izundu had 15 points in Miami’s win in Raleigh on Jan. 21. He has a combined total of 12 points in Miami’s other six ACC games.

Which UNC bench player could pop off on Saturday? Freshman guard Jalek Felton, who has been scoreless in five of the first eight ACC games, is a primary candidate.

It’s past time to take the training wheels off of the talented freshman and see how much he can help. UNC will need Felton in March.

This story was originally published January 26, 2018 at 11:59 AM with the headline "Three ways for UNC to beat NC State."