UNC basketball hopes to use win in Cameron Indoor Stadium as springboard for strong finish

North Carolina enters Saturday’s game at Duke in a similar way that it stumbled into last year’s regular-season finale against its rival.

The Tar Heels have only beaten one team so far this season that is currently being projected as an at-large NCAA Tournament team, and they really haven’t beaten a team they weren’t favored to beat. Although Carolina isn’t being viewed as a bubble team like it was last year around this time, it still has something to prove.

“Definitely,” said UNC senior forward Armando Bacot. “I mean, I think on their side, too. I think we’re both just desperate for more signature wins, and it’ll be huge for both sides.”

Carolina (15-7, 7-4 ACC) doesn’t have any bad losses. But it’s chances of being a low enough seed to play in Greensboro in the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament are slim.

That win over then-No. 23 Ohio State? Yeah, that didn’t age so well. The Buckeyes have lost eight of their last 12 games since Carolina knocked them out of The Associated Press Top 25 poll and are sitting with an 11-11 record. (The Heels’ best win was their 80-69 win over N.C. State and that was at home.)

So coming out of Cameron Indoor Stadium with a victory would again be the reassurance the Heels need.

“They’ve played well throughout the course of the season at times, and they’ve they’ve had some some poor outings relative to what they should expect,” said Jay Bilas, an ESPN college basketball analyst and former Duke forward. “But they’re still really good and really capable. And so I don’t put it past them to have the same kind of finish to the season that they had last year.”

Carolina used that win last year, in the final home game of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s career, as a springboard that launched its Final Four run, which included beating the Blue Devils a second time to reach the national title game.

“That definitely boosted our confidence because we didn’t have many, if any, Quad 1 wins, and I feel like that was a big one for us,” UNC guard Caleb Love said. “And especially for that to be our rival and Coach K’s last home game.”

The Heels are looking to come out stronger than they did in their last home game on Wednesday. Their 65-64 loss to Pitt, which gave the Panthers the season sweep, led head coach Hubert Davis to let them know he’s not happy.

Davis is not pleased, to say the least, with their lapses in execution. There have been too many instances where players have strayed from the game plan or their scouting report or simply didn’t execute the way they practiced.

It led Davis to ask the team the same three questions he does during film sessions:

“Have you been told what to do? Have you been taught what to do? Are you talented enough to do it?” Davis said. “So if you’re told and taught and talented enough to do it, tell me consistently why we aren’t doing this?”

The first season under Davis was much more of a learning experience where the players had to get used to him and his system. Then with the roster attrition that saw them lose Dawson Garcia and Anthony Harris, the Heels had to get comfortable with limited personnel.

This season, injuries are partly to blame for the fluctuations in the lineup.

“It’s been musical chairs in terms of who’s in and who’s out every week,” Davis said. “I’m so thankful that Puff (Johnson) is at a point right now in terms of his health that he practiced (Thursday) and he’ll be ready to go for the game against Duke, but he’s missed two weeks.”

Johnson, a junior forward who averages 15 minutes per game, will play for the first time since their 72-64 win over Boston College on Jan. 17. He has missed the past three games with a sore knee and has been sidelined a total of six games this season due to the same injury.

Junior guard R.J. Davis said he would not have been able to play this time last Saturday, after being elbowed under his left eye in the win at Syracuse. He also re-injured a finger on his shooting hand that bothered him to start the season in that game, but he said he won’t be wearing any tape on his fingers at Duke.

“It’s going to be a big one for us,” R.J. Davis said. “Even though this past year on the road, it’s been kind of difficult for us to gut out those wins. So going down there you know what to expect and it’s going to have to be one that we’ve got to kind of screen out together.”